1 January 2014
I’m in default “New Year mode” and part of that is, of course, to wish you a truly happy and healthy 2014. And yet the very expression we use, the verb “to wish”, implies that our destiny is somehow out of our hands, a verbal crossing of fingers and hoping for the best. Yes, we all need a bit of luck in life – I’ll admit that I’m secretly reckoning on 2014 bringing me a lucky break – but the truth of the matter is that much of our future is down to ourselves: our actions, our resolve, our commitment, our ability to pick oneself up and to keep persevering. So whether it be goals relating to fitness and health, or to career and family, let 2014 be made successful by you and your actions, rather than passing by on a cloud of wishful thinking.
But where to start on this positive project? I’d suggest that we all need to take a good, honest look at 2013 and assess how we did when it comes to achieving whatever goals we had set out to conquer. If they were weight loss goals, what do the scales tell you? If they related to career progression, was 2013 a good year on the work front? Or perhaps you had aimed to improve your work-life balance last year? Did you? And what real changes did you implement? With any goal you need to make sure that you have a benchmark from which you can measure improvement, otherwise it is too subjective and – perish the thought! – you might cheat (yourself).
Looking back gives you the opportunity to figure out which bits worked well and which didn’t and, of course, why. We all get teased for having fantastic hindsight but at least we can use it to make 2014 a great year. So that’s your fist goal-setting step: to look back and critically assess how you did last year. Be honest. Let me start you off on the right track by laying my own cards on the table. I will openly admit that 2013 was not a great year for me on the wellbeing front: the combination of juggling looking after my three boys and taking my career to the next level left me scraping the bottom of the health and fitness barrel. On the other hand, I didn’t short change the family and – at very long last – I finally achieved two cherished goals: winning a national award and launching my online pregnancy and postnatal fitness system. So that bit worked but at the expense of keeping super-fit. The 2014 challenge is to successfully marry health, family, fitness and career.
So having worked this out, the next step is to sit down and decide on a plan of action for 2014, one that is grounded in reality rather than in wishful thinking. Keep it real, keep it manageable, keep it bite-sized and keep it “trackable” – if you can’t see the progress you’ll soon lose hope and just give up. From this perspective, health and fitness goals are the easiest because they are very measurable: body fat %, weight, hip and waist measurements, fitness tests etc.
Having put in place your 2014 plan of action, I would strongly advise that you shout about it from the rooftops - Facebook is ideal. Yes, tell everyone exactly what your goals are and when you plan to achieve them by. Feel free to tell me if you like, and I’ll even let you in on mine. There’s nothing quite like a bit of peer pressure to keep you on the straight and narrow…