How NOT to achieve your goals for 2012

New Year’s Resolutions rarely ever come to fruition. They’re often just dreams which we’d like but never get around to doing, or even attempting. I didn’t even achieve mine last year.

Most of the time New Years Resolutions are just too hard so we give up.

This is usually because the goal we set is massive and we think it impossible…

…which is why when I now set a goal I will give myself a sequence of actions that I can do which will get me closer to my goal without getting overwhelmed.

It looks something like this:

1. Goal
2. Smaller goals or milestones to reach on the lead up to the goal.
3. Action steps to achieve each milestone.

For instance, one of my goals for 2012 is to get over Chronic Fatigue.

This is not very specific though so let’s break it down to smaller goals.

After testing it has been found that I have:

1. Heavy metal toxicity
2. Stage 3 Adrenal fatigue
3. Leaky gut syndrome caused by some fungal infection (don’t know how it got there and haven’t been tested for exactly what it is yet)
4. Various hormone levels are out of the ‘normal’ range

Now I have 4 smaller goals or milestones. Here’s my action steps.

• For summer of this year I am on a prescribed protocol including supplementation and lifestyle changes to remove the heavy metal toxicity and boost my adrenal function. By doing this I should be able to sort out number 1 and potentially drop to stage 2 or 1 adrenal fatigue.
• By autumn I’ll be switching to a new protocol to address the leaky gut syndrome / fungal infection. While doing this it’ll also aid the adrenal fatigue to improve.
• By winter I’m hoping to be done addressing the digestive issues and can focus on restoring normal hormonal function.
• That leaves me with spring and the first month of summer to sort out any other things that may come up.

To assist the supplementation and lifestyle changes, I’m on a strict diet, and diets suck.

They’re hard to stick to, even for the most disciplined of people. I’m pretty good with sticking to a diet but can’t be good all the time.

So my plan is to have No Junk Food in January and adhere to my diet 95% of the time. I have left some leeway for eating out, but am just choosing where I eat out in advance.

Thankfully there are a bunch of takeaway Mexican restaurants in Perth now which can give me food I’m allowed in various locations. This makes my life much easier as I’m still busy and running around a lot.

After No Junk January, I’m gonna ease up a little and do 6 days of a perfect diet and one day to eat whatever I like.

I’ll still eat mostly to the diet on that day, but I wanna eat pizza and icecream occasionally. And if I do it all on the one day I can get it in and out of my system fast, and get on with being healthy again.

This is my plan and I may still change it to be even stricter, but we’ll see how the year progresses.

I’m also recording all my workouts for the year to make sure I’m consistent. My aim is 4 per week.

So if you’re planning on dropping 5 kilos (for example) here’s what it may look like for you.

Goal – Lose 5kgs
Smaller Goal – lose 1kg per month for 5 months
Action Steps:

Exercise

• Do 3 Cardio Strength Training sessions each week at Perth Fitness Bootcamps 45mins.
• Make time to do 3 interval Cardio training sessions each week 20mins.
• If I have any extra time do a fast walk for 30-60 minutes.

Nutrition

• Do No Junk January with no junk food or alcohol.
• After that do 6 days of a perfect diet and one day to eat whatever I like.

My perfect diet looks like:

• Scrambled eggs with veg or a fruit protein smoothie for breakfast.
• Leftovers for lunch without other carbs like bread rice or pasta.
• Dinner which I’ll prepare on the weekend and freeze or make enough for 4-5 meals. All meals have a palm sized serve of protein with plenty of vegetables.
• If I’m hungry after my meals I’ll snack on vegetable sticks, low fat dairy, fruit, nuts and protein shakes to fill me up.

Now, your focus need not be on the goal of ‘Lose 5 kilos’ but on adhering to the Action Steps that you have laid out for you.

If you complied 100% to your Action Steps you would surely succeed! It may take some tweaking along the way, as most things do, and you may find you need to be more disciplined to reach your goal.

You may find you reach your goal in 3 months!

Just make sure you set your goals for the New Year in this way so you can actually achieve them.

I want you to do it.

Your friends want you to do it.

You just need to believe and commit to doing it.

Now Go And Do It!