I had probably the most low key new years possible and I’m not even mad.  I have been traveling a whole lot throughout the month of december and am going to spend the next two weeks traveling again, so I figured it would make a lot of sense if I just parked my bum and didn’t move for a weekend.  We celebrated by making a nice dinner and fancy dessert while watching some movies, playing some board games, and getting our Just Dance on.  All in all, time well spent.  One thing that we do every year is take some time to write out our new years resolutions on a big piece of paper that we hang in the kitchen.  This way they are always staring us in the face ready to taunt us on the daily.  This year, I came up with some pretty fine resolutions if I do say so myself:

New Years Resolutions ’16

• Run Smarter. this means focus on not just running at the same speed everyday and varying paces, distances, types of runs etc.  Focusing on going faster and farther while minimizing injury.
• Do a race. True life: I have never run any type of race.  I have never even run a local 5k for charity.  I feel like by now this is something I should have done, so this year I’m going to cross this off the list because really there is no reason not to.
• Be more present/spend less time staring at a screen.  From the minute I wake up I feel like I’m always either on my phone, on my computer, watching tv, doing something with my eyes on a screen.  I want to be more in the moment and spend less time with my phone glued to my side.
• Pass my NASM Personal Training Certification. I started studying a couple of weeks ago and I am ready to crush this goal.  Exercise is extremely important to me and has been for a long time, so I’m ecstatic to be able to take my training a step further.
• Eat less sugar. Literally everything I’ve read lately says that sugar is slowly killing us.  The detriments far outweigh the benefits, so I’m going to make a concerted effort to try and cut down on this.
• Go on vacation. I didn’t take a single vacation for myself this year and it showed.  I had a pretty stressful time overall, but I got so caught up in doing so many other things for other people, I didn’t do anything for myself.  I think me sitting on a nice beach, drink in hand, is the perfect way to accomplish this goal.

 

So a lot of these goals are kind of broad and general which can make them difficult to tackle.  That’s why I have come up with a great way to get them knocked out.  The key is to make SMART goals.

SMART goals are:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Time-bound

Make smaller goals that fit this pattern to help reach your larger goals.  For example, my workout today was focused on my Run Smarter goal.  So, I decided to run at an 8 minute pace for 25 minutes.  This meant I was working on pacing while still doing something I knew was attainable for me.

These kinds of goals are far more achievable because they are realistic.  If your goal is to lose weight this year, focus on losing one pound a week and actually measure yourself.  If you want to go to the gym more, schedule at least one session for the first couple of weeks and mark it on your calendar as if it were a meeting that you couldn’t skip.  Look at the building blocks and steps it will take you to get there.  By visualizing the process, it will help you determine a better plan about how you are going to get there and will ultimately set you up for success.  It’s just like when you’re running and you don’t focus on running the full 5 miles you’re supposed to do that day, you just take it a mile at a time or you say, I am just going to run to that tree and then when that feels good you keep going.  The little things add up.

-sj