Ditch Day For Business Owners

Did you make any resolutions this year? If so, great! Let’s ditch them in honor of Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day, January 17th.

Resolutions aren’t goals

As an entrepreneur, you know how important it is to set goals. When you’re not sure about a decision, consider whether it gets you closer to your goal. If not, ditch it.

Also, you know that not all goals will get you to where you want to go. For example, a lot of people use SMART goals, which are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. 

Making a resolution is more like making a wish because it doesn’t have the specificity of a goal. Which makes resolutions pretty worthless in the scheme of things and will just give you a feeling of guilt when you don’t achieve them.

Some people choose an inspirational word for the year, though when I’ve done that I’ve forgotten the word about a month in. Maybe it would help if I wrote it down…

Let’s INCREASE the sense that we’re failing!

Back to reality, where few people actually continue on with their resolutions past the first week of January. Don’t blame yourself, blame the lack of specificity. Ask gym owners, many of whom will tell you that everyone signs up for a gym membership in January and the gym’s pretty full… until February.

Not only that, people want to lose weight and think going to the gym is the way to do it. When in fact they need to eat less or differently instead. Exercise is great in general, for emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing. 

However, it doesn’t really help most people lose weight. Appetite often increases to cover the calorie deficit, and people tend to overestimate how much a short stint in the gym will actually burn off. 

I personally actively trained for and participated in two sprint distance triathlons and two half-marathons while significantly overweight. I didn’t lose any weight from the training.

Whether it’s a resolution to get fit, lose weight, get organized, or whatever, most people start falling off the wagon sometime in January. Then they feel bad about it, which often increases the bad behavior like eating too much junk food or skipping the gym. It’s a vicious cycle.

So ditch the resolution instead. Happy Ditch Day!

Commit yourself

Not necessarily to the insane asylum! Making a resolution that’s easily ditched is different from making a commitment. That requires you to be in the right mindset and also to set yourself up for success. 

Want to commit to losing weight? Set an achievable goal and a time frame. Don’t forget to help support your goal by taking all the junk food out of your pantry. Or plan your meals, or batch-cook so there’s always something nutritious to eat when you get home at the end of a long day. 

And remember that we adult humans, just like children and puppies, respond better to incentives than to punishments. If you’re unhappy with your weight and decide to restrict your calories below what’s sustainable for your height and body type, you’ll;l end up binging when the restrictions wear you down. Or you’ll feel rebellious, which ends in chowing down on all the stuff you know doesn’t get you to your goal.

Be kind to yourself. Can you make nutritious things tasty so you’ll want to eat them? Or design an exercise program that involves the stuff you genuinely enjoy? That might not involve the gym. Or it might involve a really nice gym that doesn’t reek of stale sweat and has functioning equipment. 

Recap

Ditch the unproductive resolutions that make you feel bad when you don’t achieve them, and commit to a goal that won’t feel overwhelming so you can reach it.