**Update: Here are the winners of our 6 DietBet entries: Me: Christy Cloer (Facebook), @alishabowling (Instagram), and April Sherlock (Twitter). Chris: Chelsi Byrnes (Facebook), @joshmagill (Instagram), and Carrie Sagel Burns (Twitter). We replied to your posts with the info on how to claim your free entry, so go check them right now! 😉 You have 24 hours to reply. Congratulations!
Every New Year?s Eve, Chris and I gather up our friends and family for a little resolutions party. It is without a doubt one of my favorite days of the entire year. Together, we hang out, set off fireworks, and laugh about the crazy adventures over the last year. Right before the New Year hits, we each write out individual resolutions on paper lanterns and release them into the sky. There is something so powerful about declaring your resolutions out loud to those closest to you. These kinds of promises, as opposed to silent promises, give us an added layer of accountability that we all need…including me!!
2015 has absolutely flown by, and I really can’t believe it’s that time of year again when at least 45% of us make those New Year?s Resolutions to lose weight, or save money, or get out of debt, or go back to school, or cross off that bucket list item…and on and on. Why is it, then, that on December 31st?364 short days later?only 8% of resolution makers are successful? Why do we have a hard time achieving any goal, no matter when we begin? Why is it so hard to do what we know we need to do? What quenched that burning fire we felt on day 1 of this ?fresh start,? and how can we reignite it and be successful goal achievers? It might take some trial and error to find your fire, but go for it?you?re so worth it!
Here are my six solutions for reigniting, and then keeping your goal-achieving fire burning brightly?with some motivational quotes thrown in for some extra kindling: 😉
1. Have a heart-to-heart conversation with yourself and ask?and answer?the hard questions: Why do I want to achieve this goal? How will my life be better by achieving it? If this is a repeat goal, why did I fall (because we never fail!) the last time? What will I do differently this time?
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. ~Unknown
The best goal has a deeper motivation?that burning fire you feel within: to get a better job, to be able to play with your kids without feeling like you?re going to die, to retire at a certain age, etc. And while a goal to fit into that pair of jeans might get you started, it?s probably not a long-term motivator. Find that ?burning fire? purpose and you?re good to go!
Purpose is the most powerful motivator in the world. ~Gandhi
2.? Prioritize:? If your calendar and to-do list don?t match up with your goal, you?ve got a problem.
You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage…to say ?no? to other things. And the way to do that is by having a bigger ?YES? burning inside. ~ Stephen Covey
Yes, you need to take care of life and the people in your life, but if your to-do list is full of too many low-priority ?other? things, you?ve lost your bigger, burning YES! Carefully prioritize your life and make sure those YESs are front and center.
3.? Replace fear with courage: The fear of failure is a huge fear we all have to deal with when committing to a goal, and the hardest part of reaching that goal is often convincing ourselves we can change even though we?re afraid! One of the easiest ways to find the courage amongst your fears is to make and keep one small Promise to yourself. Success ignites even more courage!
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all. ~Disney?s “The Princess Diaries”
4.? Celebrate every single success, no matter how small: Set up your own reward system?it works for kids, why wouldn?t it work for you?! Make your rewards something tangible, motivating, and goal-related, and remember that each tiny success makes that fire burn even hotter, so celebrate!
People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. ~Tony Robbins
5.? Be realistic:
- Achieving this goal will definitely make your life better, but don?t make the mistake of thinking it will make life ?perfect.? If you do, you?re setting yourself up for a big fall.
- Be prepared to fall, and when you do, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and confess, reassess, and recommit to your goal. Remember: Falling is not failing!
- Get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable. Feeling comfortable is definitely a fire extinguisher!
Life is not meant to be lived in your comfort zone. ~Laurel Day
6.? Some other ways to keep that fire burning:
- Work on one goal at a time and make sure it?s a SMART Goal.
- If you don?t know where to start, do some research, ask others, and become a budding expert. For a weight loss goal, check out our Carb Cycling program?it works!
- Just begin. Focus on one small thing you can do today to move closer to your goal. Get on that treadmill for just 5 minutes, deposit $5 in a savings account, or look over your resume. One small thing.
- Prepare for and take care of small bumps in the road before they become huge roadblocks to your success.
Guys, I?ve got an amazing way for you to get a great start on that 2016 transformation goal, and it starts January 4th. Chris and I are hosting another?DietBet game??Get Lean in 2016 with Heidi & Chris Powell??and we?d love to have you on our Get Lean Team! It?s simple: Bet $30, lose 4% of your body weight in 30 days, and split the pot (which is growing every day, BTW!). What an awesome way to invest in yourself in more ways than one. 😉 Who?s in? Get all the info?here! And to give you a jump start on your 2016 transformation goals, I’m giving away three entries to our DietBet game! Here’s how to enter:
- Leave a comment below and tell me about one of your New Year’s Resolutions. And to make it really real, tell me one promise you’re going to make to yourself to help you achieve this goal!
- Make sure you’re following me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and then like this post on any of my channels. You can even share it if you feel so inclined. 😉
- You have until midnight, Sunday, January 3rd, to enter, and one winner will be randomly chosen from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and announced here on Monday, January 4th.
And remember, finding your fire and keeping it burning brightly is all up to you?no one can do it for you. You got this! 🙂
Xoxo,
Heidi
1,283 Responses
This year is my 15th wedding anniversary & my last birthday in my 30’s! I want to & will drop the unnecessary weight & tone up a bit. I will be using the extreme transformation book! I will enter my 40’s in 2017 in the best shape of my life! Would love to do the diet bet to prove to myself I can do it!!
My goal is to lose 50 pounds before my birthday! It’s the end of June so totally achievable! I am going to be going to the gym 6 days a week! I am actually at the gym now and my friend told me about this. I can’t afford to join the bet without a spot, praying for a miracle on finances right now. But regardless I am dedicated and this new year I am not going to stop like I have. No more excuses just reality. Too many medical issues to stay this way. Have a blessed year!
My goal for the year 2016 is really more of a theme rather than a resolution as I hope to carry this out through 2016 and beyond. My theme is quite simply MAKE BETTER CHOICES which I feel applies to all facets of my life. looking back on this past year, a large series of small choices that I made (to eat this, to buy that, to settle for less) left me in a position that is not much better than where I was beginning of 2015. Needless to say, I am thankful for my life, my home, my job, etc. However, I have always considered myself to be a shark, they can’t move backward only forward and I need to prove that to myself. So this year, I am going to make better choices. In terms of my health it is my long term goal to make a HUGE dent in my 150lb weight loss goal by making sure that I set aside one day of each week to complete my meal prep and atleast one hour of everyday for some form of activity. But also to recognize those “small choices” that led to my demise this past year and to make better ones.
My goal is to breathe. I’d like to be happier and healthier in 2016. I have about 20-25 lbs to lose. Our son, Travis (26), was killed in a motorcycle accident 11/1/15. I am struggling to get back on track and keep moving forward.
What do I hope to achieve during the new year? I am wanting to be more organized. Several things factor into that, even my weight loss. For example, I need to be focused on meals and how I plot out my time during the day. I leave so much to chance and spur of the moment decisions, leaving me feeling more stressed out than I should be. If I can focus on planning out small things starting off during the day, I can hope to get more out it :).
Heidi,
Every year I make the same New Years resolution to loose weight, I use excuses like I am too busy to eat healthy or work out. I look back on last year and I realize that I have spent a lot of time on my iPad where I could be planning my meals or exercising. I did start in November to make a change and lost 13 pounds over the holidays, (it should have been more, but progress not perfection!)
My New Years resolution is to make myself a priority and make time to plan meals, eat healthier and exercise more!
Thank you, for inspiring me to be a better version of myself!
Lisa
I am going to get rid of the 3 evil W’s in my diet–white sugar, white flour, and white potatoes. I did this last fall (and surprisingly, I fell off the bandwagon over the holidays, lol!!). But does it ever work! You feel so much better getting back to whole foods. My goal for 2016 in this area is to help my family also get rid of the 3 evil W’s. Thank you for your blog, Heidi. It is so upbeat, so positive, such a “can-do” attitude. For me, I can do all things through Christ my Saviour Who gives me the strength I need for everyday life and its challenges. Here’s to 2016!!
I’m ready to be healthier for my kids. I also want to recognize the woman in the mirror that stares back at me. I believe that it is possible to have the healthy, in shape body that I see in my head. I just need help getting back on track. This is my year!!
My goal is to learn to focus on being healthy & not “dieting.” I’ve been over weight for 20 years & have tried so many different diets & none have ever worked. This causes me to feel like a failure & I medicate with food. Thanks for all you & Chris do!
My plan for this year is becoming a better version of myself. I am getting committed to make healthier meals for myself and my daughter. I will be more active and keep the activity consistent as time passes. I want life long positive changes in my life. Losing weight and getting healthy both physically and emotionally is my 2016 goal.