I first have to apologize to everyone for being longer than usual between articles. Just before Christmas we had a death in our family and I needed to head home earlier (and stay longer) than I had planned for the holidays, add to that the recent storm and its been a tough few weeks up north. But, in any case, life goes on, as it must.

At the start of every new year people will naturally reflect on the past year and start thinking about the future. While the actual New Year’s day is just a day, like any other 24 hour period, it holds great symbolic status as a new beginning, a starting and/or finish line of sorts. In reality it’s just a calendar thing, but for many, it can be the perfect reason or excuse, to renew some old ambitions. Nothing like the jarring awareness of time passing to scare the shit out of us and help move your ass into action. Hence the infamous New Years resolution is born. I say infamous because it’s well known that people make all kinds of resolutions on Jan 1st that they very rarely follow through on. I recently read a report that 80% of all New Years resolutions have failed fail by February, meaning they last less than a month. Some of the most common are going back to school, quitting smoking, getting a better job and losing weight and exercising more. Now as a PT instructor I’m just going to focus here on the last two, but I think the whole process of attempting resolutions, especially how it influences success or failure, is fundamentally the same.

Now the simple fact people make a resolution to lose weight and exercise more tells me that they have at least some desire to improve their health. How much desire they have obviously varies from person to person and you may think that people who have the strongest desire to do so would have the least amount of trouble following through to losing weight and/or exercising more? However, in my experience this isn’t always the case. I have known many people that seem to have a very strong desire to lose weight, which is driven by a lot of anxiety from poor self-image, health issues, etc. But in many cases doesn’t seem to drive (long term) success. So what’s the disconnect here? First off I’m no physiologist, I’m just an old Jarhead who has had to solve problems at the dirt level all my adult life and as you could guess, as an enlisted leader the vast majority of these problems were people centered, or at least heavily people influenced. I dealt with a lot of overweight Marines and many others that had problems with the PFT over the years and to a certain extent I’ve dealt with the same issues with my international students and many civilians. So I speak here not from not with any real formal education on human behavior, just from long practical experience and first hand observation.

So, if you have a desire to lose weight and improve your health and fitness and decide the New Year is as a good place (or excuse) as any to start. The real question is how not to become part of the 80% who will fail by February? Yes, everyone and every situation is different but, IMO there are three basic things that if not seriously considered, will almost 100% guarantee failure, but on the other hand if they are worked out can go a long way toward success.

1) Set a clear goal. Not a dream, but a well defined GOAL. Like my old Gunny used to tell me; “If you don’t know where you want to go, your already there sports fan”. In other words, not where you want to be. You need to think it out and come up with a clear and realistic goal. Something like: Lose weight and get in great shape (forever) is just a dream, not a goal. A dream is too hazy, too ambiguous to really work toward. Dreams normally don’t have a date attached either, meaning no time line, no deadline. They’re just a nice fantasy, somewhere out there, to be achieved I guess someday? Yeah ok. To succeed you need a clear and well defined goal to work toward. Write it down, clearly see it in your mind. The timeline is important here also, IMO you need that pressure. You can’t make diamonds without pressure, nor will you reach goals with out some internal drivers, so a timeline is essential. What that goal is, is up to you. But just keep it real, at least at first. You can always ramp it up as you go forward, but setting something silly from the jump, can sabotage your efforts pretty quick. Baby steps people, especially if it’s been awhile since you’ll followed a serious fitness program. From your primary goal, set up shorter goals (steps) along the way. These also have to be clearly defined and have their own deadlines.

2) Develop a plan to reach that goal. This is important. Spend some time, do some research, get some help if you need it. Do what every it takes but, lay out a simple, direct, systematic and realistic plan to reach your goal. My book Corps Strength can help, as it’s helped many 1000’s of people, but if you have goals that are very specific and/or sports related, you need to get some specific guidance. Either from your own research, from others in the sport or even from a professional trainer. I have seen people obtain some great fitness and weight loss results when they engage a trainer. Not cheap, but for many people the best way to go. In any case don’t ever think these things just happen, the vast majority of time only thing that just happens, is failure.

3) Think about all this the right way. This one is the hardest. What is the right way? The right way is that you’re convinced that your goal is something that is both important to you, doable and you can see it clearly. You’re also confident (from the time and thought you put in) that your plan is well thought out and will succeed. With that accept the fact that you’re going to have good and bad days along the way, like everything else in life. However, have the confidence in yourself and your plan to allow you to gaff off the bad days and celebrate the good. Don’t let excuses creep into your head, they’re like a cancer once they take hold. When I was boxing, my trainer used to say that in a tough close fight, the fighter who was weaker mentally will start thinking about how to get out of the fight without looking that bad. His mind will be searching for excuses. He said you can almost see that guy “looking for a soft place to lay down”. Don’t let excuses creep in. If they do start to creep in, start thinking of excuses to succeed. With that don’t be afraid to revaluate your progress and make changes if needed. Adjusting your plan as needed is a good thing, but maintaining a clear vision of your goal as you do it, is a GREAT thing. So stop dreaming, set a goal, come up with a plan and get after it Dog, Quit fucking around, it’s 2018 already.

In any case good luck and God speed to everyone, what ever your goals are for 2018, I wish you all the best in the year to come. Till next month.

“Be safe Always, be Good when you can.”

Semper Fi

MGunz