Let me guess, you want to lose weight and get fit in 2019. Or perhaps you want to make more money and spend less of it mindlessly.

Whatever your goal is, the new year is almost here and the majority of us are already planning on the resolutions we would like to accomplish.

Statistics show that less than 9% of people are able to actually reach their goals and break-free from their old negative habits.

In some cases, new year resolutions may even make matters worse through discouragement and further solidifying the old negative thought patterns instead.

In fact, some people have totally given up on setting new year goals because they already anticipate the same outcome – nada.

How can you ensure that the outcome will be different in 2019?

 

Keep it simple. 

Setting a goal grandiose is ambitious and inspiring, but unfortunately it is not realistic in the short term.

Quantum leaping is as common as winning the lottery. 

Instead, set both long term goals and short term goals that are tangible and within reach.

Experts say that happiness stems from progress.

Having short term goals makes it simpler and easier to accomplish, resulting in small wins along the way.

These small wins will provide the necessary fuel to stay the a course and continue your journey to your ultimate, grandiose destination.

 

Find your why-power.

Will power can get the boat up and running but can only get you so far.

You need something stronger if you want to win and accomplish your goals.

Things are going to be hard, period. If they are not hard, you are not challenging yourself, therefore you are not growing which means you are stagnant in your comfort zone.

Find your “why”. The more emotional it is, the closer to your heart it is, the better.

This is extremely important and will be the primary reason for your success.

If your “why” is not strong enough, the moment an obstacle shows up, it will crush you.

 

Make it specific.

“I want to lose some weight” is not enough to make you want to do it.

Being specific and outlining exactly how you want to look, what you want to accomplish and setting a deadline is a much more powerful way to set goals.

Take some time with this step, go in a room and meditate on it. Visualize your goal, how you’ll look and feel when you accomplish it.

Write down the specifics in your journal or a piece of paper. There is something about physically writing it down that begins the process.

Let’s say you want to lose 20 lb, 2 lb a week sounds reasonable. That would be 10 weeks. Start a 12 week program, give yourself an extra 2 weeks and get after it.

Now you have a specific, tangible goal that you are working towards.

 

Keep believing you can do it.

If you don’t believe you can do it, don’t even start.

Most people that fail their new year resolutions tend to blame it on will power. Will power is finite resource.

If you don’t fully believe that you can accomplish it, you’re basically knowingly fooling yourself and once your will power runs out, you’re done.

Having a specific, tangible goal written down and believing you can accomplish it, you won’t need to rely on will power at all times to reach it.

Without belief, nothing can succeed.

 

Accountability.

It is not real until you have made yourself accountable for your resolutions.

When you have a source of accountability, you are the one fully responsible for your actions, success and failure.

Some people (like myself) value integrity above all else which means that if they confirmed with themselves that they’re going to do something, now they HAVE to do it.

There’s no backing down, no excuses or 50% effort.

There’s no fooling myself because deep down inside I always know the truth. It’s now real.

There are studies done on human psychology showing some people hate losing more than they love winning.

If this rings true for you then utilize this tactic to your advantage by putting something on the line that you’d lose unless you stay committed to your goals.

This could be a cheque to your friend that you can’t get back or hiring a personal trainer or coach to keep you accountable and guide you to success.

Truth is we all need guidance of some sort as “training wheels” at first, until we’re able to hold our own weight.

 

Final Words

Before you completely give up on this whole new year resolution thing, understand that there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with you.

It’s simply a matter of taking the correct steps to align your mind, thoughts and behaviors towards a common goal.

Implement these “hacks” above and avoid being just another new year failure statistic in 2019.

 

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Primal Breed is committed to providing you effective personal training in Toronto, helping you lose unwanted weight permanently and build lean muscle for life.

There are two basic internal drivers that lead us to accomplish something; motivation vs. discipline.

There is a major distinction between the two: one gets the job done every time, no questions asked. The other feels like it can take on the world in the moment, but it never quite completes the mission.

The formal is discipline, the latter is motivation.

Motivation runs on emotional fuel. Discipline runs regardless of emotions.

 

Many top level life and business coaches believe that motivation is bullsh*t.

Now, motivation does have its role, but it’s certainly undeserving of the emphasis that majority of people would like to put on it.

Motivation can be the bridge between stagnation, pain, failure, regret, bad choices and forward motion, joy, freedom, happiness, health and good decisions.

It is the emotional spark needed to ignite the fire within to get the ball rolling.

Once that bridge is crossed, discipline must completely take over otherwise that fire will quickly die out and you’ll have to re-do the entire process all over again.

 

For example:

You said you want to get on a fat loss diet and start working out.

You’ve been putting it off for a while now, but you looked in the mirror and decided enough is enough.

You don’t like what you see or how you feel and you decide to change. You watch a few videos, read a few posts and your motivation is sky high. Maybe you even join the gym, buy a fat loss diet plan and you’re all ready to go.

First day you’re a little nervous, but you remember why you want to start this, motivation kicks in and you proceed.

You get the workout done, stick to your diet and it feels good.

A few days or a week goes by, life gets in the way and you fall off.

That was a year ago. Now with the new year coming up, the same feelings are starting to reoccur.

You have to start the entire process all over again. Build a new fire all over again. Have to make something out of nothing, again

It can get extremely exhausting and discouraging to continue on the ‘start-quit-restart’ cycle.

 

Without discipline, motivation will always fall short.

Even if you are motivated for a year. Once you accomplish that goal. You’ll stop and revert back to the old self.

Discipline is the true driving force of long lasting fulfillment in life. Every successful person has discipline.

Some people may think “Discipline sounds like imprisoning yourself.” That’s quite the opposite.

Discipline is what creates mental freedom. See, the mind has a constant need to create.

From the day we are born to the day we die.

If we do not direct that energy strategically for the things and life we want, it will turn chaotic.

There’s no escaping the mind.

Directing it towards what you want is the best option available.

Grounded energy, calmness, happiness, success, freedom, knowledge, wealth, health are all a byproduct of positive daily habits – through discipline.  

 

Real, true discipline is the one you impose on yourself.

It’s you telling yourself to be better, faster, healthier, happier.

Discipline imposed onto you by some authority or parent does not last.

It is not real discipline until you make it true for yourself. Until you continue that discipline when nobody is there telling you what to do. When nobody is watching. When you don’t have the need to tell anyone about what you did.

Discipline is the act of repeating a task to better oneself from an intrinsic desire for self-advancement.

External factors do not play a role or affluence your discipline in any way.

 

A disciplined person masters and utilizes both emotion and logic.

Both logic and emotion will eventually give out on their own.

Discipline stands strong when both sides of the spectrum are being controlled and utilized strategically to accomplish the task.

When the mind tries to play tricks on you, providing extremely well thought-out and sound arguments for not doing the task, use emotion to override it.

When emotional energy dies down, use logic to push through and complete the task.

Motivation gets the action started, discipline keeps it alive.

 

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Primal Breed is committed to providing you effective personal training in Toronto, helping you lose unwanted weight permanently and build lean muscle for life.

The difference between the winner and the loser, the successful and the unsuccessful is simply a decision. It all starts with a simple decision to create a positive habit that will ultimately make you win – through the compound effect.

 

Compound Effect: Life is a series of decisions

Nothing ever starts out great. Nothing.

Every behavior, task or endeavor that you decided upon started out as just a small, harmless action.

Since we are creatures of habit, the actions we engage in repeatedly mold into habits.

There are two kinds of habits – resourceful and unresourceful. In other words; positive habits and negative habits.

Successful folks are not special, esoteric or different than everybody else. They simply have better habits. That’s all.

Those positive habits compound over the years and transform the ordinary into extraordinary.

That’s the power of the compound effect. 

Almost always we get to see people that have “made it” or achieved something great at the peak of their work. At a first glace, this creates the illusion that these people are somehow more talented, better, stronger, faster, possess superior genetics, etc. However, if you look deeper into their story you will undoubtedly find many years of consistent execution of positive habits that has lead them to that moment.

“We are what we repeatedly do everyday. Therefore, excellence is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

 

Understanding habits

Whenever we think a thought, act upon that thought and repeat it over and over again, our brain forms new neural pathways to store that new information. The more time and energy you spend repeating that same task, the stronger those same cells will wire together. With enough repetition, they become automatic and ultimately a subconscious habit.

The great basketball legend Larry Bird was not born with any special talents from the get-go. His work ethic and discipline of practicing the same shot hundreds or even thousands of times daily is what ultimately led him to becoming one of the best basketball players ever.

If you’ve had the bad habit of drinking diet sodas for 20 years, it may take you more than 3 days to unlearn that pattern and replace it with a new, positive one.

Note* Some people let go of bad habits cold-turkey, however it’s usually due to an extremely strong motivation and/or traumatic experience.

In order to form a new positive habit, repetition is key.

Some scientist say it takes about 21 days of daily consistent repetition for the new habit to form. It may take you less or more, it depends on how committed you are.

 

Instant vs. Delayed Gratification

Now more than ever, we live in a world that is literally instant.

Instant coffee, microwave dinners, instant worldwide communication and so on.

The result = lowest human attention span ever noted. Studies report that on average, our attention span is around 6-8 seconds.

Although I’d take that with a grain of salt, for some of us it is not far off. If you find yourself impatient, wanting things fast and now, cannot focus on a task that will take more than a week, you are controlled by instant gratification.

Instant gratification is a primary factor for a cascade of bad decisions that compound into awful and negative outcomes over time.

For instance, if you tend to hit the snooze button 4 times before waking up, you’ll carry out the same sluggish and lazy mentality in other areas of your life as well.

If you start skipping the gym to watch Netflix or go have beers with the boys, you’ll have a higher tendency to do the same the following day(s).

These bad decisions, over time, will compound to create an over-weight, unsuccessful and ultimately unhappy you.

Delayed-gratification on the other hand is part of a disciplined mind.

A calm and grounded person understands that good things take time.

Nothing and I mean nothing worthwhile has ever been built in an hour or a day.

Understanding and accepting that your goals will take some time gives way for good energy to flow through and be applied daily on the tasks that will lead you there.

Giving up pennies today so you can cash out big $$ at the end of the year. Sounds worth it to me.

 

Here are some effective tips to create a new positive habit

• Slow and steady wins the race. If you want to be healthier and lose some weight, take it nice and slow. That means, begin by increasing your water intake and eliminating sugar. Do that for a couple of weeks. Then add a couple of workouts in there. After the month mark, begin an actual diet plan built specifically for you. If you try to do it all at once, it will fail 99% of the time.
• Set reminders. Remember, repetition is absolute key for creating new neural pathways. That means at first, it will be uncomfortable, unnatural and your mind may even play tricks on you. Write down in your calendar or journal your daily tasks so you’re always reminded of what you need to get done. Otherwise, it will go over your head and you’ll forget about it quickly.
• Have a source of accountability. Get a life coach, personal trainer or simply have a picture up on your mirror that triggers strong motivating emotion to get your butt up and do what needs to be done. Commitment is hard if you don’t have strong fire lit, carrying you through.
• Take a practical approach. Do what you can with what you have. Don’t compare yourself with anyone else but yourself. Everyone has their journey, you have yours.
• Anticipate the hardship. For example, your mind will try to keep you in a comfortable, familiar place as a protection/survival mechanism whenever you try to do something new and unknown. Anticipate that and work with it. Accept that it will not be easy and stay in the battle. Whatever you do, understand that it’s normal and do not quit. Everyone goes through those mental battles. Only the ones that see it for what it is are able to conquer it.
• Think long-term. Time will pass by anyway. If you want a happier, vibrant and better future, it begins with the decisions you make today. Sacrifice a bit of today for tomorrow’s betterment. That’s a winner mentality.
• Have a winner mentality. If you begin something by saying “I’ll give it a try and see how it goes.” or “I’ll give it a shot” you are setting yourself for failure. Those statements imply half-ass effort and on a deeper level expecting to fail. A winner says “I decided. This is what i’m going to do no matter what.” When you start something with this mentality, you are on the path to success.

Final Words

The compound effect never sleeps.

Whether we know it or not, it is directing our lives by the judgement of our habits.

Thankfully, we possess control of our thoughts, behaviors and decisions. Thus, we can alter or create new positive habits that will steer our life in the direction we actually want to go in.

What you think of as a silly, harmless and even useless act today, if repeated enough times may compound into riches beyond your expectations.

Both winners and losers may dislike doing certain daily tasks. Winners do them anyway.

 

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Primal Breed is committed to providing you effective personal training in Toronto, helping you lose unwanted weight permanently and build lean muscle for life.