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New Years Resolution Stuff: Part I...

Saturday, 16 January 2016 00:10

By Steve Jonas (teamusa.org)

Some folks make New Year’s resolutions and some don’t. One reason that the “don’t do it” group doesn’t is that failure to keep has not been an uncommon experience. This column, Part I of a two-part series, contains some general principles for resolution-making that in my experience can help you to succeed. Next month we shall turn to some particulars, particularly in the area of mobilizing motivation.

For starters, don't be put off in making a New Year's resolution by previous failures in keeping resolutions. There are many reasons why we fail other than the lack of will or lack of dedication or some other internal fault upon which we often put the blame. Often it is, rather, that we fail to correctly go about the resolution-setting process in the first place. In other words, more often than not when we fail, we have set...

ourselves up for failure. In considering both health-related personal behaviors and behavior change in general and our sport in particular, how about setting yourself up for success this time around? Here are a few guidelines that you might find helpful in that regard.

First, don't make too many resolutions. One that you achieve is much better than 10 that you don't. One in fact is a good number. If you do follow through with it, then later in the year there's nothing wrong with setting another one, of the “New Year’s” type or not, even if the weather is warm when you do it.

Second, pick something that you think you will be actually able to follow through on, even if it seems fairly simple. That could be making sure that, if you are not already, being both regular and consistent in your training.  (Regularity means that you stick to pretty much the same days-of-the-week schedule throughout your training season, rather three days this week, and 7 next. Consistency means that you don’t have wide variations in the times/distances you do on your schedule, but that you make changes on them gradually during it.) As I close in on 35 years in our sport, I have found that this is most reflective of my training program, over that time. Once you've done something new, but not overly challenging, you will be better set up in your head for trying something more demanding. READ MORE