INCREASE YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION SUCCESS 5 Things That Matter

By Jerod Langness, BSc, and Joel Rauser, physical therapist

Have you ever had trouble sticking with a New Year’s resolution? Here are five steps to increase your chances of success.

1.WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE?

What are your values as a person? Do your current behaviors or habits match who you want to be? When choosing a New Year’s resolution, pick a goal that is yours and personal to you.

2.THINK SMALL

If your goal is to lose weight the habit to focus on needs to be small enough to achieve with little effort. Your habit would then be to eat breakfast every morning. Want to work out regularly? Then focus on the habit of putting on your workout clothes at the time you want to work out.

3.ACCOUNTABILITY HELPS.

Increase your success by verbally telling someone. When you share your New Year’s Resolution you are over 70% more likely to achieve your goal.

Having a way to measure your success along the way is also important. Want to lose weight? Then weigh yourself frequently. Have a fitness goal? The number of times you get to the gym or ride your bike each week helps you track your consistency with your goal.

4. SOMEONE YOU CAN TRUST

Find a friend who has been there before. Treat them to coffee and “pick their brain.” Modeling your life on people you respect can help you achieve your better life.

5. CELEBRATE THE WINS!

Your New Year’s resolution is a living thing. It is tempting to quit when you miss a gym appointment or eat that donut. Don’t give up! Keep on focusing on “why” you chose this goal and its importance in reaching your better life. Reflect on Step One; then start the next week as if it was the first.

How to create easy speed and distance in your golf swing

Have you ever watched older players smoke the ball down the fairway without hardly moving and wonder how that happened? How does someone not move and generate so much speed so effortlessly? The secret is that they have found the speed that is in the wrists and arms. Those are the joints that are least affected by age or immobility. They are also the joints that can move a golf club quickly without much effort. The same type of speed is created when you “snap” a towel- you need to be loose, relaxed, and fast.

How you can start to feel this speed is to try my “toe up, toe up” drill. Place your feet together and swing the club back “opening” the face toward the sky on the backswing and closing the face on the downswing. To do this effectively you must have a relaxed grip in order to “open and close the face”, if you “death grip” the club it won’t open or close.

Jerod Langness is a National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) Certified Master Trainer and Brookbush Institute Certified Personal Trainer (CPT). For more resources on fitness and health, scan the QR code.

Drill: Hit balls feeling the rotation of the face open a close with your feet together. In no time, you will start feeling the effortless speed your arms and wrist create.

Garrett Froggatte Head Teaching Professional The Club At Flying Horse