Resolutions, by the Inventor, the Humanitarian, the Warrior King

16 Aug Resolutions, by the Inventor, the Humanitarian, the Warrior King

What do Helen Keller, Thomas Edison and Robert The Bruce have in common? They all have, attributed to them, an oft-repeated quote or apocryphal story which I wish inspired more people to change the way they approach their New Year’s resolutions.

We in the health and fitness industry are inundated during early January with questions, enquires and a level of keenness unseen at any other time of the year. I love it. If it’s your job to help people achieve a goal, you simply cannot beat the collective willingness at this time to ‘wipe the slate clean’ and do better than before. The trouble is the first week of February, which is where most resolutions go to die. Part of my job is to help people not only get started, but maintain that ever elusive momentum which leads to sustainable results. Here’s a few thoughts on how to make your resolutions last a little longer this time.

Helen Keller said, “I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble”. Thomas Edison reportedly made one thousand unsuccessful attempts at inventing the lightbulb before his successful patent in 1879. When chided on his ‘failures’, he said simply “the lightbulb was an invention with one thousand steps”. Six hundred years earlier, Robert The Bruce, at his lowest ebb, was inspired to future victory by the travails of a spider he watched for hours, who simply would not give up until that web was finally woven – “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again”.

All three had the spirit of what I think is missing from many New Year’s resolutions. Firstly, keep them small and reasonable! The ‘all-or-nothing’ approach normally translates to ‘all-followed-very-quickly-by-nothing’. Why not pick something which you’ve got an honest, fighting chance of keeping going? And then build on that? Keller understood that ‘a win was a win’, and that stacking up small victories was the path to ‘great and noble’. Secondly, of course, it is natural to be full of enthusiasm at the start of any new thing. It’s expected that there’s a chance that enthusiasm will wane… but what to do at that point? Will you not bother again until the next time we see January the first? Or will you be like Edison and recognise that ‘failure’ isn’t actually a failure at all, but a necessary step on a path to your goal? As a coach, I help people anticipate when consistency is about to drop, or when motivation is about to wane. It’s much healthier and more productive to reframe these expected ‘dips’ or failures as part of the journey to where you want to be.

This isn’t an anti-New-Year’s Resolution piece. It’s more of a pro-New-Month’s Resolution piece. Make more resolutions! Monthly, weekly, even daily! Stay on it. It doesn’t matter how many times you feel the need to wipe the slate clean and ‘go again’. Keep chipping away at those practices that take you closer to your goals, tweak your approach, experiment, make the challenge more feasible and keep going.

Ultimately, making any sort of resolution can be the first step on the road to improvement in an area which needs it. In a similar way to setting appropriate goals, it’s useful to think about and address the behaviours that will get you to the desired outcome, rather than the outcome itself. It’s also a good idea to put a time-frame in place and/or a ‘next-step’ to follow on to. Following the lessons learned from the Humanitarian, the Inventor and the Warrior King might just make your New Year’s resolutions a little bit more successful this time around.

If you have a question or would like help achieving your goal, contact Ayo at: https://www.ayotrainingnutrition.com/contact/

Ayo Williams