Don't Make These 3 New Year's Mistakes in 2023
The new year is here!! Happy 2023!
I hope you are as excited as I am and have your New Year's resolutions locked in and your motivation on HIGH. This is always one of my favorite times of year. It is a time to reassess where you are at and set your intentions for the year to come. It is a time of evaluation, growth, and sometimes a bit of reinvention. (Look at you grow and change, you beautiful butterfly!) I absolutely love so much about it.
One thing that I don't love though... Every year I see too many people start the year with the best intentions only to fall away from or completely forget about their January 1st plans by mid-February. This crushes me a bit inside. You have every bit of capability within you to make this the best year ever. The mid-February New Year's drop off doesn't happen because you are unable to achieve your goals. Instead, it often happens because of your approach. Specifically, you fall into one of three common traps:
#1 Doing too much too soon: The number one problem I find when it comes to approaching New Year's resolutions is that people take on too much too soon instead of adopting a mentality of "consistency over intensity." You clear out your refrigerator, buy the gym membership or exercise equipment, commit to working out for an hour a day (even though you haven't worked out consistently in months, years, or ever), and start blazing ahead! Within weeks, your initial motivation has faded and you revert to you default settings that don't involve this new goal. Simply put, life takes over. The goal that sounded perfect in your head is not fitting in with the reality of your life and all the commitments and obligations you already have in place. A better approach is this- rethink you goal. Strip it down to a level that, when you say it out loud, you think, "I could totally do that. No problem." For example, you can commit to working out for 15 minutes a day, 3 times per week instead of every day for an hour. If you end up able to do more on some days, great! But, commit to just that small amount. That way, when life happens (which it will), your new default is a 15-minute movement block and not "I don't have time for a 60-minute workout today. I will try again tomorrow." 15 minutes beats 0 minutes every time!
#2 Having a goal without a plan: The second mistake I see often is setting a goal without having a VERY specific plan on how you are going to achieve it. (A goal without a plan is just a wish). This plan should include when you are going to work on your goal (ex: every morning from 8:00am-8:30am), what physical items you need to make your goal happen, what mindset shifts you need to make to achieve this new goal, what barriers could get in your way, and how you will handle those barriers when they come up. Take some time today to sketch out a concrete plan and you will be putting yourself way ahead of the pack!
#3 Not having a support system in place: Having the support of an accountability coach (or a reliable friend/ family member) when it comes to achieving your goal exponentially increases your chances of success. This person can be a sounding board for your struggles, help you come up with creative solutions to problems that you are facing, cheer you on during your successes, and give you a kick in the butt when you need it!
It is my hope that, no matter what your goals are this year, I can be here to help. In order to do my best to support you, I will be providing lots of fitness, nutrition, motivation, and behavior change coaching content on all of my social media platforms (Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook- see links on this website to follow along) as well as through my 2023 newsletter series. This newsletter is THE FIRST place I will be announcing any great deals as well, so if you haven't already subscribed, send me a message at amykuphalfitness@gmail.com with the subject line "Add me to the list" and I will make sure you get included!
Have the most beautiful start to your year!
-Amy
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