I sent out this email to my email list at the beginning of the year and even spoke live on Facebook/Instagram about this topic, but I felt it also deserved a place on my blog because I see the same things happening year after year. I see the excitement of a new year beginning in many (myself included) and newfound motivation to work on health, fitness, and nutrition goal. Everyone is ready to smash their goals, get to the gym, drink their water, eat their vegetables, and work on themselves until life begins to happen again, and something throws them off course.
This hype usually lasts about 4-6 weeks max for most people…before they go back to doing what they were normally doing, abandoning their goals altogether.
I’m not writing or speaking about this to be pessimistic. I hope this helps provide some insight as to why this might be happening with your health/ fitness/ nutrition goals and how to prevent it from happening again! Here is the email I sent out. I hope my words or the video help you keep going this year.
A new year is probably the most popular time for people to set new health and fitness goals...
Maybe you've set some for yourself, and that's great!
...But every year, it seems that most people abandon those new goals by week 3 or 4 of January....
Many people start off absolutely dedicated to getting in better shape and adopting healthier habits...only to fall back into their old ones a month later...
Why is that???
I write you in my last email of 2019 to help you avoid being one of these people in 2020. Below are the top 3 reasons I believe most people abandon their health/ fitness goals before they even get started. My hope is that this will help you fight a little bit harder for your goal to look and feel your absolute best going into the new year. I hope it helps.
1. Your fitness/ wellness goal has no meaning behind it.
Many times I find that clients or people wanting to get in better shape pick an arbitrary goal that has very little meaning attached to it (myself included, I've definitely done this). We don't take a few moments to understand if it's a good goal for us in the current season of our life, or why we want to achieve the goal in the first place.
Some questions to ask yourself:
With your 2020 health/ fitness goal, take a few moments to really ask yourself why you want to achieve your goal. What will it add to your life? How will you benefit from achieving the goal? What will you lose if you don't achieve your goal? Ask yourself "why?" at least 5 times, digging a little bit deeper each time. Find an answer that holds meaning, and remind yourself of that meaning every time you do something in the pursuit of your goal. This will make all the difference.
2. You take on too much too fast.
Going from 0-100 is a recipe for failure for most people. As optimistic as a fresh new year can be, change is tough. Especially when we take on too much change at once. I see it at the beginning of every year. Many try to get the diet on point, train 5-6 days per week, get more sleep, etc... too much change at once can lead to burnout.
How to avoid this:
What are the 1 to 2 things you can focus on right now that will have the greatest impact on your health/ fitness? What 1 to 2 things will get you closer to your health/ fitness goal right now? Start with those. Once you have them down, move onto something else. Your efforts will compound over time and help you sustain your results long term.
3. You become too attached to the outcome and don't appreciate the process/ journey.
The ironic thing is that it's not about the outcome at all. The process of getting to your health/ fitness goal is what ultimately gets you to your desired outcome, yet many people fixate on the outcome and take the process completely for granted.
What to do:
Focus on the process. What habit(s) will get you closer to your goal? Focus on consistency with 1 or 2 of those, and the results will come.
If you keep these few things in mind when pursuing your health/ fitness goals in 2020, you will win, I can guarantee it. 💯
My online group coaching program is officially open for registration for February! Get 12 weeks of thoughtfully designed strength training based fitness programming, coaching, and nutrition guidance to finally make some amazing progress in the gym.
Head to www.trainwithbrie.com/group to sign up! Questions about the program? Email me at brie@brieogletree.com.