“New year, new me” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! No, unfortunately you are always going to be you, BUT don’t worry! With a lot of hard work, consistency, dedication and doing a lot of stuff when you really can’t be bothered, you can be a better you!
Apologies if this isn’t as motivating as you may of thought with all these New Years shenanigans, but what the hell does a date in a calendar have to do with how you should influence your life? If you change your habits you will meet success, and you can change habits any time of the year.
I will however humour you, and let you use the 1st of January as a starting point, have you arranged to go out and get incredibly drunk on New Year’s Eve? Well, you’ve already messed up! (Sounds like I don’t like fun at all!) chances are you’re a real person with real friends, especially if you already do CrossFit and one thing I know about crossfitters is that they like to party, nothing wrong with it, but do understand that on the first of January you’re not gonna feel like doing handstands and burpees… SO the New Year maybe starts on the fifth, just make sure that when you start YOU START!
1. LONG TERM GOALS
Setting short term goals are dangerous, you run a risk of maybe not hitting that PR or movement you wanted in a short space of time and that can be very de-motivating, especially when you have worked really hard. Long term goals are far better for not putting so much pressure on you AND nine times out of ten; you’ll hit your goal early (awesome!), anything from six months to a year! You’ll notice progress along the way and have far more focus!
2. THE OVERVIEW
Have a broad general goal for the entire year, the older I get the more I realise that a year isn’t a very long time. Say to yourself that this next year you want to become as strong as possible, you want to be able to do as many advanced gymnastics moves as possible or you want to learn as much about nutrition as you can. Open gym time is your time so you should have another focus alongside your CrossFit programming that is YOUR goal, if it’s personal to you it’ll be a lot more enjoyable and you’ll find yourself at the gym more often for “secret ninja training.”
3. SACRIFICE
Yes if you want the best from yourself it means early nights, early mornings, no bad food, no booze, no complaining and you’re gonna be sore! Nobody likes being the buzzkill but trust me;
‘All those “you’re no fun” comments don’t matter when someone says they wish they had your dedication/abs.’
4. TALK TO YOUR COACH
Tell your coach what your goals are, let them know what you’re interested in, nothing makes me happier when someone comes up to me ten minutes before a class asking to see a progression for something they want to be able to do! Seeing people with goals makes me happy, maybe I’m just weird but I have far more fun teaching someone when they are asking questions and want to know where an exercise leads to!
5. FOUNDATION COMES FIRST
If you’re told that you need to do three hundred billion push-ups before you can do ring dips just do the frigging push-ups, don’t keep hopping up to the rings endlessly failing, if you are at a certain stage just work hard and guess what it comes back to… LISTEN TO YOUR COACH!
6. LOOK AFTER YOURSELF BETTER
Let’s face it, another year is gone and you’re getting on a bit… Injuries are looming and if you’re training hard and not recovering correctly it’s only a matter of time! Eat healthy, sleep, get massaged, have ice baths, relax, have ‘you’ time, have sexy time and above all else get to know your body! If you feel like you need a break… You probably need a break. You have the whole year and the rest of your life to train, don’t destroy yourself in the name of a PR or better Fran time.
So my rant has come to an end, I’ll leave you with this thought:
7. YOUR NEW YEAR CAN START ANY TIME!
‘If you want something go and get it, wait for no man and let nothing get in your way, not even yourself.’