More Isn’t Necessarily Always More
i’ve said it before, i think the new year is a super motivating time for people and a great time to set new goals for the upcoming year.
With that being said, they could pertain to anything in your life and they don’t require morphing into a completely different human to do so.
One of the things I think people make the mistake of during this time is taking on the mindset that “more is more”. In theory, majorly restricting your calories, working out multiple times per day, adding a million new changes to your life all at once will have you reaching those goals faster, right? More often than not I see people go all in, or full send if you may, and hit it HARD for a period of time only to completely fizzle out and actually have the reverse effect of the goal that was set.
Maybe you set goals that you were going to read 52 books this year when last year you only read 2. Well 5 weeks into the year you get busy and then since you’ve fallen short of your goal already you quit altogether. What if you set a goal this year to read 12 books and work up from there? This can go for literally anything from reducing screen time, drinking more water, getting in extra steps, starting to workout, eating better, cooking more, and on and on. The whole SMART goals acronym that you learned about in school was created for a reason!
Some people have the mindset where they can go full send and never look back. Others DO NOT. And that’s ok too! Recognizing that is the first step. Do yourself a favor this year and if you know you’re the type of person who can “fall off the wagon”, start small and build from there and that will set you up for the biggest success in the long run. That fast, short term progress doesn’t mean anything if it doesn’t continue on past January.
I recently read a study that 92% of people fail their New Years Resolution by January 12th. Maybe last year was ok for you and maybe it wasn’t so great. Perhaps, you actually hit your goals (or pretty close to it) but you did it in a way that didn’t feel good (took on way too much and struggled).
As a general consensus, most people are not looking to create a repeat of last year. And even the super ambitious and successful don’t want that either, because they want MORE. In order to get different and better results… you guessed it – you have do something different. There is no way you would do the exact same things and expect different results, right? And obviously on a conscious level, we’d never actually choose that same path for ourselves again.
Here are some reasons you might fall into old ways, which could make this year a repeat of last:
Habit – You’re just so used to doing things, acting a certain way, procrastinating on certain things, making certain decisions just because it’s second nature. No matter how hard you try, you can’t dig yourself out of that hole you’ve created and you have nothing or no-one to hold you accountable to the changes you say you want to create.
You don’t know what you don’t know – Simply a lack of know-how when it comes to getting to the next level. You may see the vision of what you want, but not necessarily know how to get there. You know how to hustle hard for the short-term, but you don’t know how to sustain it, so you stay with what’s “comfortable”, even if it’s not the best thing for you.
Stress and burn out – You’re doing ALL the things! You are trying to get more out of more, expecting those fast results and when they don’t happen immediately, you’re stressed about that as well as the craziness that your days have turned into that you give up on everything. Did you know that stress itself plays a large role in someone’s weight loss journey? When we experience stress adrenal responses in the body are triggered. This response is known as fight or flight. When cortisol is released under chronic stress it can make weight loss difficult when high levels of the hormone attack muscle mass and slow down the metabolism as well as creates impulses to overeat. Not to mention, unwanted cortisol release results in the storage of fat for later energy use. If we are sleeping poorly or not getting enough sleep this can also enhance our stress, anxiety, and/or depression symptoms.
And of course here are some ways that you can prevent these things from happening:
Get help: Find a mentor, coach or training program that will take you to the next level. Can you figure it out yourself? Probably. But why would you want to? You will save time and energy when you are guided by someone who knows the way. Learn from their mistakes so you can minimize yours. Contrary to popular belief, struggling through it on your own is not more admirable and there’s no badge of honor for “busyness”. Get the help you need so you can step into your most confident self.
Make different decisions: If you want a different result, you have to make a different choice. You can bet your ass that this year will turn out just like last if you are doing the same things, operating the same way, and making the same decisions. The next level you requires doing something different.
Practice consistency by adding the right things: Now don’t get this mixed with the above mistake and start doing a lot of random things. That would be a travesty. This means do more of the RIGHT things, the meaningful things, the things that actually will get you to your goal.
Here’s what I know (and have experienced first hand), it’s actually easy to “grind” your way to your goal, but it’s not sustainable and the next level requires so much more or else you’ll end up back at square one again when you can’t maintain it. You basically have two choices now: evolve or repeat, what will your choice be?
-Ash