Why your New Years Resolutions fail again and again.

You'll hear lots of talk over the next few days about 'New Years Resolutions', and to my mind, it seems that the people making such a big beal about setting NYR's seem to be the same people who are making the same resolution year after year... 

"This year, I'm going to lose weight & get fit" 

This will usually last for a couple of weeks before 'New Year, New You' has become Same Shit, Different day.

The reason for this is often because there's no plan on HOW to achieve it, or even thought behind WHY it is important. 

When making the decision to take action on your health & fitness, it can be helpful to approach it like you were planning a holiday.

For example, this coming July, i'll be going to Dubrovnik, Croatia. I can take a flight, go by bus & rail across europe, or drive. Each way of getting there has its own pro's and con's. (in terms of speed, cost, simplicity, comfort, safety, enjoyability [other?] ) .

If you want to lose weight, put a number or clothing size on it and thats your destination. You can achieve that weightloss through dieting, joining a gym, hiring a personal trainer or health and fitness consultant, taking up a sport, taking dangerous "diet pills", having painful and expensive surgery etc., each of which comes with its own set of pros and cons. 

Along the journey there will be setbacks, moments where your willpower fails you,  you just say "f*ck it!" and roll over in bed listening to the rain beating against the window instead of going to the gym, or where you cave in and have the delicious cake that someone brought into work. I like to think of these things as being like getting a puncture on the way to the airport; it's unfortunate, and it's certainly going to slow you down a bit, but it's not the end of the world, because you started out in plenty of time, so you change it and get on with the journey.

What absolutely mystifies me is that when it comes to new years resolutions, it seems like most people would rather slash the other 4 tyres, set fire to the car and roll in the gutter feeling sorry for themselves instead of just changing the f*cking tyre! If you don't know how to change the tyre, call someone who can help you change it. Someone like me, for example, can help you plan your journey, and teach you how to deal with a puncture in a way that doesn't involve setting fire to the car.