New Year’s resolutions can be an excellent way for you to improve your wellbeing through selecting one of a range of different goals. New Year’s resolutions often include deciding to pursue a healthier diet, spending more time on your hobbies, improving the amount of exercise you do, learning a musical instrument or even taking up skills like mindfulness to help you improve your physical and mental health.
While making a resolution takes a second, actually sticking to your decision and making long term changes to your lifestyle can be very difficult, especially if you don’t have much free time. This article will give you a step by step guide to achieving your goals and keeping your resolutions.
Be Realistic
More specific goals often take less time as well, so if you have a busy schedule, booking in two half hour runs each week will be achievable, whereas committing a lot of your time to daily exercise might not be feasible for you at the moment. Progress takes time and energy – if you are realistic about what you can achieve in the time that you have you will be less likely to become discouraged.
If your resolution (like many others) focuses around building up your fitness, then it is important to build a strong foundation before attempting something outside of your comfort zone.
Plan Ahead
Achieving your goals can be very hard when you are balancing a lot of other tasks as well. If you want your New Year’s resolution to become a long term part of your life, then finding a set time in your schedule will help you do so.
Building a routine can help you find a rhythm and incorporate more exercise or time for your hobbies in your week. Planning ahead to find time to do meal prep or to find spaces in the day for exercise will help you improve in the long term.
Persistence is Key
For you to reach your goals it is important to remain persistent; if you keep trying, eventually you will succeed. A key part of keeping your New Year’s resolutions is to remember not to compare your progress to other people’s. When it comes to achieving long term goals, such as for fitness or weight loss, slow and steady wins the race.
No matter the starting point of your journey, if you stick with your new hobby for long enough you will be able to achieve your goals.
Find Support
If you are exploring a new hobby or trying to improve your fitness through a specific sport, then finding a local club or team that caters to beginners can be a great way to find support. Most of the other people in the beginner’s section of the club will likely be in the same position as you and still learning; having a group of friends who are interested in the same sport as you, can provide fantastic motivation to continue.
Finding the motivation to exercise will be harder some days than others. If you are getting up for a Sunday morning jog it can be tempting just to go back to sleep, but knowing you have a group of friends waiting to run together is a great way to spur you on to keep your resolution and fight to reach your goals.
Track Your Progress
Broad goals like living a healthier lifestyle are very difficult to measure and continue long term. Smaller but more specific goals, such as going on two runs a week, can be recorded in your phone or on a chart and you can track how your running is improving.
Seeing steady progress as you gain more experience and improve your performance can be very uplifting, with many apps such as ‘Couch to 5K’ making use of gradual improvements until you can reach an end goal. Having concrete data that shows how quickly you are getting better is fantastic motivation to help you keep your New Year’s resolutions this year.
Reward success
When you have achieved something great, make sure to share it with other people and to reward yourself. For example, if you run ten miles for the first time make sure to visit a café on the way back to unwind and celebrate. The key to ensuring that you meet your New Year’s resolutions is to ensure that they never become a chore to complete. If you head out cycling on a cold day and make it the whole way around Bewl Water, then you deserve a hot chocolate at the end to warm up and congratulate yourself for the milestone you have reached.
If you are completing your resolutions with your friends in tow it is important to thank them for their support and encouragement. Booking an evening out or a coffee morning together is a great way to bond, and you can also use the time you have to plan out future meet-ups to work together to reach everyone’s goals.
Be Kind to Yourself
No one becomes a master in a minute. If you miss a week on your resolution or are struggling, don’t get upset or give up. We all have bad weeks, and if you continue steadily you will eventually see improvements.
If you hit a bottleneck when it comes to improving and reaching your goal, then the most important thing to remember is that you can ask for help, whether this means talking to an instructor with more experience in the sport you are practising, or simply asking for advice from your friends. You will not be the only one to have struggled with what you are facing, and talking with people who have pushed through the same issue – and being kind to yourself while you find a way to resolve it – will help you in the future as you learn how to complete not just this New Year’s resolution, but a variety of goals.
If you are interested in visiting Bewl Water and exploring what we have to offer at our beautiful reservoir, then please contact us here. Our reservoir is used by runners, cyclists, riders and provides the facilities needed for a range of watersports. Our staff will be happy to discuss how we can help you to achieve your goals.