Another year in the books. Another Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrating with family and friends. Another reminder of what we have or have not accomplished. Another 10 lbs gained……another year feeling too intimidated to go to the gym…or maybe another year of busting your butt and not seeing any results…..another year of not liking what you see in the mirror. Like most people I spent a lot of time during the last few months of the year thinking about what I have done, or haven’t done, and what I want to change. 2014 was no different. I started off 2014 with some goals in mind. Many I met…..some I didn’t.

Each day I see people struggling to succeed. They struggle to move forward, to take a leap of faith, to work hard, to sacrifice, to get out of their own way, to dream, to plan, to believe…….
It’s ok. You are human. We all fail. Some of us use failure as a stepping stone, a lesson learned, a new opportunity, a painful yet important piece of the puzzle toward success. And yet some of us use failure as another reason to stop……an excuse to quit.

Why do you give up? You don’t plan. You don’t follow through. You quit when it gets hard. You quit when it requires sacrifice. Period.

What will it take for you to finally succeed?

1 – Passion. What moves you? What drives you? What do you dream about? What do you like doing? Don’t brush this off. Your dreams, that nagging gut feeling, the thing that lights your soul on fire…..that is your passion. It’s what makes you…..YOU. Identify it. Then live it.

2 – Goals. How can you live your passion? Make your dreams come true? Set goals. Short term, long term, achievable, meaningful goals. Write them down on paper. Write them on your bathroom mirror. Post them in your car, on your phone, by your bed.

3 – Systems. Goals are USELESS, forgotten as soon as they are spoken, fleeting, meaningless…..without a plan, without a system.

So, you finally identify your passion. Maybe you even write down a goal or two…..it’s all worthless if you don’t have a plan of attack. A map. A system. Accountability.

Now be honest with yourself…..have you failed time and time again? Do you say you’re going to do something in January only to find that you’re beating yourself up a year later because, once again, you are no closer to meeting that goal?

Get over it. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Be a grown up. Take responsibility. If you didn’t meet a goal, 99% of the time it’s because YOU DIDN’T DO WHAT YOU NEEDED TO DO TO REACH THAT GOAL. So, you didn’t meet your goal? Well……did you follow the plan? Did you even have a plan? Time to go back to the drawing board. What worked? What didn’t? What do you need to do to finally make it happen? TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for yourself, your actions, your results…..your life.

Did you meet your goals? Congratulations!!! Really, good job. But now what? Meeting one goal is not a reason to stop. It’s not a reason to become complacent. It’s time to make new goals, new challenges, write down a new plan…..and work even harder than you did before.

In every gym I have worked, for some reason (and I’ve heard them all) October ALWAYS sees a downturn in attendance and it just gets worse as the end of the year draws to a close. Seems like there is something every weekend in the fall…..youth sports, fall break so people go on vacation, prepping for upcoming holidays, etc. People use that as a reason to take a break from training. They make the decision to put their health on hold because they are just “too busy”. Then November means Thanksgiving. December is Christmas. January is New Years and school starting back. February is Valentines and the weather is “too cold to workout”. March brings more school breaks, spring sports and St Patty’s day. April is spring break and Easter. May is the end of school activities. June and July are summer vacations. School starts back in August. September is Labor Day and fall sports kick back into full swing. Then…..we are right back into October where the year end slump begins. Each month brings a new reason to keep ourselves busy…..yet we get nothing done. And then we spend ANOTHER New Year’s wondering why we didn’t lose that 20 lbs, achieve that pull up, run that race, lift that weight…..and we can’t figure out why because we worked out pretty hard, we went to the gym when we could, we ate right when we had the time……

And that’s when your list of excuses for NOT succeeding becomes a mile long, you justify why your goals can’t become reality, and you give up because……what’s the point, right?

There is always a reason to not train, to not take care of ourselves, to not work on our goals. Every day, week, month is the time to discover the reasons TO train…..to find ways to make ourselves stronger……to put ourselves first….to eat the way our bodies were meant to eat….to MOVE the way our bodies were created to move.

I get being busy, tired and unmotivated. I get feeling like a failure. I get it. Trust me. I understand. I’m human. But we need to put ourselves first and make our health a priority. We need to keep each other accountable. We need to support each other and encourage each other. But we also need to take responsibility for ourselves. Stop placing blame on others for not meeting your goals. Stop seeking quick fixes to your fitness goals. Stop looking for short cuts. Stop looking for that miracle pill. Stop making it harder for yourself. Stop letting other people drag you down and take your eyes off your goals. If you get side tracked, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move on. So what you didn’t make your original goal/deadline. Admit where you messed up, identify your triggers, surround yourself with people who will support and encourage you, cast out those who drag you down, adjust your sails and get moving. Stop looking for the fast, cheap and easy way. Set your goals, develop a plan, follow that plan, invest in yourself…..and then….DO THE WORK!

The time will pass either way…..now make it count.