The world didn't end in 2012. I know have another 3 hours or so before that statement is totally true but I think it's safe to say that at midnight tonight we will be ushering in a new year full of hope, promise and intrigue. With every new year comes a long list of resolutions usually abandoned by mid-February. I am in the same boat though, my resolutions usually last a little longer but it's rare they make it till the end of the year. So here is a little story about a resolution to encourage you as you start 2013.
Last year I wanted my resolution to be based on the idea of just adding something good everyday. I had been having conversations with friends at the time on how they didn't know how to start exercising or eating right. I kept saying to them, "Just start." If you can only run for 30 seconds then do that until you can do more. After thinking about this for a while I thought I would try this theory myself so I decided that I would do push-ups all of 2012.
Here was my plan: 1. Do 1 push-up on January 1st 2. Add one push-up a day for the entire year. 3. Do the amount of push-ups for that day before the day ends (not all in one shot)
Midnight hit on New Years and I dropped down and did my first push-up, no problem. At the beginning of the year if I really tried I could probably do 30 push-ups before I felt like my arms were going to fall off and if I tried to do 30 a day it would have probably been a bit more challenging, but I believed that adding one a day would be a good pace and it would help me grow at a rate to keep up with the new challenges. So January 2nd came and I did 2 and on the 3rd I did 3. I did that for 256 days until I finally stopped due to a mild neck injury. I used an app to track the push-ups I did and give or take a few based on human error I did about 34,782 pushups in the first 256 days of 2012. I am no body-builder and if you saw me in person you probably wouldn't think anything of me as an athletic specimen, but 34,782 push-ups is a lot of freaking push-ups.
Here is what I learned and I hope it encourages you as you start your new year's resolutions tomorrow. 1. Start small. - I think sometimes we have these huge goals that we start with and it can seem overwhelming and unreachable. Normally goals that seem like that yield results like that. If I started with the goal of doing 34,782 push-ups through out the year I probably would have puked at the idea. 2. Add small. - Adding one a day was the perfect amount for me to grasp and be able to reach for. It definitely got a lot harder throughout the year because doing 1 and then 2 is pretty easy, but doing 201 and then 202 is a tad bit harder. When I had to do 202 though I remembered the day before and that I did 201 and survived. 3. Track yourself. -The iphone is amazing and I downloaded this great app called trakr and everyday when I added my new push-ups to the app it energized me because I saw them being added to the total. 4. Celebrate achievements. -The end of the first month was a big deal so I treated myself to a buffalo chicken sub (my favorite food). Day 100 was pretty cool and so was June 1st, which was halfway. I enjoyed and usually treated myself to something special on those big days. Don't be afraid to treat yourself. 5. Tell people about it. -I like telling people about everything I do and when I started telling people about the push-ups they thought it was such a cool idea and started asking me about them every-time they saw me. Your friends asking you if you are keeping up with something is probably one of the most motivating things in your life, because, if you are like me, you never want to let your friends down. 6. Don't be afraid to stop or readjust. -I didn't realize how hard it would be to do 200 push-ups consecutive days and I didn't even get to 300. I had to stop due to a mild neck injury. I was a little embarrassed by it and I almost didn't write this post, but Brooke encouraged me to. It was hard on day 257 when I didn't do any push-ups but at that point my neck was hurting and I was having trouble sleeping so I had to stop. It was hard to tell friends when they asked how the push-ups were going and I had to explain that I stopped. They weren't disapproving though but proud of my achievement and how far I was able to go. 7. No one will do it for you. -I was the only one that could do the push-ups. No one could do them for me. 8. You will do weird things to achieve goals and that's okay. -I did pushups in airports, malls, music festivals, wedding receptions and just about anywhere you could think of. There were times when I forgot to do them on a certain day and as I laid in bed to fall asleep I exhaled with frustration got out of bed and dropped to the floor to do push-ups as Brooke laughed at me in the dark. It was certainly odd at points and I got some strange looks as I did push-ups while my gas tank was filling up, but who cares. Life is meant for living and I was living.
I have a few goals this year and I hope you do to, but if you don't I will share some of mine with you in hopes that it inspires you to find your own.
- Love wildly. - Live a life of adventure. - Be brave. - Try something new. - Dance to have fun or to make people laugh (same goes for singing) - Be present with loved ones - Do good and honorable things - Trust people - Read more - Eat healthier - Exercise - Let go of the garbage that happened in 2012
I hope your upcoming year is better than your last and that you start to live the life you've always dreamed of living.