How to Find the Motivation to Be Healthy in the New Year

While a majority of people make a New Year’s resolution to get healthy, not all of them make it the entire year. It’s easy to hop into a life of mental and physical wellbeing overzealously and then get burnt out around late February or early March. Or, you may begin with an all or nothing attitude and give up the first time you have a cheat day or skip the gym once. Healthiness is much more than a good gym session or a healthy meal, though those are components; healthiness is having a balanced body and mind. Cheat days and mental health days are important. Overzealousness isn’t the only reason that people experience burnout, however. Many people simply lose motivation.

Without motivation, you may find yourself question why you even decided to start your health journey. When you get up to meditate, you may find your thoughts are negative about your situation, or you may find yourself not giving your all at the gym because you’ve lost motivation. To help prevent this from happening, here’s how you can find motivation to push through and crush your health goals.

Start simple

New Year’s Eve is an emotional time, and it’s easy to make commitments that you wouldn’t make any other time. Instead of creating an overzealous plan that will leave you feeling burnt out and unsatisfied, take the time to set up a well-thought out plan that is rational and obtainable. If your resolution is to lose weight, don’t make a plan to lose 50 pounds by the end of January. Instead, make a healthy plan to lose 1 or 2 pounds per week. By setting healthy, achievable goals, you’re more likely to stay motivated.

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Remember why you started

If your New Year’s resolution was to live a healthier year, then there’s a reason. Maybe you're tired of the constant headaches or feeling bad, or maybe you just want to improve how you feel about yourself. Whatever your reasoning may have been, remember that. If you need to, when you feel unmotivated, write out a list of all the reasons why you want this. A lot of times, people lose motivation because they’re so focused on the end product that they forget the starting product and, most importantly, the journey.

Celebrate small successes

Another way to stay motivated is to celebrate the small successes and reward yourself. There are many ways to do this. If you managed to wake up 10 minutes early every morning and squeeze in some meditating, then take a few dollars and reward yourself by buying a journal. Make your rewards fun but also beneficial to your journey. If you make it to the gym for every session for a week, try skipping the gym for the day and taking a jog through the park instead to enjoy the scenery and fresh air. By celebrating small successes, you’ll train your brain to realize that success and health is about the journey, not the goal.