It's that time when you realise how quickly the year has passed and wonder how you arrived a week from the end of it without even noticing! New year is when we take stock of our achievements over the last 12 months and decide what to focus on over the coming 12 months.
How did you fufil the goals you set yourself at the start of the year? Did you even set any?
How did you grow, learn or improve? If so how?
What value did you add to the lives of others?
What challenges did you face and how did you rise to meet them?
What are you proud of, what have you done well what could you have done better?
All valid questions and ones you should ask frequently not just as new year approaches.
Why Though?
Goal or intention setting isn't everyones thing, however there is something to be said about getting clear on what you want out of life for the next 12 months (all things started out as an idea right?) and writing them down.
The very process of doing this is alchemy. It encourages your brain to figure out how to make it happen, if it's important to you and you are prepared to do the leg work. And the beauty of goal setting isn't the goal but the journey they take you on. The right goals encourage you to grow into them, you may not always hit them, but the person you become along the way is nearly always an improvement on the one who started. As a complusive list maker, I wrote a list of things I wanted to do, be and see this year at the start of 2017, some more specific than others. I've crossed a few off, amended some but always had a sense of where I wanted to go. As such my experiences have been richer for having them written down and following though, especially when it comes to my health and well being.
The fit list 2017
As you can expect amoung my lists are health and wellbeing goals. Training smarter not harder. Getting stronger, learning new skills (its good for the brain!) and importantly, staying healthy and having fun, has been the over arching approach this year and will continue to be in 2018.
2017 'fit list' in review
Still 90 seconds off a 5 min 'Karen' but 60 seconds improvement on 2016🥂
2kg off a 55kg snatch, 103% of the original goal achieved🎉
Muscle up....There's still time!
RX HSPU...meh, gotta leave myself something to do next year!
2018 is a work in progress, though I'm looking forward to building on this foundation, staying consistent in how I train as an athlete and growing as a coach.
The Gainz
Through this process of review, a few themes became apparent to me - fitness and otherwise over the last year.
Happiness is the bottom line. If it doesn't make you happy don't do it.
There's always something to be learned.
You always have a choice. Choose wisely.
People are great! Surround yourself with the right ones.
People often suck, but you can choose not to live in reaction to their behaviour.
If you're not failing you're really not trying.
Change tactics but never the goal.
Be braver.
If it doesn't challenge you it doesn't change you.
Set your own agenda
Here are a few suggestions to help you set yourself up to win at something next year.
Take some time out to ponder, ask questions, what you want to do or have in your life and work backwards from this idea, even if it seems vague or outlandish.
Consider all the things, small and large you need to do, change or be to achieve it.
Prioritise, if its important to you, you'll find a way to make it happen.
Set milestones, celebrate yourself along the way.
Get help and model what works. Find those who can guide, listen, challenge, support and mentor you.
Review, edit and be flexible in your approach.
Stay in your own lane - an oldie but a goodie.
Set deadlines.
Most of all enjoy the process.
So whatever your plans and wishes for the year ahead, write them down, review them often, plan and enjoy the process of getting to where you would like to be.
Set your own criteria for success, avoid letting anyone else to define what this should look like for you.
Whatever the outcome, if its the right goal/s you'll become a better human as you strive to achieve them ❤