When your New Year's resolutions go off the rails before mid-January

It happens but don't make these mistakes to get back on track.

[Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 18 seconds.]

In the past 8 days, I have received the following texts, emails, DMs and even a good old fashioned phone call on topics such as:

• “I was sick over the holidays into the 1st week of January so I haven’t been able to workout.”

• “I somehow threw out my back in my workout and now I can’t workout.”

• “My kid’s schedule got changed so my diet is out the window.”

• “Work has already taken over and the boundaries I promised to honor are gone.”

Does this sound like you?

You’re not alone. At Go Long, the importance of empathizing with your struggle is paramount. The challenges you face are common.

But the solution is not common because you likely have different constraints than your friends. That’s why you need a pragmatic approach on a plan that is going to fit into your life.

Something that gives you something to build momentum and confidence. You need optimism that you can get “back on track” with your goals whether it is:

• Starting that strength training program you know you need to do

• Learning better habits for the long-term around meal times when the crazy takes over

• Building those boundaries so you can invest in yourself

Here’s what NOT to do

Do not try to make up for the 1st week that you “missed” on your goal(s). This means:

• Going extra hard in the gym, whether it is more days in the gym or more intense workouts to compensate for the missed time

• Eat less than you normally would unless you are under the care of a registered dietician - your body needs food

• Place more stress on yourself for not being perfect because none of us are

Also don’t give up on your goals! Perhaps a recalibration is in order but we’ll get to that later.

Let’s talk about what you COULD do

When these situations happened with some of Go Long’s clients, here are some of the topics we discussed:

• What was the goal? Why was the goal set (the purpose)? How was the goal supposed to be achieved? Who was supposed to be involved to help you achieve the goal?

• What actually happened that led to things going awry? This isn’t meant to shame. If we talk about what happened, that’ll help in the next step.

• Do you need to recalibrate the goal? Now this is where things get real. They get hard. You might feel defeated, which will create a negative reinforcement cycle.

What if I told you that you shouldn’t feel defeated?

What if I actually told you that you should feel empowered?

Go Long is dating themselves with this GIF from Diff’rent Strokes.

Here’s why you should be optimistic

As mentioned above, you are not perfect. No one is. So there’s that.

But you now have an important piece of information. What DIDN’T work. That is likely more valuable if everything just fell into place. In life, most of us learn much more from our failures than our successes.

Take the win that you now have data that can help you figure out your next step(s). You can course correct and still work towards your goal. It may look different than you originally envisioned, but that’s ok!

Raise your hand if your life has gone exactly to plan? Yep.

In each of the above cases with clients, the plan wasn’t abandoned. On the contrary, each approach was strengthened. Let’s go through some of the solutions being discussed:

• Creating a daily accountability mechanism for the next 30 days to help in establishing a key boundary around stress management

• Discussing taking it easy in the gym after being sick with a focus on solid warm-up and cool-down periods (a great time to focus on technique!)

• Identifying triggers and journaling in real-time when those feelings surface to see if that changes the behavior pattern around eating

What about you?

Go Long is about partnering with you to find solutions that will work for your life. You don’t have to be alone on this journey. Let’s find an approach that is going to help you reach your goals while aligning with your life.

It’s your life.

Go the distance.

Go Long!