What’s different this time? | Nerd Fitness
Today is the day of the year full of hope and optimism.
This is great!
Whatever goals or resolutions you have set for yourself, I am happy for you!
We are all trying to improve, and even if things haven’t gone the way we wanted in the past, we hope this time will be different.
Musician Nick Cave describes hope as “heartbroken optimism,” and I think that’s wonderfully accurate. We all try to be different when change is so damn hard.
If you’re trying to build a new exercise habit or change the number on the scale this year, I’m grateful. Setting a goal for change is very commendable.
But to give ourselves the best chance of achieving our goal, we need to combine the goal with some self-reflection and self-awareness.
Here are TWO questions to ask yourself as we enter 2025…
Question 1: What is different this time?
I’m proud of you for starting over.
But what is different about this experiment?
If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.
The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.
If you choose the same goal or strategy that you have tried (unsuccessfully) in the past, the end result will be the same: another lost year asking, “Why can’t I get myself together?”
So think about what’s different this time!
Don’t just “go on an XYZ diet” or “give up sugar forever” or “train for a marathon again,” especially if you’ve tried these things before and couldn’t stick to them.
Something has to be different this time:
- Make fewer changes.
- Choose ONE goal and focus on it.
- Choose a different workout routine.
- Choose a different diet or nutritional change.
- Choose a different time of day to exercise.
- Recruit a friend to join you so you don’t do it alone.
- Do your new desired behavior useful or necessary.
Prove to yourself that you have learned something from your past attempts. Don’t let past failures go to waste – they showed you what doesn’t work for you.
Try something different this time!
Question 2: What are you afraid of?
You’re full of momentum right now, and that’s great.
But in three weeks life will happen and something will go wrong.
What was your tendency when this happened in the past?
We ask everyone NF coaching customer before they begin: “What are you most nervous about?”
This answer is known to you based on your previous attempts:
Will you get busy and decide to “take a break until things slow down”? Great! Now you know when that little voice in your head says this, you can prepare for it, plan to do something differently, and decide that you won’t do it have listening to that voice in your head.
Are you going to have a bad day and go completely off track? Great! Now you know that you can forgive yourself when you have a bad day, not look back angry or guilty, and get back on track.
Will you give up even though you really, really, really want to get through? Great! This happens to all of us when motivation wanes after a few weeks. Consider Adding an Odysseus Pact to protect yourself from your weaknesses or make a bet with a friend to hold you accountable.
NF coach Matt Myers was there recently Mental Golf Podcast with Josh Nichols – and at 24:30 into the episode, Matt pointed out something to Josh that surprised him:
“Before you started, you told me, ‘I know I’m going to come out of the gates HARD, but after about three weeks I’m going to burn out and disappear.’
And I said, ‘Thanks for letting me know,’ and I had all these alerts and warnings ready to get back to you repeatedly after about 21 days!”
Josh had the confidence to know what he would mess up in the future, he and Coach Matt planned it and overcame the hurdle together.
Since then, they’ve worked together for two months (and counting), and Josh has only missed a single day of check-in, and missing a day hasn’t caused Josh’s normal “all-or-nothing” behavior to kick in came!
This time it CAN be different
We all strive to change, and even if we are self-aware…
We often bite off more than we can chew:
Our goals and hopes often transcend the reality that we are fallible, busy, complicated people who lead unpredictable lives.
That’s okay!
If we are aware of these things, if we can try differently… then even if this is the case next If the attempt doesn’t work either, we can remove this strategy from the list of potentially successful paths and try again.
That’s all there is to life anyway: try, fail, adapt, restart.
-Steve
PS: If you don’t want to take this journey alone, I would be honored if you stopped by the NF coaching program.
Our trainers are great and we are happy to help you achieve your goals. We’ve had a ton of sign-ups over the last few days, which really excites me to be able to help so many new people.
