Back to Basics —Three Months til the New Year

It’s that time of year again…we’re starting to look at the calendars and jive up our goals with what we got accomplished. Some of us tell ourselves we still have three months of the year left and whip out the pen and paper. Some start making hellaciously long lists of what they plan to accomplish and others throw in the towel. They prepare to coast the last three months and think this coming year will be the year I finally get it all done.

Let’s tackle both ways of thinking and make a plan that works no matter where in the year you are or what you actually want to accomplish.   

As mentioned earlier we create these huge lists, these all or nothing plans; wild plans where we’re throwing everything away, turning our schedule on its head, creating a routine that doesn’t necessarily fit our lifestyle in the name of getting things done, spending big money to prep for the idea of doing something rather than just getting started.  We try it, struggle in the foreignness of it all and find ourselves in the same place we started. 

We are immediately disenfranchised with our own idea and go down the negative self talk rabbit hole like a kid on a slip n’ slide; ready for fun but slightly beat up by the end and ready to cash it in.  That’s the resolution course we all seem to repeat year after year.

OR we start with the negative self talk rabbit hole, go way down to the depths and decide that it’s probably better to just stow all the hopes and dreams til next year when we might be able to get ourselves motivated to complete something. We throw away three perfectly good months of effort and coast towards nothing. Holding on by a thread we aren’t improving nor are we gaining traction on anything. It’s a little depressing and puts a lot of pressure on January to hold some super power it never really contains.

We need a revolution instead of a resolution.  We need to turn away from old habits.  We need to aggressively go after something new.  We need to put our efforts into something that matters to us; a revolution!  Whether that’s a hobby, a business, a side hustle, our family, our friends, our community, nutrition, fitness, mindset… whatever it is the resolution hasn’t worked in the past.  We wouldn’t still be trying to get 2004’s resolution crossed off the list if we were successfully following our same old patterns.

With that, a revolution doesn’t mean that everything you are doing is failing.  What it does mean is pick something to revolutionize in your life first.  

Next, we need to stop making everything so complicated.  There, I said it, 99% of the time we are to blame for failing in our own commitments.  It’s not because we don’t want it badly enough but because we made it so complicated we can’t figure out our own plan to keep it going.  

We need to get back to basics.  We need basic nutrition, basic workouts, basic relationships, basic business, basic routines, basic systems in place…  basic, basic, basic.  

Somehow that word has gotten a bad connotation but the truth is there is nothing wrong with basic.  Simplicity wins over complicated every time.  

So often we find some hair-brained get rich/skinny/brilliant/perfect plan presented to us.  It sounds too good to be true and honestly,  it is.  It usually starts with throwing out all your ____.  Get rid of _____  so you won’t ____!!  Stop speaking or listening to these people and only surround yourself with those people…and so on and so on.  Throw out the clothes, the food, the lists, the books… throw it all out and pay big bucks for this new, new, new!

Is that really what you want?  Do you really want to throw away all your chips and cookies and candy so you can be healthy?  Or do you want a plan that allows you to indulge and the ability to stay on track the majority of the time?  Do you want to workout for three hours four days a week, doing all the cardio and exercises you hate?  Or do you want to block out 20-30 mins 5 or 6 days a week with a program you actually look forward to?  Do you want to chain yourself to your laptop for 12 hours at a time doing all the necessary work, feeling overwhelmed and doing a half-hearted job? Or do you want to create a schedule that allows for a couple hours of work to a nice ratio of family time, rest and hobbies?

We find ourselves stuck and unhappy because somehow when we were planning to do the simple work but along the way we convinced ourselves this hair brained idea was better.  It’s so complex it must be better.  More steps means more results, right?  

Wrong!

Nothing but real work gets real results. Nothing but actual rest rejuvenates you to keep going. Nothing but what you will consistently do will bring honest change.  And the easiest way to make that happen is to keep it simple.

You don’t have to do it all at once.  You don’t need a complete overhaul in your life to be happy, healthy, successful, loved, valued or achieve your dreams. 

Keep it simple!  Keep it basic!

Here’s some simple tricks to help in a few different areas of life:

Nutrition

-commit to drinking ½ your body weight in ounces of water daily and drink 12-20 oz to start each day.  

-eat a serving of veggies at every meal 

-eat protien 30-50g at each meal

-fiber rich foods are your friend and should be consumed to help your body’s natural detoxing systems

-track your eating along with your emotions; if you see a correlation you can start making different decisions

Fitness

-commit to moving your body for 20-30 mins everyday; a walk, yoga, get a program, join a gym , lift weights, ect…

-pick something (push-ups, squats, planks, etc..) one move you can do anywhere, anytime and do it everyday.  For example if you picked push-ups everyday do 10 push-ups of 5 varieties

-stretch

-get some sunshine on your skin

Relationships

-set healthy boundaries

-communicate how you feel, what you think 

-make expectations clear

-set a reoccuring date for you and your spouse to talk about how things are going

Personal Development

-spend 10 mins daily pouring into yourself with a book, podcast, blog, music; something that rejuvenates your mind and lifts your spirits

-find a hobby; breath life into an old hobby or find something you’ve wanted to try and block out some time to work on that weekly

-pick an aspect of your business or home life you’d like to improve, find an expert or someone you admire and ask about their systems or learn by listening to podcasts or informational youtube videos on the topic

-create a realistic schedule of when you’re going to work towards goals. If you only have 15 mins two days a week for a particular item then use it. A combined 30 mins of work is more than none. Once the ball gets rolling often you’ll find more time to commit.

These are just surface scratching suggestions but when you decide to implement a simple system for just one area and you see improvement made it starts touching other areas of life and improving them too.  Here’s an easy example, lots of people want to meal prep but it seems overwhelming to make a weeks worth of meals in one stretch. How about starting with making 3 breakfasts? This will impact your morning by freeing up time, feeding you well and no decision making first thing. When you see that the prep you did is easing the stress of the morning you’ll want to do this more. Then add in making a few lunches for the week too. Maybe you find that you’re eating healthier, feeling better, less stressed about what to grab when the “lunch bell rings.” You don’t have to make all or nothing plans. Remember to account for real life, the uncontrollable will happen but being a little better prepared even makes the chaos seem more manageable. It has to be simple if you’re going to stick with it.

Get back to basics.  The journey can be long but the benchmarks along the way are worth it especially when you know every day you are one simple step closer than you were the day before.  

Get back to basics, keep it simple and welcome to the revolution!