New Year's Resolutions: my unsolicited opinion

New Year's Resolutions are all the rage year-after-year. We hear them amongst our family and friends. We experience them within the workplace. We see them in media headlines. I Googled "New Year's Resolutions" just now and the first page of results are from big media sources such as Forbes, Good House Keeping, and NY Times. The movement is everywhere. You know I'm all about goal setting and working toward those goals with actionable steps, but waiting until the New Year or expecting a big change when the clock turns to midnight is not setting yourself up for success. Do I recommend piggybacking off of the motivation around ringing in a new year? Absolutely. But do I recommend setting unattainable goals that ultimately leave us unsatisfied when we decide to go 0-100 between December 31, 2022 and January 1, 2023? Nah. If you think about it, for most people, life doesn't really get back to ~*routine*~ until after the first week of January anyway. This is already setting us up for disappointment when we realize we can't hit the ground running on January 1. Wah-wah. I remember working at a commercial gym early on in my training career and the gym would hype up the trainers saying how big January would be with lots of new faces around. What would end up happening is that we'd be ready to roll on January 2nd, but ultimately the gym wouldn't fill up until late January. I am to believe this would happen for a couple reasons: People are still coming off of the family vacations and getting back into routine at work. And, ultimately, because CHANGE IS HARD. Most people don't adapt well when they feel like they have to switch 10 different things in order to achieve their goals. Most people do better when they choose 1-2 actions to take daily or throughout the week to improve their adherence and long-term outcomes. With that in mind, I encourage you to still set goals, whether it be on January 1 or a random Tuesday, and identify 1-2 small things you can work on first. Small changes lead to big outcomes. A few ideas to consider: - Go to bed 30 minutes earlier - Eat 1 more vegetable per day - Drink 1 more glass of water per day - Walk 1,000 more steps per day - Add 30 minutes of exercise per week When deciding your goals, think about attainable actions that will lead to long-term consistency.