New Year’s Resolution Check-In (Three Months)

Back in the beginning of the year, I wrote about how to set New Year’s resolutions that you’ll actually keep, and asked you guys to tell me about your own personal resolutions for the year.

Your responses gave me hope, made me smile, and really made me appreciate how awesome and determined you guys are. Your answers ranged from everything from holding a 10 second freestanding handstand to getting 100 burpees in under 10 minutes to accomplishing your very first pull up. I’ll admit too that it made me proud that you guys were focused not just on looks—because getting fit and healthy is so much more than just looking good.

In that post, I also outlined my own resolutions for the year, and mentioned that I would check in quarterly with you guys to see how your resolutions were coming along and give you some accountability to help you stick with them.

So here we are at the beginning of April (I know, what? Where has the year gone?)… and it’s time to see how those resolutions are coming along!

It’s not too late! Really!

If you’ve been working hard on your resolutions these past few months and have begun to see measurable progress, you’re awesome! You should be proud of all your hard work and dedication.

However, if, like most people, you made resolutions on January 1st of this year and then preceded to forget about them until now… don’t worry. The year isn’t even halfway over, so you still have time to work on—and reach—your goals.

Just remember to make sure they’re realistic and measurable so you don’t end up disappointed and feeling like a failure at the end of the year. Also, don’t forget that no one is handcuffing you to your goals—feel free to tweak them slightly as the year goes on and you realize your original goal was harder/easier/less realistic than you originally thought.

My personal resolution progress

Since I’m asking you to tell me how your resolutions are going, it’s only fair that I be completely honest about how my own personal goals are going so far in 2014. Here’s a rough status of the goals I told you about in that original post:

To be able to do a freestanding (half) handstand push up:

I’m definitely making progress on this, but I’m not quite there yet. I’ve been working really hard this year to get better at holding a freestanding handstand, but can still only hold it for a few seconds before I end up falling over.

I am, however, starting to be able to understand better what exactly is making me fall each time (not pushing through my shoulders enough, left arm is weaker than my right arm, not pushing through my fingers enough when I start tipping over), which I think is a really good sign. Once I can get this to a solid 10 seconds or so, I’m confident I’ll be able to work on lowering myself down to a handstand push up.

Realistic by the end of the year? Yes

To do a strict muscle up:

When I started trying to do muscle ups at the beginning of this year, I couldn’t even make it over the bar when doing a kip or standing on a high surface. That transition from the pull up to the dip was just too tough.

But I’m very happy to say that recently, for the first time, I got a muscle up in a kip—then from standing. Neither were pretty (gotta work on my left arm strength, geez), but I made it over! If I keep working at it, I know I’ll be able to get a real, unsloppy one by the end of the year.

You can see my start at doing muscle ups in this video I posted on Instagram:

Realistic by the end of the year? Yes

To do 10 pistols in a row per leg:

I tweaked my left knee towards the beginning of the year by doing too many pistols in the freezing cold without a warm up (yeah, don’t do this please), so I had to take a break from really training them for a while.

However, I’m back at it, and I feel like my progress is going pretty well, although of course I’d like it to go faster. Right now, I can do four pistols on my right leg without breaks, and two on my left leg.

Yes, that may make it seem like I have a long way to go, but I really feel like my legs have gotten stronger these past few months and that once I can get past that hump, I’ll be able to get more in a set. After all, I couldn’t even consider doing a pistol even a year or two ago, so I’m definitely making progress and feeling happy about it.

Realistic by the end of the year? Yes

To write a book:

I set a goal towards the beginning of the year to start writing 1,000 words a day of my book, and I’m really happy to say I’ve stuck with it!

I’ve got a bit more writing to do, then a lot of editing, not to mention the whole publishing process… but, it’s going well and I have no doubt in my mind that I’ll have written a book by the end of the year (whether it’s actually out this year or next though is still up in the air).

Realistic by the end of the year? Yes

Obviously I still have some work to do, but I feel pretty good about my progress so far this year, and am confident I’m headed in the right direction. I’m also happy to have listened to my own advice for once (yeah, this doesn’t always happen) and have made only a few, actionable goals to focus on—I think that’s helped me stay focused and not too overwhelmed compared to previous years.

Keep working hard!

Remember, the key to successfully reaching your goals is to work hard and be consistent—don’t give up, no matter how hard it seems!

I believe in you. Nine months to go!

“Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.” – Rikki Rogers