Approaching the new year, it is likely that many of us are identifying a few goals — resolutions, if you will — that we’d like to achieve in 2023.
Lose 20 pounds. Get stronger. Run a marathon. We’ve heard them many times before.
As many as 44% of us set resolutions for the new year. If you’re one of them, we applaud you for setting those goals. Setting a goal is the first step in making a change, so kudos to you for taking it.
So tell us, how is it going?
Have you taken the steps to officially get started? Has your commitment started to wane? Do you have all the tools in your toolbox necessary to be successful?
Research shows that a whopping 92% of “resolutioners” fail to achieve their goals.
Consequently, at Original Strength Institute, we challenge you to consider — what if our typical New Year’s resolutions aren’t focusing on the right things?
Nine times out of 10, when someone comes to our gym in Downtown Fuquay with a New Year’s resolution, it revolves around weight loss. Clients think they want to lose weight, but there is usually a much deeper root cause driving them to feel this way.
We’ve found that many clients harbor fears about aging and losing mobility; deep down they desire to stay and feel young. Instead of focusing on weight loss, this new year, let’s resolve to take actions to stay young.
What Actions Can I Take to Stay Young?
I want to be very specific here. The question is not “How do I stop aging?” or “How do I stay young?” It’s “What ACTIONS can I take to stay young?”
Similar question, but phrased differently. Sometimes it can help to rephrase or reframe things.
There are mental and physical actions we can take to preserve our youth. Ways to move our bodies, but also thoughts we can let go of and ideas to embrace.
Time happens to us all. Every time we circle the sun, we are here a year longer than we were. Every time you celebrate a birthday, you are likely acknowledging a number that becomes attached to your identity. The higher that number gets, often the more weight it carries.
Sometimes we equate these numbers with milestones and rites of passage. At other times we equate these numbers with discounts, fragility, and withering.
How we navigate time is largely up to us. Whether we “grow old” or “stay young” is often determined by the thoughts we keep. Your birth age is just a number with no significance other than the one you place on it.
If you equate a number or certain numbers with getting old or being old, you are giving away your youth. Your beliefs of your age will run their programs in your nervous system, and they will be expressed through your body. Then your body will affirm your beliefs about your age, strengthening them, perpetuating them, and hastening them. Your beliefs, your thoughts of what numeric labels mean, can and do hasten the aging process.
In other words, if you want to stay young, don’t place any value on how many times you have circled the sun. You can celebrate the day you were born, just don’t count. Why not celebrate every day as if it were the day you were born? Every new day can and does usher in a new you.
Forget your age. Celebrate your vibrance and being.
OK, now for the tangible actions.
If You Want to Stay Young, Move.
Movement is the vehicle that is designed to keep your body and all its members, all its cells, all its genes healthy, strong, and optimal. Movement is the key to enhancing and optimizing your physical performance, your longevity, your creativity, your cognitive ability, and your YOU-niqueness.
Don’t misunderstand me. I am not telling you to exercise, lift weights, HIIT, or to do cardio. I am suggesting that you move in the ways you were designed and intended to move. You were made to breathe a certain way, to move your eyes and head around, to change positions and planes of motion often, and to walk.
Studies show that 92% of “Resolutioners” fail to achieve their aims. Use these tips from Tim Anderson and Dani Almeyda to defy that trend.
Resolutions are tough to achieve alone. This year, reach your fitness goals with a strategy that works.
Adopt a Proven Plan
Just like you don’t begin a road trip by simply jumping in your car and hoping that you’re driving in the right direction, your training also needs to be thoughtfully planned out.
Seek Sustainability
Strenuous workouts are fun to do every once in a while, but a common mistake is doing them too often or going too hard right out of the gate. After a while, you’re likely to feel burnt out and quit.
The real secret to long-term success is not how many killer workouts you can do in the first two weeks of January, but how many moderate and sustainable workouts you can do between now and next December.
Find Community and Accountability
Some of the hardest times in our lives are the ones where we feel like we are facing major challenges or big changes all alone.
Many of your peers are traveling down the same road. Ask them to keep you company, and give you the encouragement and inspiration you need to keep moving forward when the going gets tough!
And trust me: Like building any new habit, it will get tough! Community is what will make all the difference in your success.
You would be amazed that if you just focused on your movement design — often and throughout the day — you would feel amazing in your body, your mind, and your soul. If you could discover how great it feels to breathe, to smile, to walk with your head held high, you would discover the part of you that never ages, the part of you that celebrates how good it feels to be alive, how good it feels to be you.
You don’t have to grow old, but you can. You can attach meaning to your age. You can neglect your design by not using it. Or you can also stay young and vibrant through your actions and your thoughts. You can celebrate and smile each day because you are indeed brand new once again. You can move yourself often through walking, dancing, playing, and exploring. You can live your best life on purpose by using the body and mind you’ve been given.
What actions can I take to stay young? The answer is in the question.
Take Action.
Let go of thoughts about aging.
Let go of thoughts you don’t want to have, thoughts you are fearful over. Take hold of the thoughts you want. Run their programs instead.
Move. Every day and often, move and engage in your wonderful design.
Engage in a breathwork practice. Discover the life each breath brings and the ability to inhale positivity and exhale tension.
Move your eyes, head, and body often through all planes of motion, wherever they will let you move them.
Take walks throughout the day. Walk briskly, stroll, strut, saunter. Do this often for the pure joy of being able to do it.
As you continue into the new year, make a sustainable plan, take action, and surround yourself with people who can support you.
Tim Anderson and Dani Almeyda are sought-after professionals with a knack for simplifying movement, connecting with people, and helping their clients develop life-changing habits that are easily implemented into daily life. Together, Tim and Dani have run Original Strength Institute, a personal training gym in downtown Fuquay- Varina, for more than 10 years and have built an energetic and positive community.
The pair has been featured in print publications, television news, research studies, and has spoken at several large-scale events. The system they teach, the Original Strength System, is being utilized by some of the world’s top medical professionals, universities, and professional sports teams.
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