Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a fun and safe weekend.
I'm going to use this post to provide my thoughts on new years resolutions. Many people are against new years resolutions saying that they are a waste of time and that they never seem to work. However, I am not one of those people. I think any time you have an opportunity to make a positive change in your life you should give it a try. If passing into a new year gives you the opportunity to make a positive change, why not give it a shot? That being said, I do have some recommendations for what kind of goals/changes you should try to make. 1.
Be realistic
. Unfortunately a lot of people set goals that are unrealistic and a bit too lofty. As a result, they start out on the right track, but end up failing to achieve their goal. Unfortunately, this disappointment can lead to the person getting down on him/herself and often end up getting into even worse habits than had before they made the resolution. So think your goals through and make sure they're realistic. 2.
Don't try to make too many changes all at once
. Sometimes when people decide to make changes in their life, they try to change everything all at once. Unfortunately, this can end with very similar results to people that set unrealistic goals. Despite the goals being realistic, if they are are too many changes trying to be made at once, it can cause a person to become overwhelmed. This again can result in disappointment and falling back even further than they were before the resolutions we made. 3.
Think your resolutions through
. A lot of people will almost make resolutions at the new year just for the sake of making a resolution. That doesn't make much sense! Again, if entering a new year gives you a reason to make a resolution, I think that's great, but it doesn't mean the resolution(s) should not be thought out. Think you resolutions through to make sure that they're right for you. This should help you make your resolutions a reality. 4.
Make resolutions for YOU, not other people
. Over the years, I have seen a lot of people make resolutions based of recommendations or desires of friends or loved ones. Its great that your friends or loved have given you some ideas or recommendations (in most cases anyway), but people are very rarely successful with resolutions that they are doing for others and not themselves. That being said, make you base your resolutions off what YOU would like to change in your life. 5.
Write your resolutions down
. In life in general, I am a very big advocate of writing things down that you would like to get done. If you don't write them down, they are easily forgotten. Writing them down also validates your ideas and makes you much more likely to follow through with them. I have seen many people carry their ideas around with them on a piece of paper. This is an excellent idea and will help keep these goals/resolutions close to your thoughts. Now...I'm sure you're asking yourself, ok, what are Colin's resolutions for 2012??? And...Drum roll please...here they are: I have broken my goals up into 2 different categories: Coaching Goals 1. Help keep my clients healthy 2. Help my clients enjoy their training. A lot of coaches are very demanding and do not allow any adjustments in their clients' training. I am not one of those coaches! I will do my best to accommodate any requests my clients have to help make their training as enjoyable as possible. 3. Help my clients achieve their goals- most of them have already gotten back to me about their goals + race schedules for 2012 4. Continue to educate myself and find the latest and greatest coaching strategies so I can pass them on to my clients 5. Provide more videos and documentation for my clients- already made some big progress on this over the weekend. Will most likely be posting some swim videos soon 4. Improve my accounting system/billing system- I've already made a lot of progress with implementing a new system, but I'm still awaiting approval for the credit card processing system. Personal Triathlon Goals 1. Stay healthy. I was successful in achieving this goal in 2011 despite being hit my a car on my bike in 2010. I do think I am very good at listening to my body. I plan to continue this in 2012. 2. Have fun! I will admit that sometimes my training gets very serious and I forget to have fun out there. I'm going to be sure to keep this mind this year. This includes appreciating the amazing things I allow my body to do and appreciating everything it allows me to do. 3. Qualify for Kona. I've got 2 cracks at it. Ironman St. George on May 5th or the Ironman US Championship in NYC on August 11th. 4. Sub 4:30 Half Ironman. I think I'm only going to have 1 attempt at this, the Patriot Half Iron on June 16th. However, if I qualify for Kona, I will probably be adding another half to my schedule. 5. Swim 450,000 yards. That would be about 50,000 more than I swam this year, but it should be very doable due to length of my season this year. 6. Bike more 1/3 of the miles I drive this year. The last years I have driven around 17,000 miles. As a result, it should equate to around 5,500 to 6,000 miles. 7. Run more than 1,000 miles. I did more than that in 2011 and I do not feel I need to increase my run volume by much in 2012. 8. Do a sub 17 minute 5K. I did a 17:18 last year. My best shot and most likely only shot will be on the same course in March at the New England Mutlisport Expo in Cambridge, MA. 9. Increase my bike FTP (functional threshold power) to 300+. Its down a bit now, but it is has been at around 290. I'm going to keep over the 300 hump this year. I wish everyone all the best in 2012! Good luck with achieving all our dreams and more. I will leave you with a great inspirational video: