Editor's note: This column was written before the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic in Virginia.
Illustration by Rachel Maves
We’re well into spring, and that excitement you felt at the start of the year, the determination to achieve your New Year’s resolutions, has waned. You might feel defeated by a lack of progress (or even a lack of starting). But here’s the good news: it’s never too late to start improving yourself. So let’s kick off a new idea, the Rest of the Year Resolution, and resolve to make the most of the rest of 2020.
I ran the Richmond Half Marathon for the first time last November. It was an incredible accomplishment for me: I’ve had a very on-again/off-again relationship with health and fitness throughout adulthood. The marathon was the culmination of nearly two years of consistent running and healthy eating. After the race, I took a couple weeks off, just to give my body some time to recover from a pretty tough training schedule and an ankle injury sustained during the race. And when two weeks were up, I told myself I could take another week and still be fine. Before you know it, I had taken off most of December. I was planning on running the Monument Avenue 10K for the third time in a row in March. As long as I could get in a solid three months of training, I thought, everything should be fine.
I did get in a few workouts in January, but I struggled to get back to a routine, and I was still taking too many days off. My eating habits worsened as well, and I gained back a bunch of weight in a short amount of time. One day, looking in the mirror, I decided it was gut check time. Literally.
While I was unhappy with myself for letting some of my progress go, I had to forgive myself. I had to remember that I was still a runner. I had two years of amazingly healthy progress; two months wasn’t going to undo it all. So, I decided to start over.
I made a new New Year’s Resolution that I was going to get back on track. I canceled the training program I was barely following, and started a new one. I reminded myself that I had the rest of the year to become a stronger runner and a healthier person, and that I could begin that journey that very day. I reset my starting weight in my app, and focused on losing weight from that point forward, not “re-losing” weight I had gained back. I started running again with consistency, and sure enough, the times picked up, the runs got longer, and the pounds started to drop.
As most runners know, running is a metaphor for life, and whether you run or not, you can do the same thing I did: press reset and make a new resolution for the rest of the year. If your self-improvement plans have gone by the wayside, get up, go take a look at yourself in the mirror, and remind yourself that there is still time to achieve your goal.
Make a new plan, and then go out and just take it one step, one day at a time. Whether it’s getting off the couch or quitting a bad habit, practicing positivity or improving your relationships, you can still do it. Let’s get restarted.
It may not be a failed New Year’s resolution that’s got you down. Perhaps you set some annual business goals for your company and you’re already way off just a quarter into the year.
I can relate to that, too. As the founder of Share More Stories, this has been my reality for more years than less. In December 2015, barely a year after starting the business, we were on the verge of landing a deal with a major company. This was it, what every entrepreneur dreamed of: a globally recognized and respected brand. The holidays came, and we continued to work on contract terms. Then January came. And we continued to work on contract terms. Then February came, and I heard nothing. In March, I learned my contact was leaving the company. There went customer No. 1. And there went our goals for the year.
I was disappointed and depressed. I went through all the stuff entrepreneurs everywhere go through: the frequent questioning of the logic of building a business in the face of frequent failure. But I took a deep breath. Grieved a little, if I’m being honest. And rewrote my plan for the year. And you know what, we achieved it. We got customer No. 1. And customer No. 2. And customer No. 3. And we’ve grown every year since.
If you’ve let your New Year’s resolution slide, or you haven’t achieved your goals so far, you’re probably stressed over what you haven’t yet accomplished. But here’s the good news: There is always time to start over. Press reset. Make a new resolution. Write a new plan. And start again.
James Warren has called Richmond home for 14 years. He’s vice president with JMI and founded the company’s storytelling startup, Share More Stories.
