It’s two weeks into the new year and just about time that resolutions start to fall apart. My resolutions to do yoga, cook more, and write more never even really got off the ground as I recovered from New Year’s Eve, got all my stuff together to head back to school, said goodbye to hometown friends and made the long drive to South Carolina. Luckily, I realized I could treat the start of the semester as the unofficial start of 2014. Nobody has to know! You could even start your resolutions after syllabus week has ended. The point is that any new chapter in time is a good starting point for bettering yourself if you truly want to.
The main thing to consider is that these resolutions to better yourself can’t be so unrealistic that you don’t have a fighting chance. When I arrived back in Columbia and told my roommate I had some resolutions that I hadn’t started on yet, she asked me if I had ever heard of the acronym SMART. I hadn’t, so after Googling it I found it was a great tool for measuring if my resolutions were doable.
Multiple websites talk about SMART, but personal trainer Dave Herber breaks it down on muscleandstrengh.com like this: Your resolution must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Related. For example, I changed my “do yoga” resolution to “attend the Tuesday & Thursday yoga classes offered at Strom and Blatt all semester”. The classes fit into my schedule, are cheap and are conveniently located, so I know I will be able to do it. After this semester, I can reevaluate my fitness goals for the summer, and I still won’t have failed at my resolution. Any time during the year, you can pick a starting date for yourself and achieve a SMART resolution.
