Its Time To Say Goodbye To

This phrase has been trending lately, so I want to share with you my two cents on how to move into the new year on a f*****g high note.

Before we get into that, let’s celebrate a few things that we are happy to say goodbye to. Both Fitness & Non-Fitness related.

#It’sTimeToSayGoodbyeTo

1. Those jeans you’ve been trying to fit into since 2007
2. Putting yourself down and saying hello to lifting yourself up
3. That diet you’ve been trying but know isn’t sustainable
4. Excessive packaging (boxes inside of boxes inside of boxes)
5. Surprise medical bills & Medical debt
6. Exorbitant prescription costs
7. Video Game micro transactions (I don’t actually know if this one is going away, but I won’t be a part of it)
8. Co-insurance (wth is a co-insurance anyway?!)
9. Thinking that 30 is old. For many of us, that’s only 1/3 of the way into our story
10. Relying on holidays and birthdays to scare us into improving ourselves

Photo by Jude Beck on Unsplash

What if you really want to make a New Years resolution, and you’re unsure how to stick to it…cause you didn’t last year…or before…or before

1. Stop doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. That’s the definition of insanity. — Albert Einstein

Don’t try and change some over the top drastic part of you. You know that won’t last. It’s hard enough to get us to eat breakfast & brush our teeth in the morning consistenly. You think we’re going to uproot some deep seeded habits after waking up hungover on new years? That’s laughable.

There’s a good chance — whatever you want to change you want it to last for a long time. Not just a few weeks. Maybe not even a few months. You might be looking at building a habit that will stay with you for the entirety of 2020.

Chose something SMALL that might not even be big enough to classify as a full ‘resolution’.

If you envision yourself in 9 months working out at the gym 5x per week, then fantastic! Give yourself time to build into that.

Commit to going to the gym 2x a week for 6 weeks. That sounds easy right? Almost too easy? You can do that in your sleep. No problem!

Increase your frequency to 3x for another 6 weeks. Increase your frequency again to 4x for another 6 weeks.

By the time May 6th comes you’ll be working out 5x per week and you will have built up the habit of exercising consistently for the past five months.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

This already sounds a lot better than the people that burn out after the first 2–5 weeks of the year.

Finally, I’ll end on giving you some examples of popular new years resolutions and how I would recommend changing the way you approach it — to set yourself up for success.

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Popular New Years Resolutions

1. Exercise more
2. Lose weight
3. Get organized
4. Learn a new skill or hobby
5. Live life to the fullest
6. Save more money / spend less money
7. Quit smoking
8. Spend more time with family and friends
9. Travel more

Popular New Years Resolutions With A Different Mindset

1. 30–45min workout 1–2x per week for 6 weeks then re-evaluate frequency
2. Add 1 healthy snack or meal to your current diet per week. Each week add 1 more and watch the health snacks & meals stack up.
3. Organize 1 part of your room or house every 2 days. Work a day, rest a day.
4. Find a friend/family/partner to learn a new skill with. Make it an excuse to hang out and try something new & fun.
5. Physically write out what would ‘living life to the fullest’ mean to you in 2020. Start from the end in mind, and start breaking down what steps need to be taken for that to become a reality.
6. Discover your ‘why’ to reinforce why improving your finances is so important to you. Maybe you want to retire in 20 years with a particular $ amount in the bank and have zero debt. The more specific you are the better.
7. Quitting smoking is incredibly intricate and I think the best help comes from professionals, not my advice in a blog. Work with someone who’s job it is to help you along your journey.
8. If you have troubles spending time with family and friends — think outside the box. If you have a problem spending an entire day together, then schedule coffee or beers. If you only see them in scenarios that involve alcohol, then find a new event you all can try — like axe throwing.
9. Let step 6 serve as your compass. If you’re on a written budget, it becomes very easy to allocate $$ to go towards traveling. Write the budget at the beginning of the month. Dave Ramsey has a great money podcast where he talks about this.

Photo by Crazy nana on Unsplash

Thank you for making it this far. I really hope you got some value in my perspective on new years resolutions. I think they’re pretty overrated in the way they’re typically used.

Comment below ONE THING you were grateful for this year. I’ll post my one thing there too.

Without further ado, I wish all of your a Happy New Year — and I will see you all on the other side!

Party safe y’all!

-Juha