By Davis Nguyen All right everyone, January is over. How are your New Year's resolutions coming along? Is it smooth sailing? A bit of a struggle?
Have you already forgotten?
For the longest time, I found myself setting the same New Year's resolution year after year.
Most of my life, my friends and family would remind me to watch what I ate and suggested maybe I should take an extra gym period. It was their way of hinting that I was on the heavier side of the scale.
Every year in high school, I placed weight loss as a New Year's goal and at the end of each year, I would just add it again. I got nowhere. I would read books about dieting, download a copy of P90X, and buy weights, but I never got started.
Why My New Year's Resolutions Never Took Off
Each December I'd reflect on why I failed to accomplish my goal, and it became down to the same reason: I didn't know how to start.
There was so much I didn't understand and the more I tried to figure it out on my own, the more confused I would get.
Are carbs good or bad?
Do I do low-weight and high-rep, or was it high-weight and low-rep?
What workout supplements do I need?
I came into college 40 pounds overweight. I've since dropped those extra pounds, made staying healthy a lifestyle, and given people advice as they start their own fitness goals.
How I Changed My Approach
What changed from high school and college?
Entering college, I was surrounded by people who ate healthy and did morning runs before class. I even dated a girl for whom being healthy was the number one priority. I didn't know it at the time, but being around them slowly changed the way I lived my own life.
I saw how they exercised and what foods they ate; and when the whole table opts not to have dessert, you're less inclined to hold everyone up with your own dessert.
I was able to lose 40 pounds in ten months just by being around people were already doing what I wanted to do. I learned that sometimes you just can't do everything on your own.
How to Make Sure Your Resolutions Don't Fail
One of my long-term goals is to inspire people to believe that they can have a better life. This year one of my resolutions is to land my first speaking engagement. A year ago, I wouldn't know where to start:
How do I get people to hire me? What do I talk about? What if they ask how much I want to be paid?
Instead of trying to answer those questions by myself, I started reaching out to and asking people who have built careers as public and motivational speakers.
Through knowing and talking to them, I was able to get my questions answered and advice on how to get started. As a result, I landed two events just in January.
The quickest way to accomplish something is to surround yourself with people who have already done it.
We’d love to hear from you in the comments:
What is one small step you can take toward your biggest goal for 2015?
About Davis
Davis (@IamDavisNguyen) graduated from Yale University in 2015. He currently lives in San Francisco and works at Bain & Company. When he’s not helping CEOs transform their companies, he is helping recent graduates figure out the type of life they want for themselves and helping them get there.