Why Sarah & Tanna Don’t Do Resolutions ~ and What We Do Instead

In this episode, Sarah and Tanna explore why New Year’s resolutions often fall short and how shifting your focus to intentions can lead to lasting change. They discuss the common pitfalls of unrealistic expectations and poor planning, offering actionable strategies to create a more meaningful approach to personal growth.

Key takeaways include:

Intention Over Resolution: Set goals that come from within and align with your values, rather than rigid, external expectations.
The Power of Vision Boards: Learn how crafting a vision board with meaningful words and images can help manifest desires and maintain focus throughout the year.
A Guiding Word for the Year: Choosing a word like "courage" or "balance" can act as a powerful touchstone for decision-making and personal growth.
Small, Sustainable Habits: Emphasize the importance of incremental, achievable steps over sweeping changes and start whenever you're ready—no need to wait for January 1st.

Tune in for practical tips and inspiration to help you approach the year ahead with clarity, purpose, and confidence.

Sarah also covers the Healthy Role Models Acronym- GRIT:

Link to episode on G.R.I.T. ~ the process for creating LASTING change

Episode Transcript

Did you know that 80% percent of people put the bed with their New Year's resolutions?

And they coined the second Friday in January as Quitter's Day. Just go to get past this.

Hi, I'm Sarah Jolks, founder of healthy role models, and I'm Tana Payne, master trainer and former international Olympic weightlifter.

Welcome to training for life.

Join us as we share our experiences, insights, highs and lows from a combined five decades in the health and fitness industry, whether you're a fitness enthusiast or just or starting your wellness journey, tune in for pandid conversations, expert insights, and a whole lot of fun.

Get ready for a podcast as dynamic as your workout and as real as it gets.

This is training for life.

Hey Tana Hey guess what's just around the corner a new year 2025.

Oh my gosh I'm going to be 50 this year Well, I'm sorry I don't feel bad for you because here's the thing.

If I looked like you when I'm three I'm going to be I'm going to be streaky Oh, something to look forward to.

Are we talking about New Year's resolutions?

Yeah, we are.

Dang.

It brings up a lot with me.

Oh, so are we talking about like the problem with New Year's resolutions and what to do instead?

Yes, yes.

Yes.

Okay.

So did you know I'm just going to jump right in here.

Okay.

Did you know that 80% percent of people the bed with their New Year's resolutions?

Within two weeks, here's another fun fact.

There was a there was data collected in the US and other countries based on fitness apps that people download and they coined the second Friday in January as Quit's day.

Oh my gosh.

Right?

Yeah.

So I want to think to myself like, you just going to get past this second and that means that you didn't the bed.

But then I start reading, you know, and and interestingly enough, I was not a big fan of New Year resolutions for a very long time because I would the bed.

And I thought, okay, why why why?

And then reading and looking up more in terms of, you know, what works and what doesn't and what are the most common New Year's resolutions, it makes so much sense.

So what would you think would be the most common New Year's resolution?

Or multiple, right?

Yes.

The most common ones like the top six lose weight get fit, quit smoking, learn something new, eat healthy and diet, get out of debt and be less stressed.

Okay.

All like great in ideas sign me up exactly.

But then you think about the why, like why and the how like I I guess New Year's resolutions people just don't follow through . Either usually because their Newear's resolution is so huge that it's just overwhelming within like the two weeks, they're like, what have I done?

Yeah, not sustainable.

Not sustainable. Or they're so vague.

Yeah.

It's like, yes, I want to do this, but they don't really know Yes.

Yeah, I so I have that, you know, there's the all or nothing mentality.

We've talked about that before where the resolutions are often extreme and unsseenable.

Like you mentioned, like I'm going to go to the gym every single day.

Yes.

Yeah.

Good luck with them.

And then also lack of plan, like you mentioned, it's like yeah, I've got this idea of what I want, but I have zero plan on how to do it.

Yes.

And so yeah, people are setting these big resolutions without a step by step plan or and having lofty goals is great, but without action or planning, you know, what's what's what are you going to do?

So here's the thing.

For example, quitting smoking.

I think that's a great one because everybody should do that.

That's my opinion.

But if you say I'm going to quit smoking, if that's something you've done for so long or getting out of debt, if that is somewhere you've been for so long, that's like a lot of pressure that you just put on your mind.

Like that's it.

I'm going to get out of debt.

And it also, I find that a lot of a lot of these uh New Year's resolutions are very externally based, which over time, you know, we talk about dedication motivation.

That motivation will, but-bye.

Yeah, that will circle the drain so fast.

Yeah, I I love using the word intention instead of resolution and intention.

Now I don't know.

I should have looked up like the actual meaning of that word, but just the the start of it in means yes, to me, it's something that's coming from inside.

It's intrinsic.

Yes.

And it's something like saying, instead of saying, I'm going to lose 20 pounds by March saying I will prioritize 30 minutes of movement four days a week.

Yes.

Yeah.

That seems so that is so much more attainable than 30 pounds by March.

Like that is 20 I said 20th or over sorry I was thinking about myself.

That's a lot of pressure to put on yourself, especially when you might not have the tools or the resources to even know where to start.

Right.

Oh my gosh, I can imagine that.

And then another example would be like instead of saying no more junk food.

That's it.

I quit all junk food, saying I'll focus on adding one healthy meal to my day.

Exactly.

So adding something in instead of like completely restricting and cutting yourself off of everything that you've been doing up until that point.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I also think the same with being less stressed.

What does that mean?

You know, that's what I automatically think like what what does that mean?

That's different for everybody.

And it would take some time to actually write down exactly what that means for you and then again, why and how are you going to do that?

I guess we're saying it's it has to be more of an internal, would you say internal?

Yeah, and you know, knowing you want to feel less stressed, I think that's a great starting point and it's definitely about how you want to feel and how you want your days to be and they're from there writing down a list of all the ways that you think that you can do that or finding resources to help you realize how you can decrease the stress in your days.

Yeah.

And and why?

Yeah.

Like why you want to do that too.

If it if it's strong enough and powerful enough, think it sticks better with you versus like I want to, you know, lose that however much weight because TikTok says that that's what's in right now or if it's on social media, it has to be true.

Totally.

So what about some practical tips for sustainable change?

I honestly love the idea of having a phrase or a word for you for the New Year versus resolution, whatever it is.

So I know we've done we've done words before and I I for myself I found them so much more powerful because my word previously was resilience.

And so I could take that word in so many different avenues of my life and like literally write down where it was that I needed to be more resilient.

What does resilience mean to me?

Why do I need that?

Why is it important to me?

And it just stuck better because it wasn't it was an internal virtue yeah.

So I think like um a phrase, like you say, I am a woman who take who prietories her health, you know, living that word living that phrase.

I think it would yeah, and what does that look like every day?

Yeah. Yeah.

Not just till the second week until you the bed.

Yeah.

I love that.

I also would add in and I know I've mentioned this before, but I love doing a vision board.

Yes.

So making that board filled with images of what you want to create, how you how you want to feel.

So finding images that match that feeling that you want to create for the year. And even words, like you could take your word for the year and have that on the board so you see it as that constant reminder.

Once you have that board, though, you know, break it down even further and that's where you can pull out your journal and write out like what why these images mean something to you.

I think that is kind of the underlying message with all of this is knowing why it can't just be like, I want to fit into those skinny jeans, not that skinny jeans are cool but I mean maybe they are for some people, but it hurt me just thinking about it.

But it can't just be something that is about like a extrinsic, like motivating thing for you it has to be attached to a deeper reason why it matters.

Yes.

Yeah.

So I have a story in behind that because you know I used to like poo poo on the skinny jeans while those two like holy smokes.

It's like my circle oh, no, I can't even breathe when I wear those anyways.

I always put my I always say as it's like sausage cas I love my girl, but my baths do not love skinny jeans.

Anyways. Sweat pants all the way.

I used to kind of the poopoo the vision board because I didn't get it.

Then I I made my first vision board and I really put thought into it and I had I noticed I had a lot of travel pictures of these exotic places.

And in my mind, I was like, am I ever going to Bora Bora and going to have one of those little huts on the water?

I don't know.

I mean, probably not unless we honest.

So I kind of took that further and I was like, why does that attract me to be on my vision board?

And like what is what is thinking about me being there creating for me?

And I realized what it was that I was that that needed to be also my vision board was my craving for freedom.

And there are times where I crave solitude and there are times where I crave excitement.

So, you know, looking into that vision board and and like you said, like discovering the why is like, why does that attract you?

And why does what does this mean to you?

And I was able to actually fulfill a lot of the vision board, but it wasn't, not all of them were exactly what that vision that that that image was, but I was just as satisfied because it was that sense adventure, that sense of freedom and a feeling of the feeling the feeling that I was creating.

Yeah.

I love that.

I also love the vision board as that constant reminder for you because like let's be honest, our days are so full and we can set these big goals and have these intentions.

But when you know it's a fan or when you know your days are you barely feel like you can breathe because you' days are so busy.

It's just that you know, a quick glance you edit.

It's like okay, this is why I'm doing it and this matters to me and I'm going to keep moving forward towards these things yeah because if you don't have those visual reminders then you know it's not like we have people constantly around us reminding us what matters to us.

That's up to us to remind ourselves.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I heard uh who was it that said this?

It might even have been Mike Tyson that said like, I'm going to butch butcher it, but no, don't say that.

You're going to paraphase.

I am going to rock this uh something about if you started something and you loved it and you so you were so passionate about it and then you know how you get to that point where you kind of don't want to do it anymore and you lose that um do the things you know you need to do that you might not be you might not want to do at the time with the same dedication of motivation that you were in when you chose to when you started.

Does that make sense?

And I think that having a vision board creates that initial like, yes, I can do this.

I can do this.

I can do this, you know?

Yeah.

I also think like and we've we have a an entire episode on the grit acronym that we use in healthy role models with the process of change.

And so sometimes we can have these intentions and things we want to create a new habitits we want to build in our lives as we start a new year.

And let's be honest, like people love the start of a new year as like fresh news like clean slate.

However, you can choose any day to be starting to show up for yourself.

Anyways, now I digress.

So the grit acronym so you can start the new year with great intentions and you know you're clear on those habits you want to build or maybe it's one habit and you get to January 10th and like we can all start January one and we're excited and pumped and that's normal when you are going when you have like a new thing you're going after then we hit the resistance phase.

That's probably right around that second week of January's yeah where resistance comes in and I think it's so important to know that that's part of the process of and most people don't know that.

And so the resistance, you know the bad shows up and they're like dang I guess I suck.

I'm not going to do this and they that's when they quit but when you know that it's just part of the process it's just the second phase of creating that change, you got to keep going.

Yeah.

And then you get to the next phase which is where you start to realize that it's working and you're starting to change and things are happening and then you get to that final phase of transformation where you it becomes a part of your identity and so knowing that as well and we can link that episode for anyone who wants to dig a little deeper into the process of change.

So you can have everything clear and have the best intentions and still still be a part of Quitter's Day if you don't know that that resistance will show up.

Yes.

Yeah.

If it was easy, everybody would do it.

Right.

But understanding, yeah, knowledge is power for sure.

Yeah.

And then we sometimes will say to the women in our community like, man, you know, a lot of people actually quit right before the transformation happens.

They think, oh, nothing's changing.

I don't feel any different. Yet it could be like the next week that they really start to notice the difference in the changes and how they feel.

And so it's like, just keep going yet, right?

Yeah.

Or like literally like fingernails are Honestly, I feel like sometimes it would be easier to pick out a word.

So I wrote down some words.

Want to hear them?

Yeah.

Good because I was going to say them anyway.

Okay.

There was only like I only jotted down five.

There's bazillions, of course, you can do whatever you want, but balance, courage, connection, intention, compassion.

So for example, if your word for the year's courage, I feel like courage is internal and it it encourages you to create small habits everywhere versus having a tunnel vision of I'm going to lose weight or I am going to be dearee or I'm going to quit smoking.

Courage can be like sprinkled in your life.

And it encourages you to think about where you could be more courageous.

And sometimes it's the smallest things, but we always encourage you to celebrate the smallest things too, and the more you can be courageous in all parts of your life.

Yeah.

I love a word for almost it becomes a filtering system as well.

For you, when things are in front of you or when you have opportunities or when you're going for something, you can say like, would a courageous woman do this thing?

Like would she take this action?

And I know I've my word last year was brave.

So it's very similar, but there were situations where I was like, dang, I chose that word.

I got to do this thing.

I got to get out of my comfort zone and do this because I am someone who is brave.

And so it really you can start to embody that word and it will show up in all aspects of your life.

Yeah, versus one single singular focus.

Yeah.

Any closing thoughts, T?

My closing thoughts would just be to reiterate what we just said, like try your best.

There's nothing wrong with New Year's resolutions as I am now realizing.

They just generally speaking, trying your best to go with a phrase or a word and and not that it makes it easier, but it gives you the power to use it in all as aspects of your life, including that one thing that you might want to change, right?

But don't limit yourself to one thing, you know, use that who you want to be on the inside and let it let it flow on the outside.

I love that.

New Year's resolutions really aren't the enemy.

It's how we set them that sets us up for failure and knowing that sustainable change comes from focusing on daily habits. Small winds and the longterm picture yeah.

So we encourage you to reflect on one small achievable habit that you can start right now.

Don't wait for January 1 you don't need a date on a calendar to start showing up for yourself.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And do you have a word for 2025 because I do.

And if you tell me yours, I'll tell you mine you I'm still I'm not going to tell on the podcast because I want people to message me Will you tell me when we press stop maybe?

Yes.

Thank you so much for tuning in and we are wishing you a beautiful holiday season.

However, you celebrate that.

Make sure that you are taking time for you and that you show up for you and let us know your word.

We want to know.

Okay, bye.

Take care.

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You can find both Tana and I and Instagram at coffeeom models or email us through the website, healthy role models.com.

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