Yvonne Feresu

Tag: Resolutions

  • My 2020 challenge: promises to myself

    My 2020 challenge: promises to myself

    New year, new beginnings…or so the saying goes, but the reality is sometimes it’s really just the same old shit, different calendar year. We go into this “goals and resolutions” frenzy, which I totally subscribe to but half of us don’t see them through anyways. I promise myself all sorts of things every year, and for the past two years, it has been promise after promise. This year I wanted to do things differently, I made myself one promise. One. That’s all I have to keep. Well alright, it’s more like one and a half but I still think that’s a manageable number. Who can’t keep one and a half promise? 

    Resolutions not goals

    Resolutions are funny things, they’re not goals…they’re a little different from that. If they were I wouldn’t be breaking all of mine by the second week of January. I set goals all the time, doesn’t matter what time of the year it is, and I have a 75-100% success rate. Resolutions are a different monster. These little creatures are more about a change in behaviour, ideally a lasting one. Eating healthy is a resolution. It requires sometimes a complete change in our perception of food, and experience of it. It means every little decision we make about food changes…resolution. 

    READ: 10 things to ask yourself before setting new goals for the year

    Small things…big cost

    Anyways I digress, back to promises to myself. This year I decided I wanted to change the one (and a half) thing that has cost me. It’s cost me in tiny, but incremental ways. It’s the one biggest factor I’ve made progress in one area but not the other. Frankly speaking, I think it’s stopping me from growing in leaps and bounds. The saddest thing is it’s such a simple but profound thing. The thing that can make all the difference. It doesn’t matter how many goals I set, or what things I wish to do if this little aspect isn’t on made impressive levels.

    Consistency

    This is the one thing that will bring your ass down and leave you on the ground if you don’t have it. I’ll admit, I am not the most consistent person I know. I’m not incredibly inconsistent, but I could be better. So much better. I could write two blog posts a week if I really tried…or at the very least, ONE! One single blog post every week. One video post and one photo on Instagram. One workout a day. All these little things add up, all of them. So I realized I was losing out because of my own lack of disciple, and I’m fixing that. That’s my 2020 challenge, that’s my promise to myself.

    Oh and the half…

    Yeah, I need to meet deadlines. It’s so important to meet deadlines guys! I suck at them, but that’s going to change. Meeting deadlines comfortably is tough, even tougher for a procastinator. It’s a crucial half.

    So that’s it. That’s my big promise to myself, and so far I’m doing well(ish). What promises did you make to yourself this year, are you keeping them? 

    Progress report

    So far so good, in my second week of working out. The longest stretch I’ve done in 2 years!

    Doing the Chloe Ting 28 Day challenge. This is the longest time I’ve worked out consistently on consecutive days, I’m proud of keeping this promise to myself so far.

  • How quarterly reviews can help keep your goals on track

    How quarterly reviews can help keep your goals on track

    It’s almost the end of August! We’ve gone through a great deal as a country in the past 8 months and as individuals too. I remember as if it were yesterday, setting out my targets for this year. Setting goals and resolutions. Plenty of us did. And then some of us wait until December to review them. 

    I for one, like to check in every 3-4 months, to make sure I’m heading in the right direction. It seems so tedious to check your yourself every 3 or 4 months, but a lot can happen in 90-120 days and it’s easy to lose sight of where you’re going when life is happening to you. It’s tempting to think the year is almost over, why should I bother if I’m already lost. But remember what we said earlier, 120 days is a long time. 

    So yes, the year isn’t over, but waiting until the year ends to do a necessary review and audit isn’t always the best idea. Sometimes we lose track of what we set out to do, we forget our promises to ourselves and other times, our method just isn’t working. Let’s not forget the good stuff happening that we must celebrate and be grateful for. Triumphs that need to be acknowledged.

    Here are some questions I like to ask myself? (The graphic has more comprehensive questions, feel free to download it.)

    1. Have I done what I said I wanted to do so far? Am I still on track?
    2. What’s no longer working? What do I need to change?
    3. What’s the best thing that happened for me so far this year?
    4. What’s the worst thing? What am I going to do about it?
    Something to reflect on 🙂

    Hindsight is a powerful tool, use it. Look back and review how your year is going so far, the good and the bad. I, for one, haven’t started on my fitness goals, it’s been 8 months since I set that resolution, and I kept failing to launch (no more). But that’s alright, I still have roughly 120 days. 

    READ: I’m 24, and I’m still trying to find myself

    Whenever I review my quarter, or year, I own up and  take responsibility where I messed up, forgive yourself and move on (but promise myself to do better next time). I decide whether I need to change strategies or change goals entirely, or simply renew your efforts. This little exercise is partly how I managed to fulfill 3 out of 5 of my major goals, and this year I finished off the last two (as part of this year’s goals). With four more months, I still have more mileage to go! 

    The first half of my year wasn’t great for me (work-wise) and only starting turning around in June. Of-course I managed to stay on track with maybe one or two things, and I have a ton of things to be grateful for, and things I’m happy about on the personal front. Whilst I did things I’m proud of,  when it comes to some of my other goals (like fitness and blogging), I need to do better, and I am going to do better!

    What about you? Are you happy with your year so far? Do you need to change strategies? Or renew your efforts? Are you still on track? If you’re not, what are you doing about it?