Begin Your Quest
The ball has dropped. A few pieces of confetti are still attached to your clothes and you have woken up in a small village known as Hangoverville.
You take two aspirin, wonder to yourself why you drank so much last night and realize that 2016 is here and your New Year’s resolution starts on Monday, January 4th.
This time, you are determined to see your resolution through and make positive changes in your life.
What Are the Odds?
Resolutions, however, are like attacking a Deathclaw in a confined area, the odds are stacked against you.
According to Statistic Brain, a California-based research institute, losing weight or getting healthy and fit ranked #1 and #5 among the top 10 resolutions made in 2015.
Scroll down the list provided by Statistic Brain and you will find that 25% of those who make resolutions throw in the towel by the end of the first week.
Of the millions of Americans who make New Year’s resolutions, only 8% achieve their resolution.
According to the same list above from Statistic Brain, more than 36% of people have given up their goals for better health or fat loss days before Valentine’s Day.
In my experience, the reason most New Years resolutions fail is due to a lack of clear, defined goals.
We have all at some point said things like:
- “I wanna lose 30 pounds”
- “I want to feel better”
- “I want to eat more healthy”
- “I want to stick to an exercise regiment and not give up in two weeks”
The problem with these goals is that they are vague and do not give us a clear defined path for us to execute a plan and achieve our goals.
SMART Goals
A resolution like, “I want to eat more healthy,” is pretty ambiguous.
What do you mean by “healthy?”
Grilled chicken?
Salad?
Gluten free?
Tofu?
Anything you grab in the “health” food aisle?
Instead of simply saying, “I want to eat healthy,” you could break your resolution down and establish SMART goals.
SMART stands for, specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound.
Check out the graph below where I will apply the SMART principle to the resolution of “I want to eat healthier”
| Specific | I will eat a vegetable and lean protein source at each meal during my day. | |
| Measureable | I will create a checklist that hangs on my refrigerator and will check it off each day for each meal that I have a veggie and lean protein source. | |
| Attainable | I will start by eating a single vegetable at ONE meal for a week and slowly add veggies to each meal in the following weeks. | |
| Realistic | I will focus on being more conscious about my food selection, prioritizing lean protein and veggies at each meal. | |
| Time-Bound | I will be eating a veggie and lean protein source at each meal by February 28th, 2015 |
The principle of SMART goals is not just a fitness idea. It also applies to every single quest or mission you have ever tackled in any video game you have ever played.
Be a SMART Assassin
One game that implements many of these SMART goals is Assassins Creed.
All of the missions or assassinations in Assassins Creed games are pretty standard across all their iterations.
They follow the SMART principles I outlined above but instead of fitness they use these principles to help you stalk and kill Templars.
Your character is given the task to assassinate a Templar in a historic plaza without raising an alarm before the character reaches the plaza exit. (Specific)
As you track the Templar and dodge in and out of crowds, the level of alarm or suspicion is measured by an icon above the targets head. (Measurable)
To complete this goal, you have to use your characters ability to blend in with crowds or bribe specific characters in the world to distract guards, allowing you freedom to move around the map unnoticed. (Attainable)
Killing your target without setting off an alarm may seem unrealistic, or less exciting than running in like Leroy Jenkins and fighting your way out, but since your target is in a crowded plaza and you can blend in with others, it is not out of the realm of possibilities. (Realistic)
You are time bound in this mission because you have to assassinate your target before he reaches the end of the plaza and exits. (Time-bound)
As a gamer, you already use these principles every time you fire up Skyrim, Fallout, Assassins Creed, World of Warcraft, or even Call of Duty, so why not apply them to your New Year’s resolution and this year conquer your Quest for Health and Fitness?
Gamify Your Fitness
Forget resolutions this year.
Give yourself a Quest. A Quest for a More Awesome You!
Break your Quest down with the principles of SMART and turn your desire for weight loss, eating better, or increasing activity into a game!
Be super specific when you create your Quest. Make sure to write down WHAT you want, HOW you will accomplish it, WHEN you will execute your activities, and include WHY you want to accomplish this Quest.
It was not until I turned my pursuit for health and fitness into a game that I finally achieved the results that I had desired for years.
This same concept is what I use to help my clients achieve their highest levels on their Quests.
*to learn more about how I help clients achieve their highest level click here*
You Have the Tools
Mario had 400 seconds to beat Level 1-1!
Losing the weight that took years to put on won’t happen in the first week.
Give yourself plenty of time to achieve your goals and enjoy the journey!
Life is the greatest RPG you will ever play, so why rush through it all?
Gamers like you and I have already conquered dragons in Skyrim, saved the galaxy in Mass Effect, defeated the devil in Diablo, and there is no one on Earth that can claim to be that badass!
The only people who can claim to be that badass are gamers.
You already have the tools and experience from your years of questing in video games to succeed with your goals of health and fitness in 2016.
Apply the principles of SMART to your resolution this year, reframe it to feel more like a quest, and at the end of 2016, you will be at a whole new level than where you started at a year prior.
**Level Up Your Fitness**
To Kick off 2016 and help you conquer your Fitness Quest, I am giving anyone who signs up for Online Coaching, from now until 12 pm PST on January 2nd, 30% off my monthly coaching fee.
I hate knowing that less than 8% of people ever achieve their health/fitness minded New Year’s resolutions and I want to help you gamify your Fitness Quest and achieve your goal!
So for those who are serious and want to embark on their Quest for a More Awesome Life and are ready to hit the START button today, I want to reward you for beginning your journey.
2016 is YOUR YEAR. The year that you write the legend you want the world to know. The year that you take the arrow out of your knee and become the Dragonborn!
To begin your Quest for a More Awesome You, click the image below, fill out the application and I will get back to you within 24 hours.
I look forward to helping you conquer your Quest and achieve your highest level!
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CLICK THE IMAGE TO GET 30% OFF COACHING AND START YOUR QUEST TODAY