2020 was...Different! The good news is the New Year is near! This usually means you get a clean slate. 2020 is behind you. However, while 2021 is a New Year we have to be more specific about our approach if we want to actually hit our goals. With that said, we absolutely love the refresh January 1st offers. Goal setting is a significant part of our lives, but we’re not changed by New Year's Resolutions. Here's our 2021 wish for you: We want you to be the architect of your life this year with the right focus and guidance. What kind of changes do you want for your body? Your mind? Your relationships? How will you manage work-life balance? What kind of impact will you make in the lives of others this year? What personal, financial, emotional, intellectual, or physical goals do you have? Naturally, we hope feeling your best ever is part of your plan. What you choose to pursue this year should be congruent with your values. Resolutions are incomplete at best and insincere at worst. A half-hearted Facebook post declaration to improve 2021 rarely builds enough traction to power through January. How do you ACTUALLY stick to your New Year’s goals this year? If we’ve learned anything working with people in the last 10 years of RF, it’s that everyone is different. Furthermore, what works incredibly well for a while may inexplicably stop working. If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that there is immense power in your ability to adapt and change as needed to continue to get the result you desire. Here are a few approaches we’ve seen to work for most people most of the time. 1. Forget your WHY... what's your HOW?! Wait WHAT?! We get it... we need a "why". It is the underlying reasoning to keep us working either toward something or maintaining something. When we enter into a fitness program we tend to have our "why": Whatever you WHY is we want to celebrate that with you! HOWEVER..... you can have 100 "why's" but without a HOW, you'll never get to your destination no matter how much you desire the outcome. HOW are you going to lose the weight? HOW are you going to stay accountable and engaged through the process? HOW are you going to build strength, lean muscle and improve your cardiovascular health? HOW would your self-confidence change if you followed through on your goals? The WHY is the easy part. This coming year let’s get clear on your HOW and then take action! 2. Find Support This is one of our favorites! Something you have heard over and over but this is because is SO vital to our success. ⠀ We are all human. Whatever you health and fitness goal are ...to be honest, there are going to be a lot of times you won’t want to do the actions needed to move you forward. Finding support does not have to be complicated. A friend or family member that shares a similar goal. Maybe it is an online community or physical fitness community like Renegade Fitness. Knowing you have to check in with someone creeps into every decision you make. Who is holding you accountable? Do you have a friend you can text back and forth with? Do you have a significant other going through this with you? What about your son or daughter? Do you have a coach who you can communicate with - both when you are crushing it and when you are struggling? If you do have this person (or people)...are you using them to your advantage? Is there an accountability system in place? If you don't have this person...we are here. Reach out at any time! 3. Invest In Your Fitness Investing in your health, your financial education, a skill set, or happiness is one of the best investments that will pay you back 10 fold. You'll never regret doing it. We can say from personal experience we've had buyers remorse when it came to buying products that we really didn't need or didn't improve our life or happiness in some way. A car, furniture, tech, etc. You get the idea. But... We've NEVER regretted or had buyers remorse in investing in ourselves. Our health and fitness Our education Our financial education Our mental health Each one of those was time, money, effort that was well spent and we walked away from feeling like we had the better end of the deal. Investing in yourself by joining an appointment based training facility like Renegade Fitness creates more accountability. This leads to consistency and results. Compared to other options like paying to simply rent access to gym equipment or buying some home gym equipment with no real direction or focus. 4. Stop Comparing Yourself To Others When you are training is any group setting you have to keep in mind this is a collection of individuals with their own goals, their own backstory and everyone is at their own point in their fitness journey. The key to your own results is to frankly mind your own business. Work through things at your own pace. You have to again keep in mind the spectrum of your fitness journey, which hopefully never ends! Those around you can always be used as motivation or inspiration. But there should be no comparing yourself to someone else in a “better vs worse” manner. Just because someone can lift more weights than you or is more athletic than you does NOT make you any less of a person. You have to remember you are good enough and everyone has been either at a starting point with their own fitness, or working towards that next level. Everyone is there to work on improving themselves and that is a communal effort. It is done together, which should hopefully inspire and pump up everyone to do there best. The key to your success is to keep showing up and to keep trying. Even those at the top of their game continue to train and improve. 5. Progress > Perfection Whatever your goal is, the path to get there is likely not going to be linear. There are going to be a lot of ups and a lot of downs. Progress will show up in different ways, they key is to stop stopping. You will have to be flexible with your methods - as 2020 has shown most of us - but don't lose sight of your goal every time you see a shiny object. Keep going even if you have to pivot. 6. Follow A Program That Is Challenging And Sustainable Your program needs to jive with your life. This applies to both your workouts and nutrition. There should be parts of any program that you find challenging. Honestly at times you may not like certain aspects that much. Those are the parts the push us to new accomplishments. However, if your entire program is like that your flame is going to fizzle out quickly and you going to find yourself stopping over and over. Yes you have to challenge your body to get change, but your body also needs to be able to execute and deliver. To feel accomplished. Not always be faltering and guessing. It doesn’t always need to be fancy or max intensity effort/focus. That can be hard to keep up with. When its TOO much. Find a balance. Strength, cardio, and some recovery. Don’t forget to recover and fill your cup in other areas: sleep, food and things that fuel your soul. Your body likes that too! In conclusion: make your resolutions.... But have a plan behind them. Have your HOW behind your WHY. Tell others about your goals and keep it in the conversation. Keep that accountability close to you. Aim to progress. Aim for small victories. And the most important: ease into it! Whether it is food, fitness, family or financials, you need to bite off small chunks. Once you have that mastered, add a new level or element. As always, we are here for you! We stood strong through 2020 and we will continue that strength with a promise of a New Year! Chris and Jen
