Yes it’s that time of year again. Christmas has been and gone, and now the New Year is here when people make their resolutions.

Some people’s maybe to race the London Marathon,  others may want to get the beach body they have always talked about or it could be to just to give thanks more often.


When you see your friends in the pub telling you this, probably even last night, how many people do you think will actually get that body or run that race? Research actually suggests that only around 8% of people complete their new year’s resolutions. Is there a reason for this?


Goals for New Years like the two above tend to be very vague. ‘I will race the London Marathon’ sounds like a pretty good goal doesn’t it? They apply, get accepted, but with no immediate goals to aim for it become very easy to drop behind on the preparation and training. They end up completing the race, but find it extremely difficult and quite possibly pick up an injury.


Could they have done better? Of course! If only they had made their goal more specific. A much better goal would have been to say ‘I want to enter the London Marathon, I am going to train for at least 2 times a week to begin with and I want to beat 5 hours.’ This resolution is much more specific and gives yourself a more tangible goal.

SMART goal setting is one of the most widely used methods:

S- SPECIFIC

M- MEASURABLE


A- ATTAINABLE


R- RELEVANT(RESULTS)


T- TIME ORIENTATED


The ‘beach body for summer’ resolution is the same. It doesn’t give you a time to aim for, just ‘summer’, be SPECIFIC. ‘By June 12th I want to be size 10’ or ‘I want to have a body fat of 8%’, I will do this by going to the gym twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This makes each week a goal, and makes you more likely to keep it in the long term. Another way of keeping to your goals is by making it public and telling your friends and family, even keeping a blog on it or updating it daily on facebook.


A few other tips for goal setting


1. Plan in advance

Try and make some sort of timetable of your week to then fit your goal in.


2. Don’t put things off

When you start thinking ‘i can skip today, it won’t matter’. DON’T. A 6 month goal is completed by REPEATING the daily basics


3. Make it enjoyable

If you don’t enjoy it, you won’t do it. There is more than one way of doing something. E.g. if you don’t like running on your own, find a running club.


4. Don’t expect instant results


5. Baby Steps


There is nothing wrong with hoping to do an Ironman, when the only distance you have ran before is 5km. You should set your sight on first completing a half marathon. Keep the really big goals in the back of your head, as one day they will be closer than you think.


Lastly the most important part of your goal/s is that you enjoy getting to the end product. I was directed to a video to do with goal setting, where it talks about how quickly the feeling of euphoria goes after completing a goal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3bBk6oneqc&feature=youtu.be


The cliff for the video boils down to:


MAKE SURE ENJOY THE DAILY GRIND, COMPLETING THE END GOAL IS A BONUS


Hope you all have had a good Christmas and a Great New Year!!