Scarty Cat! Ever notice your cats behavior when you expect them to be around? They avoid you like the plaque. However, when you dont want them around theyre right under your feet. When setting goals at New Years you have to be careful not to set yourself up for failure. This happens when your expectations are higher than your responsibilities in life allow. When I managed health clubs and gyms, it was amazing the attitude shift from December 31st to January 1st. People thought they would easily go from not exercising at all the working out five days a week. While noble as that may sound, your brain is laughing. Based on your recent past performance the brain can not conceive you going from nothing to everything. So it just laughs at you and says, Are you nuts? New Years Resolutions are broken because your expectations are way too high. Maybe not for the year, but in the short term they are unrealistic. You go out of the gate real fast, get sore, nothing works for a few weeks and them you run away from your goal like scared cat! You see this in health clubs. The same person who the night before has not exercised in a year, expects to twelve hours later signing a club membership to have the motivation to exercise five days a week. Who are you kidding? Not your brain thats for sure. It knows that is only wishful thinking. You have to be realistic. If a trainer says you should exercise three to five days a week, start out focusing on the three, not the five. Chances are if you focus on the three there is a good chance you may hit five. However, if you focus on five you may set yourself up for failure. A little reverse psychology goes along way. |
