LUNA CHIX PRO TEAM

As I’ve trained over the years it has always amused and somewhat annoyed me to find the gyms I’ve trained in extremely packed every January - but without fail, and with a little patience, by February things quiet down again and it is once again easier to get a workout done. Why do so many people start each year with great intentions and fail so quickly? Maybe it starts with the kind of goals we set. Here are the most common top ten New Year’s resolutions:

1. Lose weight
2, Exercise
3. Quit smoking
4. Quit drinking
5. Be a better person
6. Spend more time with the family
7. Spend less time on the internet
8. Be more organized
9. Get out of debt
10. Be more spiritual

One study I’ve always found interesting, followed about 200 people who had set New Year’s resolutions and had them report the date at which they’d given up or failed to keep their goals. Below is the percentage of people who had fallen off the wagon at different time intervals following New Years:

1 week 23%
2 weeks 34%
3 weeks 40%
1 month 45%
3 months 55%
6 months 60%

Even as athletes who consistently follow a training program, we can still struggle with meeting all of our goals. I know personally things like getting in enough core work, stretching, sleep and eating well consistently are tough to schedule in when life is busy. And can simply be just great intentions, just like the resolutions above. The key is to take it to the next step and add in the HOW, WHEN, WHERE, and WHY= a specific action plan. Lets take some of my failed swimming intentions for example. If I go to bed at night with simply the intention of getting up and going for an early morning swim IF I happen to wake up early enough to get out and back home before my husband needs to be out the door for work, the more likely scenario is that I will roll back over and fall back asleep upon waking and miss the time frame I could have got a swim in. On the other hand, if I set my alarm (and sometimes a back up alarm across the room), pack my swim bag the night before next to my bedroom door, have a bottle and snack waiting to grab on the way on the door, and write out a complete workout - warm-up, main set, and cool down to take with me, I will get out of bed, and get the entire swim done everytime!

So if you’ve got some great new goals you’d like to accomplish in 2010, here are some important points I’ve learned from motivation research and personal experience that will give you the best chance of achieving your goals:

1. The more specifics you can plan into your day and week, the more automatic and effortless it will feel to complete your goals. In my thesis research interviews, the athlete consensus was that they preferred to know specific training details of at least one week in advance. Think of meal planning as a parallel example. Starting with shopping at the grocery store, many studies have shown that those who show up without a list are far more likely to impulse buy and spend far more than they intended. For eating well, if you just open the fridge door with no plan when you’re suddenly hungry for dinner, you’ll more likely make poorer food choices than if you’d done some meal planning in advance. Similarly, if you know the specifics of each day’s workout goals you can prioritize the rest of your day, and show up physically and mentally prepared for the effort needed to get that day’s training done.

2. Remember willpower is a limited resource. Most people have less energy at the end of the day, that is why most dieters fail at night! If possible, use the time of day that you are most productive to tackle your most difficult goals. On the otherhand, if you can only work out at a low energy time for you, planning to do it with a friend, or a group can help keep you accountable and make it more enjoyable at the same time.

3. Understand why you’re doing it. Like a good coach who explains the purpose of each training session, the more you educate yourself on why achieving a particular goal is important, the more you will be motivated to stick to it. For example, if there is an aspect of your training that you don’t particularly enjoy - speed work, or long endurance days for example, remind and reeducate yourself as to why it is an important piece of the pie towards reaching your overall performance goals. In general, it is also important to set goals that you personally value, not just because you feel it would be a good goal to set - often the problem with New Year’s Resolutions!

4. Finally, keep it fun and enjoyable. Athletes who continue to improve most over time, are often the ones who are always looking for new self-challenges in their training. If you find yourself in a motivational slump that is longer than normal, tap into your creativity rather than just continuing to go through the motions. With training it may be reconnecting with the reasons why you started being active or competitive in the first place, adding in some fun cross-training, working with a coach for the first time, or finding some new training partners.

Happy and healthy goal achieving in 2010!
Danelle