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Got a New Year’s resolution? Be ready to work for it
As Carson City residents prepare to welcome 2016, there is something to be said about the annual tradition of making New Year’s resolutions.
The practice can be traced back to ancient Babylon, where Babylonians would make promises to their gods to pay their debts and return borrowed objects at the start of every new year. The concept of making a new year resolution is now widely practiced today around the world.
Unfortunately, the world has a history of breaking New Year’s resolutions about as long as it does of making them.
But for those who intend to make good on their 2016 resolutions, local wellness professionals offer some tips on how do it — and do it right.
Starr Nixdorf, a certified aquatics fitness professional and director of Paradise Salon and Wellness Spa in Carson City, says that making good on a resolution requires responsible decision making.
“Get organized, get informed and get accountable,” she said. “An individual will make a New Year’s resolution and focus on something they won’t do, can’t do or hate to do.”
Instead, Nixdorf suggests following a formula of the three I’s. The first, she says, is establishing an intensity to determine one’s functional capacity.
“The first thing people need is intensity to be healthier,” said Nixdorf, who has taught fitness for 19 years and been a certified fitness professional since 2004.
A regimen, Nixdorf explains, also needs to be personalized. Individualism, she says, is the second of the three I’s.
“It needs to be something that is safe and won’t be harmful” to a person’s specific health and fitness needs, Nixdorf said. “People need to evaluate what they are doing right, too. Not everything we are doing is wrong.”
But the third “I,” Nixdorf acknowledges, is the key. “I want to do this,” she said.
Motivation and will power are the driving forces behind getting a person to do something, and to see it through, Nixdorf added.
For fitness instructor Jerry Vance, owner of The Sweat Shop in Carson City, the loss of motivation is a key reason why people — and, in particular, New Year’s resolution makers — tend to quit early.
“They set their goals too high and go into it too fast,” said the 44-year fitness professional. “They lose incentive.”
Vance, who has owned her business for the last 40 years, said many newcomers to her classes tend to bottom out and lose interest within six weeks of starting. She said people tend to expect to see results quickly, and that isn’t realistic.
“It isn’t going to be fast,” she said. “Getting yourself into shape is a slow process.”
Building endurance takes at least three weeks, Vance said, and building muscle takes at least six weeks. To reach optimum flexibility can take anywhere from six to twelve months, she added.
Vance recommends starting out small and gradually building up toward one’s goals. This can help avoid feeling overwhelmed, she said.
She also suggests getting together with others who share or support your goals, and who will help keep you motivated.
And don’t get discouraged, Vance says. “Today is one day and tomorrow’s the next. Each day is going to be different.”
Brad Paula of Wellbeing Functional Fitness in Carson City adds that having a plan is also an important part of keeping New Year’s resolutions.
“Goal setting should include the identification of a ‘grand goal’ accompanied with the intermediate steps and time frame(s) required to attain it,” he said.
Paula said key components to keeping a resolution include accountability, maintaining a schedule, tracking your progress and successes, keeping the journey interesting, and breaking the ‘grand goal’ into smaller and manageable steps.
Besides follow through, another important ingredient of the resolution formula is keeping it real. This is where Carson City therapist Kristopher Komarek, LCSW, typically sees his clients stumble.
“The difference between a patient seeking therapy and New Year’s resolutions is that the person seeking therapy is actually following through with their resolution,” Komarek said.
Where therapy clients run into problems with resolutions, he said, is distinguishing their hopes, dreams and wishes from their goals.
“We first often have to face our own fears and anxieties about them and ourselves in order to move them forward,” Komarek said. “And that is something that is often much more difficult to do than the actual pursuit of the goal.”
Self-acceptance is an integral part of being able to establish a realistic goal, Komarek added. This means accepting that each of us has always been “good enough,” and that there is nothing else a person needs to do to be “good enough.”
By removing that unrealistic demand on ourselves, our goals can become more attainable.
“Too many of us set unrealistic goals which also sets us up for failure,” he said. “The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Change is generally not easy for any of us and if it is dramatic change, then the stage is often set for failure and disappointment before the words are even spoken.”
Komarek advises taking small steps toward change, and this means setting small goals, too.
“Nothing improves our chances of success better than standing on success,” he said.