Posted on December 31, 2014 by Kate Halsall

For me personally, New Years and Birthdays are always a time for reflection. I look back on the past year and determine which of the goals I had set myself I have acheived and which ones I could have done better. I review any new goals I set during the year and which of my goals just melted away in the gorgeous summer sun. I’m definitely over critical when it comes to this personal assessment – but then when you want to do well, why wouldn’t you be? Don’t get me wrong, my goals are continuous and run throughout the year, it’s just that New Years and Birthdays always make me want to add more! And yes I guess it’s similar to setting new year resolutions – but the difference is that they don’t have to start on the 1st of January, they don’t start on a Monday, and they always have a detailed plan associated with them.

1. Training
It may surprise you that as a Personal Trainer I don’t train as such. It’s not because I don’t practice what I preach, it’s because I physically teach so many fitness classes (sometimes 6 in one day – that’s 4 and a half/5 hours of exercise in one day!) that I view these as workouts and any spare time as recovery time. I have also been plagued by injury and admittedly both the physical pain and fear of pain have discouraged me from exercising. But for the last few months, I’ve been very annoyed with myself because of this. I’ve seen a little weight gain, some strength and cardiovascular fitness lost, and it’s just not good enough. I wrote a training plan for myself back in October, added a pull up plan in November and I added some HIIT intervals to it a few weeks ago. I did a Park Run on Christmas day, I’ve entered a Spartan Race with some clients in April, and am doing a short Triathlon with another client in June/July. It’s time!

2. Improving My Skillset
2014 was the year I became a Level 4 Qualified trainer for Lower Back Pain, and completed a course on Postural Assessments and Corrective Exercises. This was just one step forward towards my goal to help people with existing back pain, or to help people avoid back pain. I also started my Sports Massage training. But I don’t yet feel like I’ve achieved what I wanted – although for a while, I wasn’t sure what it was that I wanted to achieve! Also, my sports massage course is flexible learning so without having set deadlines I find myself just dipping in when “I have time”. My self analysis has determined that it’s not enough to have or work towards these qualifications and not do anything with them. I’ve set myself deadlines for my Sports Massage coursework and case studies, I’ve booked another course for Postural Corrective Exercises, and we’ve got some exciting packages coming out next year that will put all this into practice. Exciting!

3. Personal Life
It’s hard to have a personal life when you work very different hours to your friends, partners and family 6-7 days a week! I used to go to the cinema, cook amazing meals (I have a diploma in vegetarian and vegan cooking after all), played badminton, and was very occasionally a lady who did lunch! It’s hard to find the balance when you love what you do. So I’ve decided I need to finish early on Fridays, not work on Sundays and regain some of that sporting prowess!

If you need help setting real resolutions – we’ve written a number of blogs on setting SMART goals:
http://www.m8north.co.uk/blog/set-realistic-goals/
http://www.m8north.co.uk/blog/how-to-achieve-fitness-goals/