Alright everyone…. Welcome back and sorry for the delay. I know I have been MIA for a few weeks now but I can explain. This Christmas season was wild to say the least as I unluckily got COVID in the middle of December and had to quarantine in Arizona for a couple weeks. Then once I was back and healthy, I went straight to Wisconsin to see my family since I was not able to be with them for Christmas. With all that craziness, I decided to just take a break from writing content and focus on getting healthy and enjoying time with my family, but now we are back and ready to kick off a new year.
This year I will be starting my CFP, so content will be altered just a little bit. My main focus is going to be the newsletter so if you have not subscribed yet, please do here. Other than that, I am going to focus on putting out one original piece of content a week. It may be a blog post, a video, or a podcast depending on the week and what I feel will be best, but that is the plan for this year. If you have any specific topics you want me to write about, feel free to DM me anytime. Also, I wanted to say thank you again to everyone who read, commented, and DM’d me about the content I put out. Plus, an even bigger thank you to everyone who joined the RLS family this past year. We grew tremendously and have a ton of new exciting clients beginning with us this January. It has been so fun to watch the firm grow with all the hard work Justin, Darlene, and I have put in.
I have always been someone that hates the phrase “New Year, New You.” It never made sense to me why people had to wait for a new calendar year to get started on their goals. But the older I have gotten, the more I realized that it doesn’t matter. Whatever trick can be used to get you to start working on yourself and your goals is good in my book. Whether it is the start of a new year, moving to a new location/job, or a new relationship, I believe you should use anything that motivates you to get started since getting started has always proven to be one of the hardest parts.
From my time as a personal trainer as well as a financial advisor, I have learned a ton about helping people achieve goals. It’s how I measure success in both of those jobs.
When I first started, I thought it should be easy to help people accomplish their goals. I mean they personally chose to ask someone for help, so why aren’t they able to just put their head down and grind to achieve those goals? This question floated around my head for years before I finally came to the conclusion that there are two main reasons people struggle to achieve ‘their’ goals.
Many times people choose arbitrary goals that come from others, not themselves. They hear other people talk about these goals that are important to them and think “well, that’s a good goal, maybe I should do that.” Whether it is to put on (x) amount of muscle this year, lose (x) number of pounds, save (x) amount of dollars, pay off (x) amount of debt, etc. Let’s face it, accomplishing these goals are hard. If you do not truly want to accomplish them for yourself, you most likely won’t.
The point I am making is that you should take some time for yourself and reflect. Figure out the goals you truly want to accomplish this year for YOU and then create a plan to get them done.
The other reason I see people fail with reaching their goals is because they try making drastic changes too quickly. Imagine going from eating fast food daily and never working out, to now eating 100% clean and working out 5 days a week. For most people it would be too hard. That is such a drastic change on your mind and body that most people would not be able to handle it — resulting in you burning yourself out before you are even close to accomplishing your goal.
From my experience, the best way to work towards a goal is through progression. If your goal is health related and you want to lose weight, maybe the first step is to start with no eating out on weekdays and incorporating 3 days a week of exercise into your routine. Get used to that, then add one more day of working out and start cutting bad carbs from your diet. Then once you are acclimated to that, take the next step forward. This approach seems to work much better for those who are trying to change their lifestyle. Start with something attainable then scale it up as you are ready.
I think we can all agree that 2020 was a tough year for most of us. Give yourself a break that you didn’t accomplish all your goals. But now, use 2021 and what you learned from last year to work on yourself. Better your health, your finances, your career, and your relationships. And remember, set goals that are true to yourself and get a progression plan in place to avoid burnout.
Disclaimer: Nothing on this blog should be considered advice, or recommendations. If you have questions pertaining to your individual situation you should consult your financial advisor. For all of the disclaimers, please see my disclaimers page.
Financial Advisor