2021, What The Hell Was That?
Hello 2022…
Now I want to preface this blog by saying that I won’t be getting into anything political regarding 2021. Nor will I be going into any touchy subjects regarding the pandemic or anything like that. No, instead I want to simply talk about the lessons I have learned this past year and how I will be using those lessons in 2022 to hopefully make it an even better year
Looking back on 2021, I can say it was one of my best years from a business standpoint. I successfully received my Strength and Conditioning Specialist Certification. I received my Pre and Post Natal Certification. I was able to get my first WNBF bodybuilding show off the ground, where all of my athletes did amazing, and the rest of my athlete’s bodybuilding season was extremely successful. It was an incredible year for my business.
However, it was the most challenging year ever from a mental health standpoint. I think we can all collectively say “what the hell was that?” It was a disheartening year for a lot of us and the fact that covid is something we are still talking about pretty much 2 years later can give a lot of people a lot of anxiety.
But I think that leads me into my first takeaway from 2021 and that is that we are stronger, physically, and mentally than where we were in 2020. I think we can all agree that covid isn’t going anywhere. It is an endemic virus and at some point, we need to figure out how we can live with that. And the fact that we are stronger now and have an idea of what to expect, I think that perspective alone can really serve us with dealing with the virus in 2022. And I am not talking about from a medical standpoint with how to treat the virus. I am staying in my lane here and am talking about things from a mental standpoint.
The amount of anxiety and depression that was created in 2021 is heartbreaking. And I think by taking a step back and simply understanding that you are stronger can help you that much more from a mental standpoint during 2022.
My second takeaway from 2021 was a tough realization but an important one and that is someone else’s decisions are none of my business. Worrying about what others decide to do with their personal life is honestly none of my business and has no impact on the decisions I make for myself. I won’t get into the context of this lesson because it doesn’t matter. But the lesson itself, to me anyways, is important in all aspects of our lives. So, in 2022 I am going to stop worrying about the mess around me and worry about cleaning up my own mess.
Another big takeaway for me in 2021 was to not let fear drive my goals. We all faced a lot of fear this past year and for some it really put our lives on hold or even created a lot of anxiety, where we weren’t fully living our lives.
Something I really want to focus on in 2022 is catching myself in those fearful moments and then asking myself “what’s the worst that could happen?” Let’s talk about this a little bit more
Our brains have evolved for millions of years for survival. So, when we feel afraid of something our natural instinct is fight or flight. Lucky for us, we have the power to overcome fear once we understand it
So how do we understand it? There are typically three types of fear that we may experience when we are feeling fearful of something
1. Fear of failure
2. Fear of action
3. Fear of results
Fear of failure probably hits home for a lot of people. If I try this new thing I may fail and lose respect or something that I love — so why even bother. You know you may want to lose weight, but the fear of failing is holding you back so why even bother.
If you know your fear stems from failing, it’s important to look at what you must gain if you are going to successful overcome fear. If you are looking to lose weight shift your perspective to how good it will feel to start taking care of yourself
The second type of fear is the fear of action. If I try this new thing the action will require change. The fact of the matter is anything that requires change is going to be difficult. So, the new lifestyle required when you want to lose weight will require change and will be difficult. But it’s important to remember that growth comes from challenge and change is necessary to see growth. Don’t fear it, embrace it because it’s completely necessary to live our best life.
The last type of fear is the fear of results. What if the results aren’t worth it? What if you go through all those changes and you don’t get the results you are looking for and it’s all for nothing? You know with this type of mindset; you never will see the changes you want to see. What if you get all the results, you ever dreamed of and then some? You never know unless you try, so don’t let fear hold you back
Your brain will continue to tell you to run for the hills the more you obsess over the fear of the process of change. So, what is holding you back? What are you afraid of? Are you afraid you will fail when you could have everything you’ve ever wanted? Are you afraid the actions required are going to disturb your life when they could make your life even better? Are you afraid the grass isn’t greener on the other side when you could feel more fulfilled than ever?
In 2022, let’s stop letting fear hold us back. You oversee your outlook and perspective. Change doesn’t have to be as scary as your mind makes it out to be. Once you make that shift, once that light goes off there’s no better feeling of being brave and being in complete control of your life.
So now that 2021 is done and over with, I’ve been thinking about what I want to leave behind in 2021. And the number one thing that comes to mind for me is envy. Being envious of others having things that I don’t have can be a slippery slope and something that I have realized is it often causes one to play the “poor me” mentality. When in fact, everything good or bad going on in my life is entirely my fault and comparing my life to someone else’s is not productive and a complete waste of time. So, in 2022, I want to stay goodbye to envy and say hello to taking responsibility for the circumstances in my life – good and bad.
With that goal in mind, I have some high expectations for myself in 2022. And I won’t bore you any further talking about me. Instead, I want to finish this episode off by going over some strategies that I plan on implementing to make these goals a reality for myself and hopefully you can implement some of these strategies for yourself.
Often New Year goals or resolutions are just a list and nothing more. Maybe some will remind themselves of their goals every now and then, in hopes they will achieve their goals strictly from that. And while that strategy may work for some, I have decided to take things a step further this year.
I’ve broken my goals down into long term goals and short-term goals. Then I went and scheduled my timelines for when I want to accomplish these goals and set up reminders for myself.
So, I’ll go over a couple of examples.
Say you want to read one book a month for the entire year. You could break this down by first picking out the 12 books you want to read and allocating each book to a given month. Next you want to break that down into short term goals. So, this can be done by reading 10 pages a day, or one chapter every 2 days. Then you can take it a step further and pick the time of day that’s going to work best for you and then schedule that time like you would schedule any other type of appointment, like a dentist appointment for example. So, set up a reminder in your phone to go read for 30 minutes every day at 8:00PM.
Another example may be a fat loss goal for yourself. Let’s break this type of goal down. Say you want to lose 30lbs. Typically, a healthy rate of fat loss is 1lb per week. Therefore, you now know that this goal can be accomplished in roughly 30 weeks. This is your long-term goal, so how can you break it down to achieve short term progress. Since we want to lose 1lb a week, this is going to be your weekly target. You can even take it a step further to ask yourself what you can do on a day-to-day basis to achieve your weekly goal. And this may include making some lifestyle habit changes, such as tracking your food, exercising daily, reducing alcohol and take out consumption etc.
Planning things out like this may seem tedious to some, but if you are sick of making the same goals for yourself each year because they didn’t last last year, isn’t it time to make this effort? Let’s take our goals seriously and put in the strategies we know will help make your goals a reality.
I think by taking the time to schedule and realistically plan out your goals for the year like this can be a helpful way to make your goals a reality versus forgetting about them or giving up on them by March. So many shit on NY resolutions or goal setting because so many people struggle to follow through with their original intention and that creates guilt, self-doubt and all these negative emotions about ourselves. The fact is there’s nothing wrong with you at all. We just need to make that effort to take things a step further to plan things out for effectively. Because if all I did was make my list and hope for the best, there’s no fresh shot in hell that I would stick to my goals either.
So, take the time to plan out how you want to see your year look for yourself. And don’t worry that the year has already started. I just did this for myself a day a go. It’s not about when you start, you just have to start. So, take that time and focus on making 2022 your best year yet. You are in control of your life, so make it a masterpiece.
Coach Krys