If you haven’t started yet, it doesn’t mean you’ve failed
You might be the kind of person who loves to make a cheeky New Year’s resolution or three (or 10!). Or, you might be someone who prefers to avoid them completely, which is exactly how my kids feel about their chores. Either way, I think there’s something about the start of a brand-new year that pretty much gets under everyone’s skin.
New years can be a great motivator for fresh starts and well-intentioned plans, but they can also be a great source of disappointment, leaving us at times with a debilitating sense of failure. Whatever you do – don’t feel discouraged if the start of the year has raced away from you. It does that to everyone.
You have a whole lifetime in front of you
The start of a new year feels like the ideal time to turn over a new leaf, learn a new skill, or make changes to any areas of your life where you feel change is needed.
I get it. And, if that works for you – great!
But, if like most of us you find yourself staring at a calendar in disbelief and wondering how the heck it got to March already when New Year’s Eve was only a week ago, then don’t start thinking you’ve already failed. You haven’t. You have a whole lifetime in front of you and, just because the first two months of a new year has already flown by, it doesn’t mean you’ve missed the start line.
New years don’t come with start lines. Which is a good thing, because if they did, I’d be suggesting that’s a pretty terrible place to put one!
So makes us think that if we haven’t started making progress towards something – anything – by the end of Jan or Feb (i.e. the busiest months of the year), then we’re never going to?
You can start whenever you want
I am here to remind you that there are 9 more months ahead of us and every single one of them is a great month to start doing something new. There are around 44 more weeks ahead and guess what? Every single one of them is a great week to start doing something new. You don’t even want to know how many days there are…
One step at a time
They say the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. A more elephant-friendly way of putting it is to look at it the way Gabby Bernstein looks at breaking out of inactivity to achieve a dream. In her blog article, How You Can Start Achieving Your Dream Today, she talks about the 3 steps you can take to stop fear derailing your ability to achieve your goals.
These steps are:
1. Take one little right action
2. Get rid of expectations
3. Don’t judge yourself.
Forget the new year and move past fear into action
If you want to move your body more, get fitter or stronger, lose weight, or any combination of these, forget about the time of year and just take one little right action. That little right action could be downloading our Wake Up and Move program. It could be booking in with us for a free 30-minute Pilates Body Assessment so we can have a chat, map out your goals (they don’t have to be big), and talk about how you can get started with reformer Pilates. Whatever that one little right action is, take it. Take that one little step, because that’s all you need to do to get started.
Ditch your expectations
Pilates isn’t about the person next to you, the social media celebrity you’ve seen on Instagram, or even the instructor in the room with you. You don’t have to be like any of them. You don’t even have to be like you were yesterday or the last time you did a Pilates class. Every time we come to the mat or the reformer bed, we’re a different version of ourselves. We’ve had different experiences that day, different thoughts, and our bodies have done different things. So ditch all expectations and be present with yourself at that point in time.
No judgement allowed
I can’t say it better than Gabby does herself:
Self-judgement is the #1 thing that blocks you from doing what you want to do.
Whether you’re trying reformer Pilates for the very first time or you’ve been coming to classes for years, there’s always more to learn, further to stretch yourself, and new movements to master. The point is, there is no point in judging yourself because we’re all in the same boat. And, no matter where you are on the journey, right now – you are enough.
A year from now, you will wish you had started today – Karen Lamb
This is one of my all-time favourite quotes, and it’s so, SO true. I don’t care what you didn’t do yesterday – it’s in the past and you can’t change it. What you do have control over is today. New years don’t come with start lines – you can choose to create them whenever and however many times you want. So why not create one now?
What will your first step be?
If you’re not sure what to do first, we have an idea!
On Thursday, 26th March we’re running a free beginner’s workshop. It’s the perfect opportunity to take some time out for yourself and see if this is something that could work for you (we’re pretty sure it will).
You can come along and find out what reformer Pilates is all about. We’ll talk through some of the ways Pilates can benefit your body and mind, you’ll get to try a free reformer Pilates class, and you’ll walk away knowing exactly what to expect if you decide to come again. Spaces are limited so if you’d like to claim your spot (AND get access to an exclusive studio offer that will help you start moving towards your goals)
