New Year’s Revolution

Here it comes, that time of year when we make our New Year’s resolutions, determined to become a New Me. No more smoking, drinking and eating fatty foods. Time to get actually active in our active wear! Exercise, early to bed and early to rise. So it goes until some time around the middle of February when life will have beaten us back down to the tired Old Me, smoking, drinking, eating for comfort and to keep warm as the last chills of winter find their way beneath the layers of clothes and through the gaps in the door.

But no! Hell no! It doesn’t have to be this way and deep down you know it, don’t you? Your New Year’s resolution doesn’t have to start on 1st January and if you stop or slip it doesn’t mean you have to give up for good. Failure is not failure. Failure is part of success! Yes, let me run that past you again: Failure. Is. Part. Of. Success. Every time you give into tiredness or temptation or discouragement you are learning where your limits are, what your triggers are and where your weaknesses lie and you get an opportunity to try a new approach. If tiredness, hunger or low blood sugar tempt you into buying comfort food or fast food (my particular downfall), pack healthy snacks and eat little and often through the day rather than trying to ignore your hunger until the next set meal. If you smoke when you’re out socialising then find something to distract you or avoid going out until the initial, strongest mental and physical cravings pass. As you’re probably aware, a large element of addiction is mental habit and once the physical need is gone then it’s just habit you’re having to wrestle with. Habits can be retrained with effort and determination. The length of time something takes is not a commentary on your success or failure. It’s not a failure until you stop and give up. So if you need to retrain your mind, get training!

I started a fitness regime in September and I carried on with it for two months until life got in the way in November. Family life, Christmas preparations and now some yummy Christmas food have made me a happy, full and lazy Old Me again. But guess who’s getting back on the treadmill in January? Yep – I’m not giving up, just pausing for Christmas. Lack of organisation is my issue and if I’m REALLY honest with myself, I have to admit that I prioritised Getting Christmas Done and flopping tiredly in front of the television over getting my butt off the couch and making time to exercise. I lost focus, I lost the mental expectation to exercise daily and the old, lazy habits kicked in. But now Christmas is over and the new year is on its way, I’m ready to get my focus back and kick some ass, including my own!

It’s all about mental attitude, dudes and dudettes. What do you want to do next year? Whatever it is, if you expect to achieve it, if you make time in your schedule for it, if you believe you deserve to succeed and if you refuse to give in, you WILL succeed. You are the only person stopping you. It won’t be easy, it won’t be pretty, it won’t always be fun and it might take all year to get yourself into your new mental attitude but it WILL be worthwhile. Are you ready for your New Year’s Revolution?

Why not drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you’re going to succeed with next year? I’ll let you know how I get on with my renewed fitness regime and we can cheer each other on. Losers unite! We have nothing to lose but our old habits!

Background image by monicore at Pixabay.com