MENTAL PLANNING IV: HARD COPY

Taken by PKSenagore December 2017. All rights reserved.

LAST WEEK OF DECEMBER Why suffer the pressure of composing a New Year Fitness Resolution list on January 1? Prepare a draft this week and then edit it in the first week of the year.  Not a mental list, but a HARD COPY, on paper. A huge barrier to accomplishing goals set at the start of the new calendar, in Earned Runs experience, is to not have invested enough time and effort in the process of building a list of exercise and health behavior to-do’s.
 
There’s no rule that work on resolutions must start on day #1 of the next 365 in 2018.  I like to mark the start date as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In 2018, it falls on January 15.  Holiday festivities can leave us exhausted and disorganized.  Resolution makers might be prevented from starting immediately on self-promised improvements by travel disruptions, resumption of full work, school, and family schedules, and general household cluttering that resulted from holiday activities.
 
It’s nearly impossible to begin new fitness and health regimens under these circumstances. Disappointment in not being able to start reversing previous bad habits leads to discouragement. Before we’ve even started.
 
Earned Runs suggests this step-by-step process, or something like it, to give yourself a chance at success in establishing, starting, and keeping your 2018 resolutions:
 
Last week of December 2017:
Buy or make a calendar, log, or diary for 2018 fitness/health tracking
DRAFT a list of resolutions that cover exercise, diet, and health goals on page 1
First week of January 2018 (1/1-7):
            Revise the list on page 2
            DRAFT a list of specific goals or activities that will help keep resolution on pages 3
            Organize and clean food storage and prep areas, build shopping list of needed items
            Organize and clean closets, gym bags that hold workout clothes
Second week of January 2018 (1/8-14):
            Finalize resolution list on page 4
            Finalize goal list on pages 5
Continue to organize, clean food storage and prep areas, by needed items
Continue to organize, clean closets, gym bags that hold workout clothes, buy new items
Construct a calendar for log book or January 15-March 31, even if rough dates must be used, revise at that date , fill out next quarter after that date.

• Fill in all activities, even if it seems unnecessary.
• Use symbols, colored markers as needed

January 15, 2018:
Start on new resolutions!
 
An Earned Runs example can be seen by clicking on this link.
 
The points to be made: about making resolutions:
a)  Don’t wait until January 1 to start working on resolutions
b)  Don’t feel you need to begin those resolutions on January 1;

​More advance planning and thought will possibly help you continue to successfully make the desired changes identified by the resolutions.

RUN HAPPY!