Have you made a New Year’s resolution this year?

Every year millions of people make resolutions yet almost 80% of us fail to achieve them. Most of us strive for unrealistic goals and ultimately set ourselves up for a failure. Here are 5 easy ways that can help you make those changes last:

1. Find other people who are making the same changes in their lifes. It is so much easier if you have other people around you who are trying to do the same thing. A support network really helps, but is even better when your network is built up of friends who know what you are going through!
2. What advice would you give to your friend if he or she would want to make this change? Pay attention: this is often the best advice you can give to yourself!
3. Make your changes in micro steps. If you decide to run 5 times a week, and you miss a couple of days, it might feel like a failure, which could lead to you giving up. Just start with something small and easy to achieve, for instance just decide to go for a half hour walk once a week. Give yourself time. Once you start enjoying that one walk a week, you might actually get excited about going for walks more often.
4. Celebrate your successes every day.
5. If you slip and break your diet, forget to exercise or have a secret cigarette, don’t despair! Learn from the setback: what situations made you slip? Can you avoid them next time? Don’t obsess over small setbacks – it won’t help you achieve your goal. Start fresh the next day. Don’t give up!
6. Have a close look at behaviour you want to change: How has it served you in the past? Trying to be more active? How has Not being active served you before? for instance: you had more time to watch your favourite show on the television, you had more time for work, you did not have to feel embarrassed around other people for being unfit, what is the benefit you got out of it? Think! Now, try and find an alternative. For instance, can you go for a walk during lunchtime? You might get back to the office with new ideas and being more productive, as the break might have given your brains a little rest. Could you go and exercise with other people who also haven’t done much exercise lately? You might make some new friends in the process and build a whole new support network of people who want the same change!

Make your resolution stick

After a couple of weeks, the changes you’ve made will become a habit and part of your routine, so don’t be discouraged if you’re still finding it hard after the first week. Stick to it and it will only get easier!

Do you want to become healthier, happier and fitter in 2014?

Let us help you!

Our Nordic Walking courses are very sociable and many participants become really good friends.  One of the beauties of the way in which we deliver our Nordic Walking programme is that you have a ready-made peer group.

Since the overwhelming majority of people who contact us have no previous experience of Nordic Walking, they will almost all attend a taster session, followed by a 4-week course in the same time slot. This means that everyone in your class for the first five weeks will be at exactly the same stage as you. These training classes are small (no more than 12) and we work hard to ensure that they are fun, friendly and inclusive, with people being paired up to undertake exercises and drills together.

By the time you are ready to graduate from the class and receive your Freedom card, the chances are you will all be friends for life. Voila: a ready made support group!