How's The Resolution Going? 3 Ways To Start Making Progress

Now I'm sharing what I know with you fitness , nutrition and all the deeper stuff to help you discover your strongest body . Hello , hello , welcome back to another episode of your strongest body , betsy Foster . Here I'm still dealing with the head cold , so you're still getting some of that sound going on . I hope it isn't too disruptive to your listening pleasure .

I stumbled the other day on In the car that I drive . I always use my Bluetooth to listen to my phone , but sometimes I drive the other car where my Bluetooth is not connected and , out of laziness , I listen to the radio . I was listening to Delilah and I don't know if you remember Delilah . She's still out there .

She is still helping people with their love lives and her voice is very soothing . There's an element every time I go to a podcast that I think well , if I could go just off topic and pull a Delilah and have a caller , I could walk you through your fitness and nutrition woes .

Usually , when I have a cold , she does not ever sound like she has a cold , but there's something in my brain that makes me think of Delilah , and I just heard her the other day . Thanks for bearing with me with this cold . I don't know that I have any life updates , so we can just pop on in to the topic of the episode .

This episode is going to come out during the first full week of February , and this seems like as good a time as any to ask you how your resolution is going Now . Whether you called it a resolution or a new year's goal , or maybe you had a number of these .

This tends to be the time around here or within the next few weeks where it feels like you have to take stock in whether or not you're making progress . I always spoke about this in speaking . I always spoke about this to new trainers when talking about selling personal training .

Personal training sales , surprisingly enough , aren't all that high in the month of January , but come February and March there is an increased sense of urgency and an awareness around the fact that it's hard to do it on your own and you might need help as we see this drop off in success , probably because the novelty of the resolution wore off and because maybe

we've asked too much of ourselves . What we're going to do today is look at three questions we can ask ourselves in order to start making progress or restart the progress or keep the progress growing . Let's say you are still having success . Let's make sure we can continue to have success .

If January and the start of February has not proven to be as fruitful for your goal as you had planned , this is an opportunity to shake it off and continue moving forward . We're going to ask ourselves these three questions and then troubleshoot from there .

I promise you that these questions can really yield some insights that are going to allow you to start Making measurable progress , making the kind of progress you can see . So let's get into it . Number one what can you remove from your goal ?

So this is one of the number one things that I speak to clients about when it comes to struggling with success in whatever habit , change or goal they're working on . What can we remove from this to make it more doable ?

Sometimes what makes something more doable is to take out sort of like competing goals , so sometimes you might be focusing on too many things at one time . What can we take out ? That sort of like fighting each other ? Maybe it is that you're trying to make time for three different things and you only have time for one thing .

What's something that we can remove ? Maybe taking out layers to the goal ? So maybe the goal included a lot of like , a lot of specifics . You need to work out for 30 minutes a day .

Your goal is going to be three resistance training workouts and two cardio workouts , and you're going to always finish with a stretch at the end and you're going to get your steps in and you have to have this , you know , goal of increasing your deadlift by February 28th . All of these things that are sort of like .

With each additional layer , we make it more difficult to accomplish that goal .

Now , this might fly in the face of the idea that we need smart goals and you may have heard that before , this idea that we need specific , measurable , attainable , realistic and timely goals , and I think that that , while it is really well meaning , sometimes putting all of those constraints on those goals make them harder to complete .

Can you see where getting 30 minutes of movement a day is easier to accomplish than three resistance training workouts and two cardio workouts and 15 minutes of stretching .

After Now , you may already be doing 30 minutes of movement a day and you might need to make your goal a little more challenging , but you might need to put some constraints on in order to make it more effective , because we do have to progressively overload what we're doing in order to facilitate change , and that can progressive overload can look different in a

lot of ways . It can mean more time , it can mean more weight , it can mean more reps , it can mean more intensity . There are a lot of , there's a lot of variety , but if we're not already doing that and if it is just about checking the boxes , we might need to make that goal A little bit looser so that it is easier to accomplish it each day .

Taking away some of those constraints allows you to get in flow so that six weeks from now , you can add an element to it . When we start with too much , we derail our progress .

When we start with too little , or little enough that we can , with 90% to 100% confidence , complete it , then we are more likely to develop a habit and be able to build on top of that .

So that leads to this , the last part of this question , whereas when we're talking about what can we remove from the goal , I want you to take an element out , take a component out or make it a little more challenging , and then ask yourself and I know I've mentioned it in this podcast before and I mentioned it in my coaches podcast before and I know I've

talked about it to my email list but we ask ourselves that confidence question . And the confidence question is if I and then fill in all the details of your goal , blah blah , blah , blah , blah , how confident am I that I can do that goal on a scale of one to 10 ?

And if your answer is anything less than nine or 10 , you need to figure out a way to change that goal in order to make it a nine or 10 . So that you are more likely to build the consistency and the kind of frequency that is going to facilitate change and facilitate habit building .

So if we go back to that example of the two to three resistance training days , two days of cardio and 15 minutes of stretching , I become more confident when I take out the amount of time for stretching and say and I want to make sure I stretch at the end , so the 15 minutes allows me the freedom where some days it might be 15 minutes and some days it

might be five .

And then when I say I want to get a variety of resistance and cardio training days in , but I take out the requirement of how many days per week each have to be so that when I go in one day and the machine I want is taken , or when I just don't feel up for a heavy resistance training day , I can still do cardio and I haven't thrown off my plan .

That increases that answer and increases the confidence level that I have in order to complete that goal . So that number one question if the resolution or the goal is falling to the wayside here in the first week full , first full week of February , you're going to ask yourself what can I remove from that goal ?

Don't feel worried that you won't accomplish it , because if you're not making progress with this right now , it doesn't matter . Let's get to a place where we can start making progress and then we can increase that progress as we go along . As I say , in all of these situations , we need to be in it for the long haul , and we don't .

You know , there are moments in life where we can speed up the process for an event or for a more immediate need , but that isn't going to be sustainable . This solution is going to help it be more sustainable . So , number two the question you're going to ask yourself is where can I get some added accountability ? Where can I get some added accountability ? Now ?

Our first thought , I think , sometimes goes to person . You know who is going to hold me accountable , and that is very helpful . Sometimes you can make a plan with a friend , even letting them know what your goal is , so that they can ask you about it . This can be with a partner .

In all of these cases , I think it's important to remember that if this is going to create a rift in a relationship , it's not worth it .

You can find accountability from external sources . You can also find accountability in the form of there are a million apps now where you can track things . There are a million like . People are always coming up with solutions for accountability . So it can be a person , it can be an app , it can be your calendar , it can be an appointment .

So let's say it's not going well on your own right now . Do you need to hire a coach ? Do you need the literal show up appointment . Do you need a program to follow ? Do you need an app where you can log your workouts ? And being able to log it helps it be , helps you hold you more accountable .

My remote clients who work with a program get these reminders from the app and I always say you can turn them off . There's a setting in there that you can turn off the reminders and where it says like you missed your workout .

But for some people that little nagging worry over the email is sometimes the one thing that pushes them over the edge of getting it done . You know my Apple Watch . I have a relationship with my Apple Watch in which I feel a little bit more too tied to completing these silly rings sometimes .

But it does create an accountability , a form of accountability for me , and if that is important then I'm going to keep doing it . If it's not , then I can ignore it . My clients also the remote clients who work with me one-on-one we do these check-ins and I'll be doing that in my new small group coaching program , creating these check-ins .

So even though you're doing it on your own , you have an appointment where you know you're going to see this person and sometimes that little switch in your head can really help maintain that accountability for the week , even if somebody isn't checking on you every single day . And it's a personal preference , you can decide what is best for you .

The other thing is a form of accountability can sometimes be timed progress measurements .

So whether or not and I don't necessarily just mean physical measurements of your body , but I mean measurements of strength Every two weeks I'm going to test this and I'm going to test my deadlift , or I'm going to test my pull-ups , or I'm going to sign up for a race in six weeks .

Sometimes having that marker of necessary progress or a moment where you want to see progress helps you stay consistent in the intervening times and when we keep them pretty close together , we increase the possibility that we're going to stick to the plan . So where can you get added accountability ? You may have some accountability now .

If it's not working , it might mean that there's some additional accountability that you need , and accountability can come in a lot of forms . And lastly , and one of the most important ones , is asking yourself what can I do today to make progress ? So , as silly as it sounds , we really are . We live one day at a time . We can plan the best for the future .

We can . We can think and anticipate what will come ahead of us and in truth , we are just taking it one day at a time . And when you think about it one day at a time , you keep yourself sometimes from from putting too much stock in future use ability to reach that goal .

We always think , no matter who we are , that the version of us that is going to wake up tomorrow is going to be infinitely different or infinitely better at X , y or Z . The version of me , who is always going to wake up tomorrow , is going to be very organized at home .

They are going to have a , an incredibly organized closet and a schedule for laundry and the pantry is going to be immaculate . That is who is waking up tomorrow . Who woke up today ?

The person with a pile of clothes all over my living room I mean all over my bedroom that I have still not put in the washing machine , and a very disorganized closet and in my own . You know , as I think about this for myself , I think about how , like , what am I gonna do today to work on that ? What am I gonna do today ?

Because tomorrow me is gonna be great at it . I know Tomorrow me is gonna be totally different . But what am I gonna do today ? Because , honestly , tomorrow me is not gonna be any better . If I don't do something today , tomorrow me is not gonna be wildly different . Maybe five years from now me is gonna be wildly different .

But that's only if I'm able to begin to operationalize all the things that make me that different person later . And and when we think about the future too much and aren't focused on today , we can . We can convince ourselves that we'll start tomorrow . We're very good at that .

We are human beings who are good at delaying pain and and seeking instant gratification , and so if it's gonna be hard , I can wait till tomorrow . And and it is easier than when the smallest hiccup comes up , for you to want to do it tomorrow because you couldn't get it perfectly today .

So , while we can have that perfect vision of what the goal looks like and the operationalization of that goal looks like , we also have to get realistic about what we can do today .

And so , if I can , if my plan was to work out today and I am not gonna be able to get to the gym because I have a flat tire and I'm gonna have to address that then what can I do today ? I can probably do a 10-minute workout at home or take a walk .

If I , if dinner didn't go exactly as planned and we have to order out from a certain place , am I going to opt to order something that is a little more in line with what I was planning to do , or am I gonna say screw it , and tomorrow me will get back on task ? I'm gonna do what I can do today .

So , every day , with this , as you refresh and and re-establish how you're gonna approach this goal and you do all the things we talked about , the other thing that you're going to do is ask , each and every day , what can I do today to make progress ?

And that progress can just be not backsliding , that progress can just be not feeling like I have to start over and then pat yourself on the back and wake up tomorrow and do what you can tomorrow . It's so painfully simple that it's frustrating . It's so painfully simple that it is frustrating and it is why we get in our own way .

Anything with nutrition and fitness is basically it's just like it's wildly simple at its core and we can make it far more complex , but it's simple and we get in our own way , and we have done that for a long time . And so we've got to get out of our own way and we've got to do what we can do today .

And we have to realize that it's not our fault that it doesn't feel simple and it's not our , you know , like give yourself a break in this moment If you're stressed out that it hasn't gone well , you've got to give yourself a break and let's do what we can do today . Do what we can do today .

So let me go through those three questions one more time just to remind you , and then you can take them with you and do what you can do today .

If that resolution or goal or whatever you aimed for in the beginning of January has stalled , or you feel like you've fallen off , or you're simply not seeing as much progress as you'd like , you're going to ask yourself what can I remove from that goal ? What can I take away to make it more doable ?

You're going to ask yourself where can I get some added accountability ? Who can I get it from ? What can I get it from ? What do I ? What maybe , do I need to invest in order to raise the stakes a little bit for myself and create that sort of added accountability and , lastly , you're going to ask yourself what can I do today to make progress ?

You're going to leave future you for tomorrow and you're going to talk about present day you . What is the thing you can do ? Okay , I hope that's helpful . I want you to think it through . I want you to let me know if you have changed your goal . If you do run through these questions and you change something , I want to hear from you .

As always , I'm very grateful that you're listening . I don't know there's something . Sometimes , you know , the internet goes in waves and people go in waves too . Sometimes you've got attention to pay to things and sometimes you don't .

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I absolutely love getting to share that with you , getting to share my knowledge and experience . You can leave those ratings and reviews . On Apple , you can share the podcast . There's a cool text feature where you can just click share episode on your iPhone . Anything like that is so greatly appreciated . Also , it's appreciated that you're listening .

Thank you , as always . Go build your strongest body and I'll talk to you next time . Bye .