BLOG POSTS

Goals vs resolutions

by Agata, posted in Uncategorized
Set goals to start year strong

Why are goals superior to resolutions? I am glad you asked!

I love New Year’s resolutions! That is when other people make them – they all go to the gym for a couple of weeks and then I have it back all to myself 😉

I see resolutions as a wish list. Like ‘I will start going to the gym’. It’s really easy to say that you are succeeding, since going to the gym once a month technically falls under that umbrella. But that’s not what you were going for, is it?

Resolutions

Since everybody talks about New Year resolutions at this time of the year, I was excited to see this article in Business Insider as I was planning my post. In their discussion of how to make successful resolutions, they listed all the issues that lead to failure:

Not ready for change

Did you get caught off-guard at a Christmas party and asked what your New Year resolutions are? If that’s when you came up with the list, changes are you didn’t think them through. And you don’t really want them. It was just a list of ‘usual suspects’. Give the list another look and make sure this is what you really want. And while you are at it, as yourself why. Because you will run into tough moments and if you don’t have a good reason to keep going, your chances of persevering are pretty low.

No self-monitoring

Did you build in any guidelines for progress? So you decided to run a marathon (I would like to apologize for harping on this one – please keep in mind this is a sports blog 😉). If you’re going to get in shape, especially for the first time, you need to figure out what progress looks like. Maybe you need to know by when you should be able to make it through a 5k without stopping? A half marathon without dying? If you don’t have those checkpoints, your New Year resolution is a bunch of empty words uttered to a friend, most likely under the influence.

Lack of planning

New Year resolutions require planning – as in: you need to know what’s involved. For example, if you want to become a triathlete, you need to figure out when you can do all the training, make sure you have a road bike and access to either pool or open water where you are allowed to do your practice swims. Make sure you have access to everything you need before you commit to the idea. It’s a lot easier to give up if you don’t have access to necessary tools.

Overconfidence

This one is probably my favorite. It’s all those people who say that they will run a marathon in March, but haven’t ran since PE in high school. Or that they will look like a Marvel superhero by Memorial Day, even though they have been eating nothing but junk food since their mom stopped cooking for them. This is to say – if you come up with a resolution that is totally out there, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Not looking at what the trade-off is

Oh, this is a really good one. Whatever you decide to do, “something’s gotta give”. Maybe it’s your quality time with your couch. Or sleeping in on the weekends. Whatever it is, give it a solid thought before committing. You may quickly realize that you are not willing to give up a current habit to complete your New Year resolution.

Goals

What’s the alternative? GOALS! This is a place where you actually plan to get to at the end of the process. They can be as vague and useless as resolutions if you don’t pay attention. You have to remember to make them SMART:

Specific

Saying ‘I will go to the gym more often’ is the vaguest of vague goals. And if you are like majority of adults around here, going once a month would totally do it. Go with ‘at least once a week for at least half an hour of actual exercise, so excluding time spent on chatting with other people and changing’. Because yes, I know people who go to the gym to sit in the hot tub for half an hour. This is not what you meant, is it?

Measurable

How many people say ‘in the New Year, I will get in better shape/ lose weight’. Describe your success. Are you trying to lose weight? Or are you trying to lose fat? Because those are not exactly the same thing… Can you tell me what being in shape looks like for you? There have to be numbers assigned to it. For example: by Memorial Day, I will fit into pants size x (whatever your dream size is) or by Easter, I will be able to run a 5k under half an hour without looking like I’m about to die.

Achievable

This one goes with Overconfidence in the New Year resolution section. Your goals have to be within realm of possibility. So we can talk about running a marathon in March despite having a hard time walking to the car when it’s not parked right in front of the grocery store.

Relevant

There is a couple of options for each and I thought that Realistic is way too close to Achievable. Whatever goal you set for yourself, it needs to be relevant for you. As in: you need to know why you are doing it. It’s really hard to stick to a goal that is totally out of left field.

I will use a friend of mine as an example for this. Years ago, he wanted to lose weight and get healthier. He decided that the way to go was to train and complete Ironman Lake Placid (so he is a fan of stretch goals…). During long hours of training, he could remind himself that he was getting healthier, fitting better into his clothes, feeling generally happier and had increased amounts of energy. And that’s what he really wanted. Ironman was part of his life plan at the time.

Time-limited

If you don’t set a deadline on your goal, you can always say that you are working on it and never actually achieve it. That date on which you will run the marathon is a great example. Or being able to fit into smaller summer clothes. Whatever you choose, make sure you know when you plan to get there.

An example of what not to do: I want to qualify for Boston Marathon. It’s on my ‘one day’ list. I have a long way to go and to be honest, I am not quite sure if it’s achievable for me. That’s why I would classify it as a dream, not a goal. I do train regularly (just check me out on Twitter or IG…) and I am making some progress. But I don’t have a timetable attached to it. And I am not even 100% sure if I can do it.

So: I wish you a Happy New Year, full of SMART goals and tons of success!