NEW YEAR, OLD YOU…?

The well-known American novelist, Ann Lamott, recently said: “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a while, including you…When you rest, you catch your breath and it holds you up, like water wings”.  This break from routine has indeed been so rejuvenating and the precious few weeks having Eswee and Mariné with us were sacred.  But it feels like home-coming to write again, and I’m super excited to be back in action at my happy place tomorrow.

…We are already almost 2 weeks into 2020, and I can’t help but wonder…How are those new year’s resolutions of yours coming along…?  Or has it once again, as always, become a new start on hold habits…?   Just asking…☺

Am I being cynical today?  No, simply realistic.  So much so that in this very first Blog of 2020 I want to slap New Year’s resolutions in the face, like I’m challenging them to an old-fashioned duel!  Why?  Because they don’t work. 

And the bleak statistics bear me out. You’ve heard it before that only 8% of people who make New Year’s resolutions stick to them, and that most of the other 92% see them last a week or less. Now health experts have come to believe that failing on a New Year’s resolution to lose weight can even result in weight gain. How do people with food issues cope with failure? They eat more! Same goes for drinking, smoking and exercise.

Okay, so…there is nothing wrong about this annual tradition to make resolutions. I just don’t believe it’s the best way to accomplish your goals.  I mean, how can you suddenly, overnight, wrap your head around eating less sugar, working out, saving money, decluttering, volunteering AND learning French all during that first week of a new year?!  And saying that you vow NEVER to eat a chocolate ever again, or promising to lose 10kg before February, is setting yourself up for definite failure.

Why?  Because you’re not really resolving to do anything different.  You’re just wishing… For most people, the resolution takes the place of the action, as if some major vow or self-promise will magically transform their lives.

But there is hope, and here’s the key: Have a plan and make it realistic. Otherwise, resolutions are empty promises. And this is the bottom line – without a stronger resolve, you have no hope of accomplishing your resolutions.

In other words, you need to commit.  To choose into an intentional process that will make you better.  Not a set of audacious goals you’ll never meet.  Goal setting, while admirable, is essentially pointless.  They tell you WHERE you want to go, not HOW you’re going to get there.

Famous entrepreneur James Clear explains this brilliantly in his book “Atomic habits”.  He says winners and losers all have the same goals – the difference between them is that winners implement a system of continuous small improvements helping them achieve a different outcome.

Different habits, not goals, that’s what we all need to conquer 2020.  A new way of living that will bring different results.  And that’s exactly why we host three fitness challenges in our studio every year – 22 weeks all in all, helping our members create new disciplines and supporting them in their journeys to become the best versions of themselves. For we think long-term when we think resolve.  The whole 2020, not only the first 3 weeks…

It comes down to 3 principles:

• Setting aside a time to exercise.
• Showing up,
• And giving yourself grace.

As much as the new year is a great time to think about everything in our lives we want to improve, it’s also a good time to accept our flaws, recognize our weaknesses and forgive ourselves for not always living up to our own expectations.

But maybe, most importantly, it is all about learning that it is, in fact, time to celebrate our progress and not beat ourselves up every time we fail to deliver perfection.  No need to simply throw in the towel when you fail to keep your resolution.  No need to have a “Well, there goes that!” attitude when you eat a Bar One.  No need to shelf your I`ll-eat-less sugar-resolution for the rest 11 months of the year, waiting for the next stroke of midnight and the next inevitable “Auld Lang Syne” singalong to signal it’s time for the next kick at the can…

Have you decided to take charge of your health in 2020?  Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired?  Don’t wait any longer.  Start now. Choose progress over perfection – not only will it give you the energy and spirit to keep striving towards your goals, it will help you build a mentality that allows you to fall down and get up again and again because you`re headed in the right direction.

My wish for you for 2020 is this – that you will do your best to celebrate each moment that is in keeping with your resolution, and during those times you stumble?  That you will pick yourself right up and keep moving forward.  That you will celebrate each success and forgive yourself for the misses, because failure really, truly isn’t an option when we change its definition. 

Failure is quitting.

Success is keeping going – no matter how many times I wander off the path.

So, here’s to New Year’s resolutions 2020! May they have many moments of progress and may they never be forced to carry the burden of the expectation of perfection.

Whatever it is you want to be, whoever it is you want to be, remember that even the longest book is read and written one word a time.  May you be militantly and maternally on your own side, and while you`re putting in the work this year, may you constantly decide to be an artist, not a labourer.  Yes, you can choose whether it`s a chore or a pleasure.  You can do it the way you used to clear the dinner dishes when you were thirteen, or you can do it as a Japanese person would perform a tea ceremony, with a level of concentration and care in which you can lose yourself, and so, in which you can find yourself…

We need to give ourselves more permission to be human.  We can`t THINK our way into becoming better.  We need to make mistakes to find out who we are.   As Ann Lamott writes beautifully in her latest book “Small victories”: “I`m human, you`re human, let me greet your humanness.  Let`s be people together for a while…”

And in the end that`s the beauty of grace – it meets us where we are and does not leave is where it found us.

Yours in fitness

Mirna 

082 779 0507

PS: Our New Year Challenge starts 3 February – you can still join with the early bird fee of R280 tomorrow… Thereafter, it’s R320☺