NEW YEARS RESOLUTION?

It’s that time of the year again when everyone is talking about the infamous ‘New Years Resolution’ and how 80% fail to stick to theirs by the time February comes around. Life-changing commitments are just hard to, well, commit to. Most people just can’t stay at it for six weeks. So, we’ve come to the conclusion that something must be wrong with the whole process. 

Every year I create a ‘New Years’ Resolution’ list that prioritizes my life and outlines my goals for the months to come. To be honest I usually tick off almost all of the things I wanted to achieve by the end of the year. But I’m never really satisfied and I think that’s because I put too much pressure and expectations on myself to do it all. Then once it’s done I feel a bit deflated. So what my partner and I have discussed to do this year is instead of having a ‘New Years Resolution’, we will have a ‘New Years Theme’. The theme can be specific but broad so you have room to shift around in the themes space, without feeling like you’re stuck within the guidelines you created or the expectations that come with setting a ‘New Years’ Resolution’. 

For example, one of your New Years’ themes could be to ‘eat better’. This is specific to eating better, but broad because ‘better’ could mean many different things. It could mean eating smaller portions, eating less packaged food or becoming a pescatarian [who knows?!]. Setting a theme instead of a resolution is so you can be kinder to yourself by celebrating the small wins and focusing on what you’ve achieved [rather than berating yourself if you step out of line]. 

My New Years’ theme is to ‘kick goals’. If I want to be more specific I can break this down further into career goals, personal goals and/or health goals. But the main theme is to ‘kick goals’, so whenever I do kick a ‘goal’ I can reward myself. This concept can be a bit scary for me as I like to have everything outlined very clearly and have defined goals that I can achieve, but the purpose of this is to ‘let-go’ so to speak, and try not to control everything. The important thing in life on any given day is to enjoy your life and live in the moment without reflecting too much on the past or worrying about the future. The truth is, we actually can’t control everything, only the way we perceive and respond to life. 

2020 is the year to put you first. If you are more of an organized type and want to take your New Years Theme a few steps further, then I suggest to break down the theme into achievable goals. If you have more than one ‘New Years Theme’, then do the same process for each of the ‘themes’. I’ll give one of my New Years Themes as an example below:

Theme: 'Kick Goals.'

Career:

• Scale my brand to X amount of customers by date…
• Collaborate with X brands by date...
• Stock my brand in X stores by date...
• Establish myself in a new full-time role by date…

Personal:

• Spend more time with my partner [x days per week]
• Set fun days, i.e. gallery, movies, hike, etc. [1x per month]
• Take 2x holidays away from home [once in March + once in August]
• Call/visit family members [every fortnight]

Health:

• Eat vegetables every day [grocery shopping 1x per week + food prepping]
• Do yoga + meditation 2x per week
• Work less / rest more [x hours per day]
• Continue to work out [4x per week; Tue, Thu, Sat, Sun and alternate exercises]
• Implement a skincare regime [1x per fortnight]

There is no single reason why most people fail to stick to their New Years’ Resolution. It’s a combination of factors and life just getting in the way. A big part of it is that many people take on too much, too fast, in the month of January [right after the holidays when you’ve been resting and indulging]. By jumping in 100% you are setting yourself up to fail. But by planning yourself and having your theme clearly written out will help you stick to your goals, develop strong positive habits and ease your stress, as you will find ways to squeeze a little more into your busy days without feeling crazy. Below are some tips that will help you phase into your new year, which will make you feel psyched to make 2020 your best year ever, as you know it will be attainable.

Tips:

• Celebrate the small wins. People tend to give up when there is delayed gratification. This is just human nature. But if you celebrate the tiny milestones you will release dopamine which will motivate you to continue, even when it gets tough.

• Have someone to motivate you when you’re feeling unmotivated. For example, this may be simply following a fitness influencer on social media who constantly is putting out motivational information. Another option is to share a New Years Theme with a friend, so you can set weekly dates which you both have to turn up to. You may need to create some rules so that if one of you doesn't turn up they miss out on something epic. 

• Focus on the bigger picture. There will be times when you don’t enjoy going to the gym and become impatient as you want to see results fast. Sometimes your friend who you share your theme with might feel the same. One of you needs to pull the other up. No one is going to do the work but you. There are no quick results, so you need to remind yourself that if you work consistently it will amount to a better you in 6 months. You need to keep it up.

• Don’t go from zero to 100%. Try by starting with the gym once a week for 4x weeks. Then increase to 2x per week for a few months. Then gradually up your quantity, as you need once your habit is engrained. Trust me, if you keep this up for 6 months you will become addicted to working out.

• Start now! Use the remaining days of the Holidays as a short training period. It’s only a small amount of time, but everything counts. Yes, you have time. No, there are no excuses. By starting now you will get a much deeper understanding of what you’re resolving to do.

• Look good / Feel good. Get yourself some nice activewear. This will make you feel amazing and motivated to get out and hit your fitness & health goals [if this is what your theme is]. You will thank yourself if you do this!

As a thank you gift for all the support you have shown EXIE since our launch in December, we are offering 20% off our range until January 3rd.

Enter ‘THANKYOU20’ at checkout. For Australian and International customers. We want you to start 2020 with all the support you can get. So thank you and enjoy your new sportswear! #TEAMEXIE.