Have you ever gone through the year and realized you haven’t achieved the steps towards your goals. And come New Year you find yourself making all the same promises to yourself for a successful year.

Here’s the reason why, and don’t worry I did the same years ago until I changed my mindset and habits.

Now before I start explaining lets talk about creating good habits.

Our daily life is made up of the habits we have created over time; your eating habits, exercise habits, sleep habits, downtime habits.
Lets take being over weight. This did not happen overnight, it took dedication, shopping for the wrong food, constant hours of eating, sitting still for long hours etc. its surprising when you think about it how doing so little took a lot of effort to make the overweight situation happen.

Now if we switch this energy over to now focusing on creating a healthy habit imagine your new lifestyle and how you’d feel.
This will not happen over night though, not on a week course or even a twelve week boot camp. Not saying you can’t lose some weight, however you’re not going to change your mindset, your yearly habit.

Changing your mindset and making new habits takes dedication and time. If you think about it, your current habits have been built up. If you’re 35 years old, that’s 35 years of training your mind and body to be what they are now.
You’ve be told that you are not bright, not athletic, that you’re too old to change. All horrid negativity that you heard and then told yourself, “that’s me, it’s true”. When its not! It is only who other people say you are.

Daily Routines can make or break your success
So now we understand about creating new habit and that it takes time, we set out on new years day full of promise creating our new habit, your goal was I want to become fitter, stronger.
For the first 3 months you go hard at it , full of energy and enthusiasm. Then you start thinking of summer on its way, you make plans, get excited about the warm weather.

Now the first 3 months, everything has been routine , your work, kids at school, you time and family time.

Then summer arrives and your normal routine goes out of the window. You get time off work, you spend family time together, kids go to bed late, your eating habits change.

After 6 weeks of the school summer holiday what was a hectic unplanned routine of do what you want activities becomes your new routine.

Your bad routine has become your normal routine again.

By September, the summer is finished and your old normal routine kicks back in, work hours go back to normal , kids back at school, outdoor activities change due to dark nights.

When you try to go back to your exercise routine, your muscles hurt again and it feels hard. You feel more tired because your sleep pattern has changed.

You become caught up in the seasons holidays which is now Halloween, bonfire night then yes! Christmas.

Can you see where this is leading, yes! That’s right. Straight back to New year promises and you start all over again.

You waste the 3-month period leading up to the end of the year telling yourself to start again next year and do better!
And the mindset work starts all over again.

People stop doing their activity because they simply get out of their routine and it seems so much easier to stop than to push through and live the life you truly want!

How can I have a successful year.
Simple steps to help you:

 Seek a coach, mentor. Someone that will make you accountable.
 Set a plan for the whole year and stick to it no matter what. Lets take fitness; twice a week you do a 45 minute workout.
 Seek motivation, make a vision board to remind yourself all year round what you wanted. Watch video, listen to positivity.
 Record your work. I personally have an instagram account that I post what I’ve done weekly, if I miss a post I know it’s a reminder to myself that I’ve slipped, not done anything.
 You could simply write a blog or write in a note book.
Once you have physical evidence of your new lifestyle it becomes empowering, you start to believe in the new version of yourself.

Make your years a constant new year promise feeling everyday. Then when everyone makes a new year resolution yours will simply be to continue to be the best version of yourself you can be because you are already living it.

Go out there and Become A better “YOU”

Much Respect

Sensei Darren Hunter