A New Year’s Promise

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.”  Robert Frost

New Year’s Eve is perhaps my favorite day of the year.  Not just because this day is renown for great parties, but I also cherish this day as both an opportunity to reflect on the past and also to look forward to the future.  Every year, on New Year’s Eve, I take part in the most strenuous workout I can perform.  During this annual workout, I have developed an interesting exercise tradition that helps me to reconnect with myself and my vision for the future.  Of all the exercises I have delivered over the years, this one may actually give you the greatest results in terms of affecting your destiny.

How the session is devised is that I want you to pick some of the toughest (and often least favorite) exercises to perform.  Do this to not only finish the year with something difficult, but also to enter in to the new year with a new standard of toughness.  These sets of exercises in themselves is not the magic behind the New Year’s Eve session.  Although the exercises are great to work and build the body, that happens in between each set, however, is actually the exercise that works your most important muscle: your mind.  To work this area of the body, you should have one piece of paper and a pen.  During the rest periods between each demanding set that leaves your heart pounding in our chest, you are required to write down a number of meaningful “promises” to yourself that you must achieve in the new year.  Although this may not sound special, this could be the best holiday season gift you could ever receive.  (Note that I am calling these gifts promises, not goals or resolutions.  People often make resolutions and goals and then do not stick to them or see them through. These are no longer strong enough words.  Goals and resolutions are often quickly forgotten, but a promise to ourself is meant to be kept!)

Make The Investment

The greatest investment you can make is an investment in yourself.  All too often, however, we are so caught up in what we are currently doing that we rarely sit back, analyze where we are and what we have done and make a decision about where we would like to go next.  I am also quite sure that we don’t spend any time writing down powerful promises to ourselves.  Spending time doing this at least one day per year  can make a difference in your life.  I know that it has for me.  Try my method of writing down your promises with your next workout.  Even though it may be a few days after the new year, there is never a bad time to start this process.  Find a couple of hours, get the pen, the paper and get going.

 

“Thou ought to be nice, even to superstition, in keeping thy promises, and therefore equally cautious in making them.” Thomas Fuller

 

As a guide to writing your promises during the rest periods of the workout, I recommend that you split your promises for the year down into three specific areas:  Physical, Spiritual and Financial. I have concluded that a person must sustain growth and development in these three areas if he or she is to continue to lead the life he or she imagined.

To help all the readers with more specific direction, here is a short, but potentially life-altering set of 14 promises that are always mandatory items for my yearly list.  Although you may have many more, I recommend that you start with this list.

 

Physical Items for your future

I promise to have a Bodyweight and Bodyfat of……

I promise to make the following changes in my diet…. (i.e. foods, calories, etc.)

I promise to exercise …… many days per week

I promise to quit the following bad habits …..(i.e. smoking, drinking, etc)

I promise to attain the following new skills…..(i.e. surfing, skiing, etc)

I promise to attain a ……level in my chosen sport

 

Spiritual Items for your future

I promise to read ….. number of books

I promise to investigate the following topics…. (i.e. communication, leadership, etc.)

I promise to develop better relationships with …..

I promise to take a vacation of …. days to ……

 

Financial Items for your future

I promise my income for following year will be….

I promise to invest …..dollars

I promise to donate ….dollars/my time to charity

I promise myself ……(major purchases) for the following year (i.e. car, house, etc.)

 

When drawing up your list, attempt to make the promises both specific and as realistic as possible.  The promises should be something that you can attain with hard work and the specificity will give you something exact for which to strive.  Once your list is completed, make a few copies of the list and hang them prominently in a few places that you will see every day.  You should also cross off each promise once it is attained or keep a running list of your totals so that at year’s end you can see how many promises you kept to yourself.

 

“Promises are like crying babies in a theater, they should be carried out at once.” Norman Vincent Peale

 

There is no better time to start carrying out your promises to yourself than today.  Go out and get the next book you promised to read, call the person you promised to call, get to practice or change your diet.   Remember that 2012 is not about what you are going to do, but about what you are going to become.  By following through on your list, I promise you that this year is going to be your breakout year to become that someone that you have always promised yourself you would be!

Need More Inspiration? Here is a video link from my New Year’s workout: