Throw Out Your New Year’s Resolutions
Daniel Remon B. HMSc.
Yes, it is that time again when most of you have decided to make some changes in life as part of your “New Years Resolutions”. These resolutions are normally related to our health. Stop smoking, start training, join a gym, get a personal trainer, lose weight, start eating healthier and so forth. According to a study conducted by GNC, 55% promised to eat healthier, 50% resolved to exercise more, and 38% wanted to lose weight.
Research shows that less than 20% actually stick to our new promises we make to ourselves, and for most, by February, we are back into the swing of old habits.
The internet is full of articles to help you overcome the same challenges you face every year. Resolutions themselves are the problem! So this year, I want to do something different.
Here we will offer you some inside tips to help you become that 20% and ensure your resolutions remain in tact and become achievements. Never again will you need to make these New Year resolutions.
From this point forward, they are known as your BSL. They are, or ‘were’ the Bull Sh** Lies that your previous self used to rely on for success. We all know, that these BSL’s quickly fade away by week 4 of the New Year. So, remember this; BSL’s are no longer an option. Non-existent. Nudda. Zilch. Zero.
Develop a Support System
Tell your friends and family about your goals and how you will achieve them. Better still, set some mutual goals with your friends and work together. Ask them to follow up with you on your progress from time to time to ensure you are on top of things. Join an awesome community of like minded, driven and ambitious people. This is the key to our success at Aspire, and this holds true for all areas of life. If you want to be successful in Business, surround yourself and learn from those who are already successful and form the image that you want to become. This is simple science at its best.
Visualise Your Desired Outcomes
Regardless of your goal, you must – and I will stress this point, you MUST visualise exactly what you want to achieve in life. Your ideal body, your ideal bank account balance and your ideal luxury vacation you’re going to take at the end of the year. Now the most important element in visualising is to attach the emotion and visualise how you ‘feel’ when you are your ideal shape in your dream destination on that dreamy beach. Just use the next 30 seconds to demonstrate how powerful this can be. Elite athletes and sports scientists have proven that visualisation techniques actually create neural impulses and responses to thinking and feeling successful performances. You are no different and can benefit from practicing the same techniques.
Form Rituals
Rituals are different from habits. For me, habits are too commonly associated with ‘bad habits’ which we know are easy to break and it is too easy to fall back into ‘old habits’. Habits are actions we perform and practice daily, both good and bad. Habits are words that we are familiar with, we are comfortable using and comfortable falling back into. By ‘changing our language’ and using different words, such as ‘rituals’ we engage in new experiences, new mind sets and great results. Rituals are spiritual and engaging actions which link both the physical and mental components to habits. By engaging the emotional feelings and your neural system, you create behavioural change and a shift in your subconscious which connects to your desired outcomes. It is your subconscious which directly affects your outcomes.
Ask Specific Questions
Asking frequent, strategic questions about your feelings, your opinions, outlooks, outcomes and desires is also fundamental to changing your behaviours for the long run. You can ask questions related to all your daily activities, goals and objectives on every topic related to health, family, business, wealth and success. If you are tempted to indulge in something that you probably shouldn’t, ask yourself “is this food going to help me towards my ideal body?” If the answer is no, then your decision is easy; Just Put It Down! Other questions you can ask yourself include: What’s my outcome? What benefit will (this particular action) have on my desired goal? Is feeling (enter a negative emotion) going to help me? Am I doing everything I can to achieve my goal? What can I do NOW to be better and get to my goals faster? You get the idea. Make sure you implement and practise this every day, not just today and drop it next week. Formulate your rituals!
Fuel for Energy
Start to use a different vocabulary when it comes to eating nutritiously. I could go on with all the magic pills and crash diets that exist, from Atkins, Paleo, Asian, low carb, high carb, low fat to Mediterranean as well as all the detox strategies out there. At the end of the day, you MUST change your mindset and focus on eating healthy, natural wholesome foods. Focus on ‘fuel’ – simply supplying your body with the energy it needs to perform optimally. For the majority of people, we know diets don’t work. Changing your eating habits does not constitute dieting. Some other tips to help you fuel efficiently include: eating slowly, eat proteins and vegetables, fast occasionally, eat only when you are hungry, be flexible, prepare as much food at home as possible, plan your meals, eat out less and lastly, ENJOY eating healthy, nutritious foods.
Only Use Positive Language
As a results coach, personal trainer & wellness coach, this has to be one of my all time favourite, and most powerful rituals for both myself and for my clients. Eliminating negative language is such a powerful ritual to engage in. Words like ‘can’t’, ‘cannot’, ‘shouldn’t’, ‘won’t’, ‘try’, ‘maybe’, ‘should have’, ‘might’ and ‘but’ are no longer in use. This helps you focus on the more empowering language such as I MUST, I WILL, I CAN. These also trigger positive emotions which aids the success process. Using these empowering terms helps you to be specific with your decision making processes. Achieving absolute clarity in everything you set your mind to and everything you aspire to achieve in your life. Affirmations are also another powerfully effective tool. I have used affirmations very successfully with many clients and with myself.
Get Professional Assistance
Employ the services of a professional. Find a personal trainer or coach who can devise the most appropriate exercise and nutrition program for you – which you enjoy and can make a part of your lifestyle. They will help you stay on track and help you work through the tough times with strategies for every challenge. If you have worked with personal trainers in the past and had exciting results, for this year consider taking that to the next level and find a Success Coach. A success coach will help to tie in all your goals in life, inspire you and guide you towards the ultimate results and achievements that you could every dream possible.
No doubt you noticed a very distinct difference in the success of your goals. These are known to a rare few, and it is my objective to help as many people as possible, lose the BSL’s, get focused, take action and achieve their ultimate lifestyle through health, energy and success that can inspire others to achieve the same.
Daniel Remon is the Founder and CEO of Fitcorp Global – An international performance coaching company based in Bangkok, Thailand and visionary behind the ‘Aspire Club’, which has created the ultimate team of personal trainers in Bangkok and the only result driven performance facility in Asia. You can learn more at www.theaspireclub.com and www.fitcorpasia.com.
The team behind the AYTC are the youth fitness specialists and performance coaches at Aspire and Fitcorp Asia. The structure and training of all activities at the AYTC 2012 is managed by the international team from Aspire and all instructors and youth fitness coaches are highly qualified and trained to teach and supervise youth.
For the sake of progression, learning and skill aquisation, a structured lesson plan specifically for youth is the framework of the Aspire Youth Training Camp (AYTC). At the same time, some activities will be different on a daily basis. Ultimate Frisbee, boxing, parachute sprints, dodge ball, freeze tag, follow the leader, color coded squats are all examples of drills and activities to do at AYTC to improve fitness components such as strength, speed, power, endurance and most importantly; having fun!
