A Time for Rebirth

Much like Gary Vaynerchuck's (GaryVee to the die hards) newest caricature Positive Platypus, I focus on what I can control and the one thing you cannot take away from me is how I choose to respond to what you do to me or whether or not I think I can achieve something.

-Henry Ford

Love him or hate him, Henry Ford knew what he wanted and he made it happen. I read this quote years ago when I first started my own self-improvement journey. In 2010, I began my first personal trainer certificate and to be honest this was my thought process; "Wow! why is everyone going to college for 3 or 4 years when you can become qualified as a PT in just 1 year?"

I thought, I had cracked the system. I had found a course I loved and was going to be able to start earning a living helping people reach their goals like I had from 2009-2011 with just one year of investment, Oh, the naivety!

I became qualified and less than a year later I was enrolled int he University of Limerick pursuing my Certificate in Exercise and Health Fitness, fast forward another year and I am commuting to Dublin 4 days a week this time to get my BSc. (Hons) in Sport and Exercise Management. As you can see at this stage I have invested close to 5 years of my life and fast forward 4 more years and I am still studying.

In the beginning, I thought everyone was mad to be going to college for 3 or 4 years.

What happened? I changed from being focused on the short term to the long term.

Life is not waiting to begin once you achieve your goals.

You see the reason most people fail to achieve their goals is they try to change everything at once and are thinking if I just get X, when I get Y, If Z happens, then I'll be happy, Rather than thinking about how each step will lead to improvement in the long term.

I too was guilty of this, with my thinking; "If I just get my personal training certificate".

We move through life at a ferocious speed and never stop or even slow down to question whether or not what we are pursuing is what we truly want.

Which is why if you follow my Instagram, you will remember, I initially welcomed the pandemic, it forced us all to slow down and evaluate whether or not we were even on the right path.

Even now, I am still begging people to stay focused on the big picture, to use this time to their advantage.

Let's look at a familiar time where we all promise change to ourselves.

The beginning of each new year, it is culturally recognised as a time for rebirth, an opportunity to change your lifestyle for the better.

- Norcross et al. (2002)

- Forbes (2013)

Why do so many of us fail to keep our new year’s resolutions? Why despite all the best intentions do we ultimately fail every year? Because change is so much more than simply putting deciding to change and taking action. Change begins with your psychology.

Here are my top 4 tips to help you achieve real and sustainable change in a post pandemic world

1. Define your values

You have probably read articles or blog posts like this in the past and they all start the same: Define your Goals. Whilst goal setting is important and is actually my next point.

We first need to define our values. What do I mean by values? Our values are what guide us through life. They are what help us form habits and habits are what help us achieve our goals.

As you embark on your new found path, you will face numerous decisions every day which will help or hinder you in moving towards your goals. It is almost guaranteed that obstacles will arise and attempt to steal your time, energy, and focus.

So, before we start, REMEMBER no matter how much effort you put in, you are going to slip up, the trick is to get back on track straight away, don’t wait for a new week or month and do not punish yourself for falling off the wagon, it is an inevitability we all face.

What is a value? A value is something you prioritise, something which is important to you. Fitness may not be your priority, Family, Friends, Work, Education can all be ahead of health and fitness. That’s fine, but to minimise the effect of falling off track in developing our new habit, it is pertinent we allocate our time and resources towards what is important to us. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of being clear on what is important to you; that one moment of heaven whilst eating that chocolate bar after a stressful day or a lifetime of feeling good from eating healthy and being physically active.

Be smart, allocate time to what is important.

TIP: Track your daily actions in 15 minute slots. Create a new note in your phone, enter 15 minute slots into from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep and for just one day, track how you spend your time. You may be surprised to see where your time is going. Also, it doesn't need to be complete every 15 minutes, you'd get nothing done. Just update it every hour or so whilst its fresh in your memory.

2. Achieve your goals by not focusing on them

This may seem contradictory and I am sure you have heard it before that one of the most important components in achieving your goals is: Goal Setting. However, this term is thrown around a lot, the most common goals people set include:

• Lose weight

• Get fit

• Give up smoking

• Take up a new hobby

There are two problems with these goals. One; these goals are not specific enough and Two; they are what are known as outcome goals. If you have followed me for any period of time, you will know I always speak about Controlling the Controllables.

When I work with my clients, I help them develop instead what are known as behavioural goals. Whilst the outcome is important, the process (or behaviour) is what you need to focus on to achieve your outcome. Why? Because generally, the outcome is out of our control, however, the behaviour, the process, the action steps we take daily (e.g. what we eat, what we drink, our physical activity levels) are within our control. So, when setting your goal, pick your goal and then write down the action steps you are going to take daily to help you achieve it. These action steps will not only keep you on track but will allow you small wins along your journey, which leads me to my next point; goal achievement.

Let’s look at them goals again and restructure them:

• Lose weight = I am going to prepare a healthy lunch every morning before work

• Get fit = I am going to do a 30 minute home bodyweight workout 3 times a week; every Monday, Wednesday and Friday

• Give up smoking = I am going to cut down on my smoking habit by smoking one less cigarette every 4 days.

• Take up a new hobby = I am going to start watching art class tutorials every Tuesday evening

Suddenly, we have control of our goals, we know exactly what we need to do to attain them.

TIP: Write your goals down on a post-it and place them somewhere you will see them daily. Like by the light switch or at your computer, even on your screensaver.

3. Achieving goals by themselves will not bring satisfaction

Have you considered what will happen when you achieve your goal? Many people don’t. When you achieve your goal, it's important to take the time to enjoy the sense of accomplishment of attaining your goal. Be proud, reward yourself accordingly, in a positive way that is. If your goal is health and fitness related, don't go out and gorge on alcohol or fast food. Now, realize you now need to set another goal to aim for, maybe you have just completed your first 5km run, what now? Maybe you want to complete your first full push up or chin up.

Review the process. You'll notice you may not have noticed the very small changes as they occurred and also be aware achieving your goal, does not mean you are done, in fact, often times, it's the exact opposite, you are going to have to work just as hard to stay at this level; so make sure this is something you want.

TIP: Review and evaluate your goal upon achieving it and what it means to you. Was your goal too easy or too difficult to achieve? You may need to adjust the difficulty of your next goal depending on this.

4. Track your progress

A BIG thing that stops people from achieving their goals; is not seeing results.

This is completely normal, even I, as a coach, get disheartened when I don’t see personal development after putting in hours in both the gym and the kitchen. An important thing that to remember is to not let this derail you. You may even find your initial goal may metamorphosize into something completely different. Like me, doing what I thought was the only qualification I would need turning into 7+ certifications, a BSc. and a Postgraduate Diploma in a completely different field of study.

TIP: Pick a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) something which tells you, you are moving towards your goal. Something that you can know if it is not increasing or decreasing that you have temporarily derailed.

Recap

I. Discover what is important to you Understand we all have different priorities, certain activities, events and people in our lives come first. If we want to become fitter, healthier, more productive etc. in 2021, we need to discover and prioritise what is important to us before we set any type of goal.

II. Focus on the process not the outcome Small things done well, day after day, week after week, month after month are what lead to great big accomplishments. Keep your peripheral vision on what it is you want to achieve in the future, but remain focused on your actions and behaviours day in day out to attain your goal.

III. Review your goal and Plan the next one Do not be disillusioned, achieving your goal, a lot of the time will only bring short term satisfaction. You don’t get there one day and that's it, job done. You are going to have to work just as hard to stay there and maybe even harder if you want to go further.

IV. Develop a metric to track progress

Having something to keep you focused. Develop a metric which can quickly show you whether or not you are on track. If it's nutrition related and you like numbers, calories can be a starting point. Choose a metric which represents positive or negative movement towards your goals.

If you enjoyed this blog, please share it with friends and family or anyone who think might benefit from it. Stay focused on what you can control and remember, in 100 years we will all be part of history.