This is the time of the year when a great number of people make new years resolutions, a contract to themselves to make positive change in their lives.
I have a great deal of posts popping up on my Facebook feed and a number of them suggesting that this is a bad thing, that it is negative, setting yourself up to fail!!! I would like to put my two penneth in if I may and put a positive spin on it and hopefully help some of you to better succeed.
Some sources are saying why make a new year’s resolution, it’s just the start of another year, just another day, you can make these changes any day of the year, why put this pressure on yourself, by doing this and failing it will have a negative effect on your mental state!!!
In contrast to this negative standpoint I would like to put a positive spin on it. I believe that January the 1st gives you an ideal opportunity to make a positive change in your life, to contract yourself to become a better you; however behaviour change is a complex subject and to have the best chance of success you should endeavour to do it correctly utilising effective methodology. With behaviour change there are five recognised stages of change; pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance and termination, (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1983) the last stage, termination, is not recognised when exercise is the goal.
With this well recognised model it is important to establish where you are in regards to readiness to change and then when you have established that you are ready, ie. It is high in importance and also you are confident you can succeed (Rollnick & Miller 1991) then you look to prepare fully to enable this change in your lifestyle so that hurdles and challenges can be overcome. Once you have appropriately prepared, setting a date to make this change is important and then stick to that date.
There are a number of issues that hamper successfully maintaining this behaviour change:
People don’t prepare well enough
They don’t foresee some of the challenges along the journey
They set the bar a bit too high thus they find it very difficult to continue with this new change
Not everyone can go cold turkey when totally abstaining from something or commit to the ideal quantity and intensity of the new activity regime.
The question is do you need to go flat out with this new change, stop smoking all together, totally cut out bread and sugar, go to the gym 5 days a week. Cutting down progressively or building up your activity progressively could be the best plan of action for you and the recipe for success. What I would suggest if a more progressive plan is what you feel will work for you is that you should have a plan written down as to how this progression will work with milestone dates and try to meet these timelines. Look at why you want to make these changes, what is your motivation, focus on this. The research time and time again demonstrates that making this change with other likeminded people, pulling on peer group support, you are more likely to succeed, being with other motivated positive people with a similar goal to yourself will keep you motivated and more likely to succeed.
So now to the sales pitch; martial arts fits the above so well:
Its done with like-minded motivated people
Its progressive
It has depth to it, its not just exercise or exercise sake
You learn a new useful skill
You improve your self-confidence and self-efficacy
As you see success in this activity it gives you confidence to make other changes in your life
You are supported fully throughout the journey
You meet new people and gain new friends
You can do it as a family, bond, grow, progress together
And lastly and probably most importantly Its fun.