JANUARY IS DONE and dusted and right around now is when we see many people start to drift away from their New Year goals and aspirations.

A lot of these goals are health and fitness related and having worked in commercial gyms for years I have seen this trend repeat itself time and time again.

Suddenly the busy January gym floor goes back to normality, there aren’t as many joggers pounding the pavements and the initial enthusiasm appears to have waned.

There are lots of reasons for this — boredom kicks in, a lack of accountability, not knowing what to do, or purely just having little to no enjoyment with your new regime.

Let’s be honest, it can be a struggle so if you have fallen a little off the beaten track don’t worry or get yourself down over it. We all experience a dip in form at some point.

So this week I’m going to give you some tips, advice and assistance to help map out a sustainable plan to allow you to stick to your goals in 2018.

Plan and pencil it in

Put your goals into your diary the same way you schedule your work commitments. I usually sit down every Sunday evening and pencil in everything I want to get through for the week ahead.

I am a big believer in writing down your goals for the week or even a day ahead and I like to use daily reminders to keep me on track in getting after those targets.

I have talked about using a journal and logging your daily progress or even having a visualisation board to put all your goals on show for the year as another useful way of helping you out.

Log your weekly goals and every day write down what went right and what could have gone better. Remember the goal here should be to get 1 per cent better each day, you don’t need to be perfect every single day.

Make yourself accountable

At least once a week pencil in a time where you will do a certain activity with someone else who is chasing the same goals as you.

If it’s health or fitness related partner up with a friend and train together, sign up to a fitness class or even go work with a personal trainer for a while.

Having someone there to show up to is going to help you continue to show up especially when you are going through those testing days.

A small win every day

Forget the bigger picture and the ‘end result.’ I always like to work off the mantra that ‘success is a journey, not a destination — and the doing is often more important than the outcome.’

I am a big fan of small wins, habits and achievements. All these small wins over time can lead to big changes in the long run.

Get better each day, but you don’t have to achieve perfection.

It could be something as simple and easy as taking the stairs over the lift, getting outside for a walk on your lunch or even aiming to make sure that you start your day with a healthy breakfast.

Weigh it up

We all go through testing times. As of right now we might be struggling to stick with our New Year’s resolution — that’s perfectly normal.

We might not be moving as well as we were compared to the first week of January, and that’s normal too. My best advice here is to measure how far you have come on and look back to where and when you first started. Compare where you are now compared to that first day.

Re-assessing your progress every 4-6 weeks is something I like to do with myself and my clients, and this could include a before and after photo, a bodyfat measurement or even a bench mark workout.

I guarantee if you do look back on those six weeks you will have lots of wins in there which in turn will help you to ignite that fire again and get back on track to hit your goals.

Reward yourself

If you are going to work hard on those new goals, then eventually rewarding yourself every now and then along the way is important.

Smashing a new goal, hitting a milestone or simply achieving something new what you thought was impossible all deserves a moment for you to reward yourself with.

Think about new training gear, a break away or a night out at the end of the week. If you have worked for it, earned it and made it happen, then you deserve to treat yourself to something you want.

David Last is a personal trainer based in Dublin. For more information, you can follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Or you can send him a direct message here.

You can also see some of his previous articles here.

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