January’s almost at an end and for some, sticking to their New Year’s resolutions might not have gone as smoothly as they’d have hoped. If that’s you, don’t worry, making these lifestyle changes is much easier said than done. In this blog, Body Power ProTeam member Zack George talks about why his preference is to set achievable goals, rather than making typical resolutions…

Zack George: Why I set goals, not resolutions

After a month of Christmas festivities, food and family time the New Year comes around, which is accompanied with thousands of people across the UK setting New Year’s resolutions.

For me, I have never been a fan of certain New Year’s resolutions—but I am a big fan of goal setting.

Ever since I was 16 years’ old, I’ve had a goal board. I write down my short, mid and long-term goals that I want to achieve that year. Goal setting is so important in the process of achieving any ambition or dream, helping you to stay on track, focussed and motivated.

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Short-term goals are really important and provide the motivation needed to hit those longer-term aims. For example, one of my long-term goals was to become the UK’s Fittest Man and in turn qualify for the CrossFit Games. This is a process that took me seven years to actually achieve, so if I didn’t have any short-term goals along the way, it would have been very easy to lose motivation. Those short-term goals only have to be little wins that you can tick off—for me they were small competitions to increase my ranking within the UK.

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Now the reason I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions is because they tend to be very extreme and drastic changes that people suddenly make for the month of January. I’m not saying that all New Year’s resolutions are the same—some are very well thought out and have a timeline of achievement—but I would say a majority of people who set New Year’s resolutions, whether it’s Dry January, cutting out chocolate or sweets completely or going for a run every day, find it hard as it’s such an extreme shift in mentality, only to revert to their old habits come February 1st. It’s not a sustainable way of sticking to your long-term goals—it’s a temporary fix that is in most cases not enjoyable to do and tends to lead to a yo-yo effect.

So my advice for anyone who wants to achieve some goals this year and make some changes in their life is to write down some short, mid and long-term goals­—make them attainable with a realistic timeframe—then start chipping away at them.

Guest post by Zack George, professional CrossFit athlete and Body Power ProTeam member. Follow Zack on Instagram here!