(“The old me would sandbag main sets and miss morning workouts. Separating yourself from the past allows you to pass some of the blame for your missteps. Temporal landmarks are a chance to forgive yourself. This is maybe more important than we realize. It gives us a mental break, a chance to move on from past mistakes, shed unhelpful behaviors and charge at our goals with renewed optimism. The “fresh start effect” is helpful in wiping the mental slate clear. We hang on to them like it’s the gutter after an all-out 2,000m for time. Although there are plenty of moments of excellence along the way, the negative moments are the ones that we tend to dwell on. We miss a workout, bomb a main set, fall short of our expectations. Whether you’re plugging through an Olympic quad, a training cycle, or a plain-old regular week of training, mental baggage piles up. When it comes to swimming like a chlorinated helion, temporal landmarks are also a powerful opportunity to unleash a dive-tank worth of motivation and energy at our goals. These temporal landmarks, which help us organize and demarcate passages of time, provide a sense of a new beginning and close off what’s happened previously, like chapters in a book. Even at the end of the day (“Tomorrow’s a new day”). We do this kind of thing-setting temporal landmarks-at other times of the year:īirthdays. Resolutions work because are a fresh start.Īt the end of the year you step ahead of the past version of yourself-you know, the version that always pulled on the lane rope, ate like a donkey, skipped morning practices-and feel a surge of confidence and motivation from the “new” you. Norcross et al (2002) found that 46% of resolvers were “continually successful” after six months while just 4% of nonresolvers (people who wanted to make change-exercise more, eat better, the usual, but didn’t make resolutions) saw change.While those numbers are pretty good, here is a better one: People who make resolutions are more than 10x likely to be successful making change compared to those who just think about the change they want. After one month, 55% were still successful, and by six months, 40% of resolvers were holding on to their New Years commitment. Norcross et al (1989) found that after one week, 77% of resolvers kept their resolutions.Marlatt and Kaplan (1975) found that 75% of college students stayed true to their resolutions after 15 weeks.After a couple weeks, maybe a month, the line-ups for machines and racks at the gym go from mayhem to ma-normal.īut for plenty of resolvers, the resolutions produce lasting change: The wave of new sign-ups at the local gym thin out when the excitement starts to wear off. You see it in the pool, at the gym, and the fruits and vegetables section at the grocery store: hopped up on the motivation and excitement of a fresh start, many of us are launching ourselves into some form of improvement.įor some, the surge in motivation and commitment is short-lived. I’m gonna eat better! Be 18% more committed to my goals! Train like someone stole my lunch money! The New Year is rolling out, and if you are like most swimmers, you’ve written up some fancy-pants resolutions for you and your swimming.
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