3 Reasons To Start Your New Year's Fitness Resolutions Now

It’s better to start your New Year’s fitness resolutions now rather than in the New Year.

2017 has been a rough year and 2018 is just around the corner to offer us the promise of a new start. You’re probably already starting to brainstorm what you want to improve on next year. However, as we’ve seen time and time again each year, we make resolutions to start at the beginning of the year only to forget them within 2-3 months and go back to old habits. This routine pattern was verified by a research study conducted by Statistic Brain Research Institute found the depressing realization that over 42.2% of people say they fail to achieve their New Year’s resolutions every year. And just from this year alone, the study found that only 9.2% of people thought they succeeded in fulfilling the resolutions they place.

Why is it so hard to complete our resolutions? A huge part of this is because we rely on January 1 as a reset button. We’ve come to rely on the date to serve as a reminder of a fresh start. This does a disservice to us because we rely on the date to serve as our starting point versus starting when we are actually ready. The thing that we always forget is we can start fresh at any time. It’s just a matter of determining when we feel we are ready.

If you’re already thinking about resolutions now, why wait until the New Year to start them? If you’re already ready, as I mentioned above, you’re already more likely to succeed in pursuing your goals now rather than wait until the next month. Not convinced? We’ll tell you the three reasons why you should start your New Year’s resolutions now.

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1. You’ll lose motivation if you don’t start now. You are already thinking about getting in shape now, so what’s stopping you? Wanting to start fresh on New Year’s Day? You’re giving into the ultimate peak form of procrastination. Procrastination can do more harm than good when it comes to New Year’s resolutions. Waiting until New Year’s Day to start tackling your goals only delays the challenges that you’ll probably encounter trying to get to where you want to be. The other downside to procrastinating on starting is that delaying the start of your journey will eventually cause you to lose motivation. We oftentimes delay our fitness goals because the holidays are here. We have parties, get-togethers with the family, and work, so it’s easy to push back our starting point to the New Year. However, postponing until the New Year works against you. Why? Once things die down, you won’t be riding the constant energy that kept you going throughout the season. While your energy is high, take the time to tackle tiny steps towards your fitness goals. This will lead to developing new habits. You’ll thank yourself later.
2. Getting a head start now creates the habits you’ll need going into the New Year. The majority of us focus on reinvention going into the New Year. However, we generally try to tackle everything at once, which further demotivates us. Starting on one small goal that will allow you to build the foundation to succeeding at your resolutions. That’s why now is the time to start working towards creating new habits with smaller steps. It is said that it takes 21 days to create a habit, though other studies have said that it can take more than two months to establish a habit. That’s why we recommend pick the most important resolution on your mind like, for getting example, getting in shape. Focus on one habit you need to adopt to get closer to that goal. For example, maybe walking x amount of steps per day. Add more steps each week and you’ll surprise yourself by how much you are walking by New Year’s Day. By January, you’ll have a new habit that will get you one step closer to your overall fitness goal.
3. If you start now, you won’t get swept up in the societal expectations that come with the New Year. We all know that everyone of us has a New Year’s resolution. It’s a social phenomenon at this point. This makes it very easy to get pressured into taking on resolutions that are expected of you. This takes away from what you actually want to do. Starting now allows you to focus on the resolutions that align with what you want before New Year’s madness kicks in. It allows you to make your goals about you. How does this apply to fitness? January 1 is when we start asking around to see who wants to join us at as a gym buddy. However, sometimes the hype can get drag you into doing activities that you don’t want to do. Starting now allows you to focus on the exercises that you are most interested in.

When it comes down to it, you will start when you want to start.

Ultimately, the decision for when you start tackling your New Year’s fitness goals will happen when you are ready. However, you can start now. You don’t need to wait for the beginning of the year to reinvent yourself. The first step is thinking about how you want to change. The second step is shifting your mindset and getting up to tackle the tiny steps to reaching your goals.

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