Welcome to 2013!  Those Mayans have egg ALL over their faces, don’t they?  Not only did the world not end, but this is going to be your year!  Increased wealth, loss of excess weight, expanded knowledge, new job, everything you’ve ever wanted!  Your life is about to change forever… or will it be exactly the same?  Did you make your New Year’s resolution?  Have you given up already?  Maybe you didn’t even bother due to failures of years’ past?  Or maybe you’re too cool for the room for a New Year’s resolution?  It doesn’t matter, because this year is going to be different!  Past failures are in the rearview mirror, just there to be glanced at when desired!

Every year I get an increase in phone calls and email for both martial arts classes and personal training.  However, only about 10% of those inquiries turn into regular students or clients.  Why?  There seems to be a few issues that everyone comes across that leads to the eventual failure of attaining their New Year’s resolutions:

The first issue is setting unrealistic goals.  It’s great to have that large goal, but you need smaller goals set to reach that larger one.  Martial Arts teach this goal setting perfectly.  Not only are there multiple color belt ranks to attain before you reach black belt, but there are ranks within those color belt ranks.  Students are attempting to reach a goal every time they are in class!  So remember to be realistic with what you want to accomplish.  You don’t have to do EVERYTHING in one year.

The second issue is failing to adjust one’s lifestyle to accommodate the goal.  For instance, many want to get into better shape, however, they only add in occasional gym workouts when it fits into their current schedule.  This simply doesn’t work!  One must completely adjust their lifestyle to support regular exercise and diet to accomplish that goal.  Take time to set up a schedule to remove bad habits that eat up your time and replace them with good habits that make use of your time.  Log off of facebook for an hour or two, and put down that video game controller and get something done.  We all need time for enjoyment and relaxation, but we don’t need 8 hours a day of it!

The third issue is perceived timing.  You know what I’m talking about here, we’ve all uttered the words, “This week isn’t a good week, I’ll start next week”.  Procrastinator!!!  I know, I know, but the economy isn’t very good right now, there’s a deadline at work that you have to concentrate on first, or maybe it’s raining outside… nothing gets done on rainy days, right?  I’ll let you in on a secret.  I’ll give you the equation to figure out when the best time is to start.  Come closer…a little closer, I don’t want anyone else to see this…the equation is a + c ““ b = NOW DAMN YOU, NOW!!!   There is no perfect time, so stop looking for it!  In the words of the great philosopher NIKE, “Just do it”.  I’m going to be brutally honest here; your quality of life will not improve without you busting your ass to improve it.  Sorry.  Wishing and dreaming is pointless without the action to make it a reality.  If you feel these “perceived timing” issues are more important than improving the quality of your life, then so be it.  I’ll make sure and wave at you when I see you in my rearview mirror.

So what’s it going to be?  What do you want to improve in your life?  Willing to put it in writing?  You’re much more likely to attain your goals when you announce them to friends, or in this case, everyone.  Post your New Year’s resolutions in the comments section of this blog on the website.  Maybe even write out how you will go about attaining your goals.  Then begin your journey!

I’ll start off!  Last year my goal was to learn how to play a guitar I’ve had since I was about 12.  I’ve learned to play some of my favorite songs and would like to expand my awesome (or subpar at best) guitar skills as well as begin to learn some Spanish!  The Rosetta Stone has been installed in my computer and is ready to go!  I’ll be setting aside 30 minutes three times a week dedicated to learning some Spanish and an additional 30 minutes for improving my mad guitar skills!  Your turn, what will you accomplish this year?