As the year rolls to a close and 2023 is just around the corner, it’s almost time to make those oft-neglected New Year’s resolutions so many of us fail to complete year after year.
Although well-intentioned, this annual cathartic cycle of pronouncements followed by inaction is part of the reason you can never really lose those extra pounds or get your gym habit to stick.
Luckily for you, I’ve spent the past decade helping people set goals that actually get achieved and I’m going to share the actions that separate those that achieve their New Years’ goals from those that don’t.
Keep reading to see how I put these steps in practice for myself last year and how you can follow them step by step for success in the year ahead.
Before you try and go through this process alone stop right now and book a free, no-sweat goal-setting session with one of our coaches by clicking here.
They’ll help you get clear on exactly what you want to achieve and the steps to get there without pushing you to sign up. (Most people don’t need to work with us after this call so we’re not trying to sell you anything you don’t need)
My own New Year’s Resolutions
I’ve been a gym owner for over 2 years and a trainer for over 10.
Opening a gym like any business requires an incredible amount of work and an endless cycle of constructive failure to succeed.
During the first year and a half of being in business, it was not uncommon for me to be working 12-14 hours days sometimes 6 days a week.
Because I was the only one who could do a lot of the things to make the business run I had my hand in everything.
As you can imagine this was rough on my health, relationship, and sanity.
So on January of last year, I made a commitment that I would work to scale back the number of hours I was working while improving my personal health and continuing to grow the business.
As someone who has helped hundreds of people set New Years’ Resolutions and goals over the years, I thought it would be a good way to test the methods, I’ve preached to clients year after year.
Here’s how it went….
In order for a goal to succeed it must be meaningful.
For example, losing 20 lbs isn’t a meaningful goal, but losing 20 lbs to lower blood pressure and live longer is a meaningful goal.
This is why the first step after picking a goal is to ask why is this goal important to you?
In my case, I was suffering from the number of hours I was working. I was missing workouts, losing sleep, eating poorly, and not enjoying my day-to-day.
As a result, my relationships and health were suffering.
The why behind reducing my hours was taking back my health and my life.
With a solid why in place I moved onto the second stage of goal setting, Making sure it passed the SMART Test.
(Insert smart goals graphic)
In my case, my goal passed the smart test because it was…
Specific – my goal was to work no more than 25 hours per week on gym-related stuff including clients
Measurable – I set an hourly work and revenue growth metric that I tracked weekly
Attainable – As the owner of the business I was able to delegate responsibilities and set my schedule
Realistic – Knowing I would still be working directly with clients I didn’t set a goal to reduce my work hours by something extreme like 90% but instead picked a 40% reduction to start.
Time Bound – I predicted it would take 4-5 months to put into practice the steps to reach my goal so I set a deadline of June 1st to reach my 25-hour-per-week work goal.
After running my goal through the SMART test I then did two very important things.
First, I wrote it down on my weekly planner so I would have to look at it daily for the rest of the year.
Second I told several important people in my life that I was going to be hitting this goal in June.
The first action kept the goal present, the second made it essential as I did not want to lose the respect of these people.
Next, I put a plan in place to achieve my goal by the deadline.
Knowing I would need to cut 15-20 hours form my work schedule each week to hit my June deadline I broke the process into manageable steps.
First I made a list of all the tasks I did in a given week that contributed to my total work hours.
Then I organized like tasks into groups.
From there I created monthly deadlines for handing off these tasks and and listed them on my calendar.
I was reverse engineering my success.
Then, I took steps that most people miss in goal setting.
I first created a way to track progress on my goal and second set a time each which to check in on this progress to make sure I was on track and conscious of this goal while making any decisions.
The metric I tracked each week was gym-related work hours in my week.
Then, every Sunday I would total up the hours and record them on a sheet side by side with my deadlines to hand off tasks.
I forced myself to look at this goal almost daily.
Now even with all this in place there were times I strayed and took on more work than I should but, two things brought me back on track.
First that I had a system to go back to,
And second that I had a coach who would cover this goal with me each week.
So how did it all turn out?
Lo and behold by June I was down to around 20 hours of work per week.
There were some weeks throughout the summer where this varied but on average I hit my goal by following the steps above.
And like any good goal this one led to the next.
Because I had opened my schedule I had more time to relax, recharge and plan.
And so my September I had used the extra time to align our move to expand the gym a year ahead of schedule.
This would never have been possible had I been grinding away at the same pace I was back in January.
Here’s the deal…
I share this not to tout my own accomplishment but to show how simple this process really is.
It’s also important to note that the process that freed up my time and grew my business is also the process that help’s our clients lose weight, get control of their health and feel confident again.
I’m a big believer that the work that goes into being fit and healthy sets a precedent for success in all areas of life.
People that are disciplined, goal-oriented, and hardworking tend to succeed at most things they do whether that’s getting to the gym or having a fulfilling relationship.
So as you begin to ponder your 2023 goals make sure to follow these steps to make sure your resolutions are more than just empty promises to yourself.
How to achieve any goal
1. Pick the outcome you want and write it down.
2. Ask yourself “why” this goal is important to you and your personal values.
3. Run your goal through the SMART test.
4. Tell people whose respect you crave that you will be accomplishing this goal by a specific date.
5. Write the goal down somewhere you will have to look at it daily.
6. Reverse engineer the outcome by creating a step-by-step plan to reach your goal.
7. Decide on a metric you will use to track progress towards this goal and set a weekly appointment to check in on it preferably with a coach.
For more help with your New Year’s Resolutions make sure to book your no-sweat strategy session with one of our master coaches by clicking here.
This free session will help you get 100% dialed in on your goal and give you a personalized version of the exact process listed above that’s tailored to your goal.
We do this for at no charge because we believe that education like this should be free.
If after we’ve taken you through the process and you’re interested in working with us then we’re happy to share what that looks like but there is no sale and no pressure.
Happy Holidays and as always…
Keep moving!
– Brandon
