Happy New Year!

A new year, a fresh start!

Did you achieve everything that you wanted to back in 2018? 

Or was it a year that you’d prefer to forget?

For me personally last year was a great year, I managed to achieve about 75% of my goals and that feels great. I had a plan and took action and it’s paid off. That said there were somethings I didn’t achieve and I can learn from my mistakes and inaction!

It’s important to set goals, without them how do you know what direction you’re heading in?

If you want to be fitter and healthier this time next year then you’ve got to start taking action immediately, putting in place habits and behaviours that overtime will get you the results you want. 

In this post i’m going to provide 8 tips so that you can achieve your goals in 2019…

#1 Goal Setting

Of course you know what Goal Setting is… It doesn’t really need much explaining does it? 

But how you set goals is very important. Loose goals like “I want to lose weight” or “I want to tone up!” are useless! We all want these, but they don’t drive us emotionally. We need to put emotion into our goals otherwise we’ll soon revert back to old ways once motivation slips (which it always does!). 

Figure out your WHY and what you want, the more specific you can be the better. For example…

“this is the year I quit the BS excuses! i’m going to get myself fit and do a Tough Mudder in August” 

Then once you have this goal write it down on a piece of paper and place it in your office of bedroom. People who write down goals are far more likely to follow through with them.

#2 Tell Your Friends 

Once you’ve created your goals tell your friends and family about them, tell them that you’re going to lose 3 stone and get fit. Again it’s been proven that you’re more likely to achieve your goals when you tell other people…otherwise you look silly when you don’t follow through. 

#3 Hire A Personal Trainer

There’s so much miss information online, for example dieting fads and bad advice that can sometimes do more harm than good!

To become an expert in any field it’s been said that you need 10,000 hours worth of practice/experience, in other words you’d have to practice 5hrs a day for 2,000 days straight (over 5 years!). 

Now unless it’s your absolute passion and you want to become a ‘fitness expert’ the likelihood is that you’re not going to spend 5-10 years studying about health and human anatomy!

If this is the case then reach out and pay an expert who’s got that level of experience so that they can guide you and save you hours of guess work and headaches scrolling the internet! Yes, you have to pay for their time BUT the trade off is worth it, you’ll get quicker results and jump the que.

Just make-sure to do your research before investing, ask for recommendations from friends and look at online testimonials and reviews. 

#4 Focus On Self Development 

I believe this is one of the most important aspects that we need to focus on, not only will working on self development help to improve our health and body shape, but it will also benefit us when it comes to career, personal relationships, parenthood… basically…in every area of life! 

If you struggle with motivation, low self esteem, and find it hard to create positive habits like going to the gym and eating well then it’s more often than not a MIND BLOCK not a physical one. You need to tap into you own psyche and figure out a way to improve your life. 

There are lots of ways to do this but here’s what i’d recommend:

• read self development books (Tony Robbins is a great place to start) 
• listen to audiobooks (i’d recommend the book ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle’)
• pay a lifestyle coach for help 
• listen to podcasts (i’d recommend London Real or Joe Rogan)  

#5 Follow Like Minded People 

I have a love/hate relationship with social media at times, i’m sure you can relate? 

I like being able to connect with my friends and see what’s going on other peoples lives, BUT then I dislike the viral videos, adverts, and fakeness that also comes with social media. It’s also easy to fall into the trap of comparing yourself to others and feeling insecure, because you feel your life sucks compared to everyone else’s!

That said I think if you follow the right people you can learn a lot and get plenty of inspiration, for example I love the Rock on Instagram (he’s so frickin cool! and does great things for people). You can also follow people like Joe Wicks and other fitness people to get inspiration. 

Whilst social media can be beneficial it can never replace the need for face-to-face human interaction, so make-sure to cultivate a friendship group or join a fitness class that brings out the best in you and gives you the valuable support you need to achieve your goals.  

#6 Take Consistent Action 

Lots of people will start January 2019 with a BANG! They’ll go to the gym, make some positive changes to their diet…BUT then by February they’ll be back to square one!

Being healthy and fit is a lifestyle that you have to continue to invest in, the saying…

“IF YOU DON’T USE IT YOU LOSE IT!”

Is very true. 

You can’t just workout for a month and then not workout for 2 weeks, and then start again, it needs to be consistent. You wouldn’t not brush your teeth for 2 weeks (I hope not anyway!) so why wouldn’t you workout for 2 weeks! Investing time in your health is one of (if not the best!) investment you can make, you’ve got to invest in it consistently. 

#7 Quite The BS!

I don’t have time!

I cant afford a personal trainer!

I’m too tired!

Keep using excuses like this and just see how far they get you. They wont do anything for you and you’ll end up feeling more tired, miserable, unfit, you’ll get poorly more often and won’t feel confident in your appearance. 

I’m not saying that it’s not difficult, it is! Especially when you’re an adult and you have so many responsibilities, kids to look after, work to attend, food shopping to do, etc, etc! BUT you’ve got to find the time, and resources and look after yourself. 

Stop the excuses and start looking for ways to make it happen. 

If you don’t have much time then make time, instead of watching Netflix at night…go to the gym! If you don’t have lots of money…do bodyweight workouts at home or go for a run (they don’t cost a penny!) and you can find lots of free information on youtube or my website (there’s over 600 FREE fitness and health articles on my site now and that continues to grow weekly!)

#8 Do the things you love 

Another reason why people fall short in achieving their health and fitness goals is that they don’t enjoy what they’re doing with exercise. Don’t get me wrong exercise is supposed to be tough no matter who you are…you have to push yourself otherwise your body doesn’t improve!

BUT that said pick activities that you enjoy, whether that’s walking, or running, swimming, or tennis, or pumping some iron in the gym… it doesn’t matter just do the things you love and the exercise that’s conducive towards your goals. 

The same can be said for food…

If you don’t like chicken salad…dont eat chicken salad. If your goal is weight loss all you need to do is focus on creating a calorie deficit, by eating less calories and moving more. Whether you eat chicken salad or McDonalds… as long as you are burning more calories than you are consuming you will lose weight!

Wishing you all the best of luck in 2019, if you need any extra help give me a shout 🙂 

Also, i’m going to be writing over 100 blogs this year and i’m looking for some topics to cover that will help you. If you have any questions or topics please let me know and I will cover them for you…

Thanks again,

Nick 🙂