By the time I finish writing this there will be just under a day and a half left in the year and decade. Crazy right?!
Usually I would write out a whole year review and lay out some goals for the New Year. I'm not going to do that this year. I'm just going to (somewhat) quickly list out some things highs and lows from the year and how I hope to improve upon them going forward.
It Was A Good Workout Year*- I put an asterisk because I only got about 60 lifting workouts in which isn't a lot. There were also 20 cardio workouts. The thing that really made it a really good workout year has been that I've basically averaged 2-3 jiu-jitsu classes per week since April. So throw in about another 100 or workouts from that.
It Was Not a Good Reading Year- I only made it through one whole book this year. It was a good book, Malcolm Gladwell's Talking To Strangers. I highly recommend it. I'd also like to explain that I didn't just spend the year totally not reading. I just didn't get through whole books and I read lots of blogs and articles. I swear I read. (Can you tell that this one bothers me a little?)
"Fail to plan...plan to fail."- this year I've really come to the realization (with clients and myself) that if you want to make any sort of change that there must be a plan in place. I've also realized that the more of the plan that can be made automatic the higher the likelihood of success.
The best part about this is that few extra minutes upfront before getting started ends up saving a ton of time and frustration in the long run. If you take anything away from this let it be to make a plan. A bad plan is better than no plan and a good plan will pay for itself plenty of times over. Which leads to the next one...Invest in Coaching- considering that I'm a coach this shouldn't have been a surprise but it was. I obviously know the value of good coaching when it comes to health and fitness but it extends to all areas.
I've been lucky enough to barter training sessions for private jiu-jitsu lessons. These private lessons have helped me progress probably 10x faster than I would be just taking regular classes.
Coaching has also helped me in business. The last few months I've been investing in business coaching. In literally one phone call my coach helped me figure out something that I had been struggling with for months.Time is the Most Valuable Commodity- I know this is cliché but it's literally the one thing you can never get back. Therefore, you should protect it. This means you should choose who and what you devote time to wisely. Is it worth it to pay someone to do something so you can do something else? It might just be.
These are just a few things that jumped out at me as I was thinking about the year that's been and the one to come. Hopefully this inspires you to take some time to think about how your year has gone and how you'd like the next one to go.
Last thing before I go. I just want to wish you all a happy New Year. I also wanted to say thank you for taking the time to read and reply to my thoughts. If you ever have any health and/or fitness questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Answering is the least I can do to repay the time and trust you've put into me.
