New Year’s Resolutions – did you make one this year? Have you stuck to it? For most people, the answers to those questions are, in order, “yes” and “no”. Just doing something at an arbitrary time defined by tradition is absolutely no way to govern your life. All it means is that you are choosing something, often at random, to complicate your life at a time when things may well be stressful enough already. The New Year may be a good point to decide on making a New You, but the truth is that unless you are ready, you will be more likely to set off with good intentions and then fail to keep to them.
Start your exercise plan knowing what you are looking to achieve, how you will achieve it and how much time it will take. Then, whatever the plan, stick to it. It will be difficult at times – that’s why you have had to build up to it. But regardless of how much you may feel one day that you cannot be bothered, if you carry on and do it those feelings will dissipate. It should be mentioned at this point that if you are injured or ill, “sticking to it” goes out the window. Your body will not go through the process as it needs to, you will do yourself more harm than good, and it will make the exercise pointless.
But is it is just a matter of being unmotivated, you need to power through and get on with it. Lack of motivation is what you are fighting against, so don’t let it win. You may be able to think of a hundred things you would rather be doing than training, but be aware that there will be a little voice in your head if you do them instead, and it will be saying “you should be training” – you won’t enjoy it as much as you would if you had gone through with the training first. That is just life’s way of guilt-tripping you into sticking at it – and if you do that, YOU will be the winner.
