We're 3 weeks in to 2015, lots of the resolution makers may be struggling and starting to slip up on the plans.  

The first slip is often enough to breakdown the whole plan, to think 'I can't do this' and give in on your goals.  Many people believe that that first slip is failure and because they have failed they don't deserve to reach their goal or hit their target.

The fitness industry sort of promotes it with images of 6 packs and bikinis alongside 'motivating' quotes like 'go hard or go home' and 'if you don't feel sick you're not working hard enough'.  Some people are motivated by them, some are put off because they feel that the body on show isn't achievable.

One of my injury therapy clients is a fitness model who was trolled last week and featured in most of the national papers for sharing a picture of herself and her little girl with the quote 'a six pack, a kid and no excuses'.  

People took it upon themselves to throw abuse at her rather than simply praising how she looked or accepting that they hadn't put that amount of work in to achieve a figure like it.  I covered finding negatives in my last email - be nice or shut up.

If we give in at the first failure, we will never achieve our goals.  

To learn we must fail first, learn by our mistakes.  

Over the weekend, I assisted on a NeuroKinetic Therapy(™) course.  It's a different way at looking at injuries and taking people out of pain rapidly.  The students were from a range of backgrounds including chiropractors, massage therapists, osteopaths and yoga teachers.

All of them wanted to do well in the testing both as the therapist and the patient.  Doing well wasn't the point, they had to learn how to fail.

Some of the athletes struggled with the concept of failing a physical test, yet when they finally 'got it' they saw the benefit.  By failing a test it lights up brain pathways which the therapist then utilises to resolve the problem.

The key is to 'fail forwards' and learn from the process.  To take this back to resolutions, it means if you screwed up on your first night out and went a bit crazy on the booze or in the kebab shop on the way home. Learn from it, it could be as simple as not going out if you are trying not to drink or being designate driver and sticking to water or soft drinks.

By throwing all of the progress so far and thinking 'f*ck it, I'll start again next week' you haven't progress and learnt from your mistake.  

There are many reasons for this.  Maybe your goal doesn't really inspire you to achieve it, maybe the nutrition plan you're following is too hard to stick to and there are no back up plans.

At Team Achieve, we are aware of this and try to help our members to build strategies for hen things go wrong and to get them back on track asap.

We have a philosophy and many of our members will read this in Sam's voice - 'If you go out in the morning and see you have a flat tyre, you wouldn't let the other three down.  You'd just sort it out and get on with things'.

Don't let your own tyres down. 

Darren 'Failing forwards' Checkley