Getting it done...Tortoise Style

At the beginning of every year, or at least almost every year, one of the most popular things people do is make a commitment to get in shape. The highest percentage of people who make New Year's resolutions make them regarding their health, fitness and/or weight. Gyms like LA Fitness, EoS, Planet Fitness and others get an overwhelming increase of business in January.

Usually, by February, those people going to the gym start to notice that equipment is more available. The wait times are shorter. It's less crowded. Less noisy. This trend continues as the crowd tapers off to what is more or less the norm for that business for the rest of the year.

Why does this happen? Are people really that prone to failure? Are they lazy? Was it just for show? There has to be a reason why this phenomenon happens year after year. It's not just in one area of the country. It happens everywhere, it seems. It is so common that it has become predictable. Big-box gyms all know how this works...so much so that they build it into their business plans.

The problem, as I see it, is not that people are lazy or non-committal or anything like that. The problem is a psychological one. After working in the corporate world, in IT, for nearly 30 years now, one thing that employees are tasked with every year or quarter or month is to create goals. A popular goal-setting methodology is called "S.M.A.R.T." This stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound.

While the typical New Year's resolution to "get in shape" or "lose weight" or "exercise more" pretty much violates every single one of these five keys, I want to focus on just one for now. The one right in the middle. Attainable. Sure, "get in shape" is not particularly specific. It certainly can't be measured. I mean, what does "in shape" look like? There is no time period and the only one anybody could argue could have some merit is whether or not it is relevant.

I will leave you to ponder those things on your own. For now, I want to focus on the fact that people start on January 1st making a "promise" to completely change their entire life. Overnight, they are going to commit to 5-6 hours of training, hitting the gym 4-5 days per week, cutting out carbs, eating more fruits and vegetables, no more soft drinks, no more alcohol, no more donuts or other sweets. In other words, within 24 hours, they are going to change a huge portion of their life and do a complete 180 degree turn from things they have been doing for years, if not decades.

Does that sound particularly "attainable" to you? It doesn't to me. That's just way too much to commit to all at once. It's the whole "boil the ocean" issue. With most people, if you're facing a challenge that is so huge that you realize (even if only subconsciously) that you will never reach that goal, the normal response is to quit. I mean, why fight a battle you just can't win?

Instead, if you are looking to begin a journey into better health and fitness, even if you don't have anything super specific in mind or don't have a time frame or any of that, at least set a goal you can hit. Something small, but winnable. A friend of mine used to say, "Set the bar low enough that you can at least trip over it." That may sound a bit cynical, but it can work. There is a huge psychological difference between setting a gigantic goal that you will fail at vs. setting a small goal that you can have a victory with.

Small victories can be powerful. Even a 1% change to the positive puts you in a better place than where you were. Do another 1% change and you're actually more than 2% better. So, if you set a goal, even if it's so small and seemingly insignificant that you feel like you can't not hit it, if it gets you even the tiniest bit closer to a better life, it's a good goal.

Let's use soft-drinks as an example. I don't know how often you have soft-drinks, but it seems fair to say that many people will have the equivalent of about three to four 12oz. cans of soda per day. They have a Coke with lunch, maybe grab a can from the vending machine in the afternoon and then another one or two with dinner that night. That doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

For a person in that situation, how hard would it be to just cut out the second soda with dinner? We're not going to say "No more soda...EVER!" Then we're back to boiling the ocean. Just cut out one serving of soda. Still too much? What if you set an even smaller goal? How about picking two days per week to not have that second soda at dinner? Isn't that still better than continuing to have four servings a day, every day? Sure it is! It's a small enough goal that it doesn't cause you to feel like your entire life is changing, but it gives you a sense of victory.

Once that becomes the norm, you can just raise the bar a tiny bit. Maybe next you do three days per week of not having that second soda at dinner. Eventually, you are only doing one serving with dinner every day. You just cut out seven cans of soda per week. It may have taken some time, but you did it and didn't have to feel like you were cutting off your right arm to do it.

You can see how that process continues to build and, over time, these small improvements add up and keep moving you in a positive direction. As long as you continue to move in a positive direction, you will end up seeing positive results.

What if you purposely parked further away from your office or the mall so you had to walk a little further? What if, a certain number of days per week, you took the stairs instead of the elevator? What if you actually listened to your Apple Watch when it says you need to stand? What if you take a longer route around the office to get from your desk to the bathroom or the cafeteria? What if, while you're getting ready in the morning, you perform one bodyweight squat?

Set one or two of these small goals, hit them, relish the victory, then raise the bar just a little bit more. Next thing you know, you will be squatting your own body weight for three sets of five! Who would have ever thought it possible?

So, don't set your goal so high that you know before you start that you are going to fail. Instead, set the bar to the biggest goal that you can't fail. Do that repeatedly and you will find that your life will continuously improve.