Podcast Transcription: The 5 Mistakes People Make with Their New Year’s Resolutions (And How to Avoid Them)

Ted Ryce: I want to ask you, what do you want your health and fitness to be like one year from now? If you’re like many people, you have big plans for your health for 2023. In fact, 38% of US adults set New Year’s resolutions every single year and the top three resolutions are all health related. But you know what, 23% quit in the first week. Only 36% make it past the first month, and only 9% successfully keep their New Year’s resolution for the whole year.  

Today, we’re going to talk about the five mistakes that people make when following through with their New Year’s resolution. And look, this is going to be true even if you don’t have a typical resolution, just a goal. So, I want you to pay attention. If you’re looking for how to achieve that next level for your health and what is in your way, you’re in the right place.  

So, what is up my friend? Welcome to the Legendary Life Podcast, health expert and coach Ted Ryce. We work with founders, entrepreneurs and busy professionals to help them break the bad habits create the new ones, so they can finally be healthy for the rest of their life, all within the context of their busy lifestyle. And I do this podcast for two reasons: 

Number one, I want you to take the information here that I’ve learned for 23 years, I want you to apply it in your life and get great results. I want you to be healthier. And number two is if you want that next level assistance, if you want world class coaching to help you achieve your health goals faster, more efficiently on your own and with less stress, you’re going to turn to me when it comes for that time if that time ever comes to you, where you want help achieving that next level health goal.  

So, let’s dive in. We’ve already talked about how if you’ve set your resolution for this year, and you want to get in better shape, the odds are stacked against you. And I don’t care who you are, how smart you are, how much money you make, or what your education is, you are most likely going to be one of those statistics, unless you pay attention to the mistakes that I’m going to share with you today.  

And the number one thing is this, I want you to understand this, I want you to pay very close attention to what I’m going to tell you because this is something that took me decades to learn. What people do is this, they choose a diet to follow, they choose a workout routine to fall and then they’re off to the races. And at first you feel so good. It’s the beginning of the year. You have that energy. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling pumped. I know 2023 is going to be my best year ever.  

And maybe you feel the same way and you’re in the gym, and you’re crushing it. But then a week, a month, a quarter into it, all of a sudden, you’re not doing the workouts anymore, you’ve gone back on nutrition.  

And so what I want to tell you is this, the key to achieving whatever goal that you have for your health is consistency. You have to develop the ability to be consistent. And today I want to talk about the five mistakes that will stop your health goals dead in their tracks.
Number one is this is the wrong mindset. What do I mean by that? Even in my coaching program, where I mean, I work with high performers, you hear me, I say hey, are you an entrepreneur? Are you a busy professional? Are you a founder? Are you crushing it in life? Are your relationships good, but you want to achieve that next level and health, but you’re struggling to do it.  

I want you to think about that for a second. Because the people who I work with, they’re successful in their careers. They do have good relationships. I mean, how many people have both of those handled in life, but they’re struggling with their health?  

And why I say that is this because even if you’re smart, even if you’re successful, you might have a mindset issue with health and fitness. I want to show you what that looks like. Number one, do you go for quick fixes? We’ll talk about unsustainable strategies in a minute.  

But do you go for quick fixes? Do you step on the scale and you see a number that you don’t like and you quit because the negative feelings that come up for you are too overwhelming and just make you want to quit, make you want to give up? That’s a mindset issue.  

Do you feel like there’s no way you’re ever going to get your health handled and lose the weight and keep it off for good? That is a mindset issue. Do you blame your age, your metabolism, your hormones, environmental toxins, yada, yada, yada all the reasons instead of looking at the truth which is the, this is an issue of just calories in calories out.  

Fat Loss is so simple, folks. What makes it complex is changing your behavior. What makes it complex is what we’re talking about right now, the mindset. So, if you have any of those issues, you have a mindset issue.  

Another mindset issue is unreasonable expectations. I’ve had clients who lost… I had to fire a client, the guy was getting great results, he lost something like 20 pounds in three months. And he’s like, “Well, I thought I was going to lose more.” I’m like, what, we ended up firing him because it was a very interesting situation. He wasn’t American. So, that was part of the challenge us from Singapore, very difficult person. And I felt like he needed psychological help. But that’s a mindset issue.  

If nothing’s ever good enough for you, even though you’re getting great results, objectively looking at well, how much weight can you lose in three months? 20 pounds is an amazing success. The average is one pound a week. So, in three months, that would be 12 pounds. If you’re hitting 20 or more, those are results we’re paying for. But it’s a mindset issue.  

Mistake number two, chronic stress. I want you to listen to this because I talk a lot about stress and people say “Oh, you got to manage your stress.” But I feel like a not enough focus is put on why it is important. And it’s really simple. When you are trying to change your behavior, there’s a couple of things that you need to know.  

Number one, you’re not trying to create a new habit, by itself, you’re trying to break a bad habit too. For example, it’s not that you don’t have that the habit of exercising and eating well, you have this. And so what I mean is, it’s not that you don’t have that habit. And then there’s just this vacuum, you already have a habit of how you eat, you have a habit of how you exercise, or more likely avoid exercise.  

For example, maybe after a long day of work, what you do is you come and sit on the couch and eat and watch some TV as an example. And that’s what you do after everyday work. That is a habit, folks. And what is the habit? Neural patterns in your brain that makes it easy for you to do the things that you’ve been programmed to do. For example, do you really have to think when you drive a car, even in traffic? You probably talk on your phone.  

But when you first started driving a car… I remember when I first started driving, I’m surprised I got my license. It was so bad. I’m like, how is this woman even giving me my license right now? I think I nearly killed us. But now I can drive.  

If I don’t drive for a long time and then get back in the car, I still know how to do it. And I can do it quite well, I can have a conversation and drive a car and talk at the same time. It’s not a problem. So how does chronic stress fit into this?  

Well, chronic stress sabotages your ability to learn. It does so by shrinking, let’s say the database, it shrinks your focus. It’s a narrowing focus. So, let’s say for example, I have my clients, they track their calories. Let’s say that work is really stressful. But the week before you were tracking your calories, and it wasn’t a big deal, but all of a sudden, the stress at work, maybe you’re putting out some dumpster fires, it gets pretty intense.  

And then all of a sudden, what happens your focus narrows, and instead of like, “Oh, well, things are busy at work. But let me track my calories.” You’re saying, screw tracking calories, I need to handle this now, it’s an existential threat. That’s what stress does. It narrows your focus, so you drop everything else.  

Because the goal when you’re highly stressed, is that you start to focus on the threat and solve it but long term goals—and I want you to pay attention here—your long term goals get pushed to the side. And that makes total sense. That’s how our stress response works.  

And the issue is this, that problem in your business or the business that you work in, is not really going to end your life, probably won’t end your business, but you feel like it will. And the reality is you’re going to be alive in a decade, two decades from now. That’s the probability and you’ll have poor health and then that will be a threat to you. But right now, it isn’t.  

Do you see where I’m going with this? If you don’t manage your stress, you’re going to be constantly focused on those dumpster fires in your business or in the business that you’re working on. And you’re going to be pushing off long term goals until your health becomes a source of chronic stress.  

Let me tell you something: people who say that they don’t have the right time. Or it’s not the right time to focus on their health, that’s total bullshit. If you got diagnosed with diabetes and told, hey, if you don’t get this handled, you’re going to die in three months. Or if you have your first heart attack, and I’ve seen this, people change on a dime. “Oh, it’s not the right time. It’s too hard to change.” For some people, that’s true.  

But if you’re a high performer, if you’re just overwhelmed with stress, and you’re divorced, you’re broke, you’re over 40, you’re in poor health, maybe a diabetes diagnosis. Some people are going to get crushed. And if that’s you, man, I hope you pull out of that.  

That’s not really who I work with, or who I help. But I really hope you pull out of it. But if you’re a high performer, and you’re making money, and you’re doing well with relationships, it’s just this health thing that you can’t figure out. And you don’t have time for it. If you had a heart attack, and then you got slapped in the face, because that’s what it is, when you have a health issue. And I’ve had my share, believe me, thankfully not a heart attack, or super serious.  

But I’ve had my slap in the face health issue, wake up calls, it’s like, oh, I have to prioritize this. And then you start to say, well screw work, because guess what? I could die, and these people are going to replace me, life goes on, the world will go on without you. And I don’t mean that in a cold way. I mean that in a very practical way. So, you’ve got to look out for yourself and your health, manage your stress is the answer there.  

Mistake number three, unsustainable strategies. Oh, man, let me tell you, I hang out with a bunch of entrepreneurs, and they’re all 75 hard. If you don’t know what the 75 hard is, you got to work out twice a day, 45 minutes, you have to drink a gallon of water. And you have to follow a diet and no cheat days. And you got to read 10 pages of a book and also do some other things. It sounds good, right? Except it’s missing one incredibly important thing, who gives a fuck about 75 days. The only hope that you can have if you are successful with this is that in 75 days, you somehow create a sustainable habit.  

Most people can’t even finish it. And the ones that do are entrepreneurs that have a lot of time. And then I asked a person who did it, it’s like, well, you finished it. Okay, that’s great. What do you do now? “Oh, just keep it up.” It’s like, okay, great, are you just keep going to keep that up for 20 years or is it going to be the two decade hard, the three decade hard? You have to be more flexible than that. Life has its ups and downs.  

And even if you have high amount of knowledge, high amount of skill, and the time to make it happen, you’re still going to have these times where you’re going to eat more, you’re going to travel, you’re going to be in a different food environment, you’re not going to have your gym.  

And that goes with not just the 75 hard, but the keto diet, the intermittent fasting. If these are working for you right now, great, but just understand if they stop working for you, it’s because it’s an unsustainable strategy for you.  

Because I even think there’s value in trying these approaches, you end up learning things. And I’ve tried some approaches like this. I did intermittent fasting. I’ve never done the keto diet, will never do the 75 hard. I do a lot of that anyway, in the 75 hard. I’m in the two decade, I don’t know, I call it easy, because I’m on automatic pilot for a lot of what I do with my health, automatic pilot, and that’s where I believe you should strive for—not doing something hard, it’s so hard. That’s not the hard thing, making it effortless is the real hard thing. And that’s what I help my clients get to.  

And so the point is this, you’ll need a smarter and more flexible strategy to stay in shape for decades, playing the long game. And you know that already, if you’re in business, either running your own business or working at a high level in a business, that business is probably been around for a while, or at least they’re planning on being around for a while.  

And most businesses go out of business, right? I forget the statistic there. I’m not a business coach. But I know most small businesses, they never become big businesses because they go out of business because they used unsustainable strategies.  

So, consistency is the key and having strategies that you can be consistent with, that are easier to be consistent with, that’s the key. 

Number four, unsupportive environment. And I want to say, I asked someone recently they were in really good shape. This is a conversation off social media. I asked someone recently, “Hey, you used to be in great shape, what’s the issue now?” And then they replied, “Bottom line, discipline” two words bottom line, discipline.  

While I appreciate that answer, because what that individual was trying to do is take responsibility. And I really do appreciate when people say, “I just need to be more disciplined.”  

And certainly, there does need… I forget what the technical definition of discipline is. But we do need some of that, I think of it more like motivation than discipline. Motivation is the activation of goal-oriented behavior.  

And then we need to take that motivation to act, and then eventually make it an automatic habit, just like driving, just like walking and chewing gum at the same time. Just like pretending you’re listening to your kids, while you’re scrolling on social media… I hope you don’t do that. I’m just kidding there.  

But what I want to tell you is this: a big issue is having an environment that works against you. And while it’s cool that are appreciated… at least I appreciate it. If you’re trying to take responsibility and say, it’s just discipline, I just need to work harder. But the reality is, it’s you got to think about the hard work that you’re doing.  

So, think about this: who is going to have an easier time? Someone who has no junk food in their house. They live in a walkable area. In fact, going to the gym is just a five-minute walk away. I’m talking about myself here, right now,  

I have no junk food in the house. I am a five-minute walk from the gym. So, I have to get in my steps to go to the gym. And then I work out and then I walk back. So, it’s a quick walk and I get steps in and I’m doing a job that I love. I run a business that I love. And I get massages and do other things to manage my stress.  

Versus, take another person, they are in an area where there is no walkability, you have to drive everywhere. And they have to drive 30 minutes to the gym, just to go workout. And they’ve surrounded themselves with junk food at their house, either because their partner or maybe their partner and their kids love having junk food in the house.  

And they have no strategies for managing stress, except sitting on the couch, binging on Netflix, drinking alcohol, and eating food. And then that person is going to say, “I just need more discipline, I got to say no to the goodies in the pantry. I got to force myself to drive 30 minutes to the gym for one hour and change and come back.”  

Drive there 30 minutes, workout for an hour, drive back for 30 minutes. Because hey, you might as well spend an hour if you’re going to drive 30 minutes. So, that’s two hours of time. And when they come home, they’re going to watch TV but they’re going to say hey, I’m going to watch TV because that’s my thing, but I’m not going to drink alcohol even though it’s in my house or eat the junk food, even though it’s in my house.  

So, I just need to be more discipline.  

Do you see where I’m going with this? And then add into your life, the friends who want to go out and drink alcohol or “Come on just have a drink. Come on. And let’s go get some wings, let’s go out to the steak house. Let’s have another bottle of wine.” Or, “your cups empty. Here’s some more.”  

So, if you want to make sustainable change, you’ll have to take a hard look at your environment and how it’s working against you, or how it’s working for you. I don’t hang out with alcoholics. Sometimes, I don’t hang out with people who drink every day, is what I’m saying.  

I don’t know if that’s technically an alcoholic if you’re having a drink every day, but it’s one drink. But I don’t hang out with people. I wouldn’t even date a beautiful woman who drank every single day. I think that’s a red flag for me even one glass of wine.  

And here’s the thing, right? People are saying like, “Oh, it’s my age, my hormones and all that.” It’s like, no, you’re just surrounded by stress, by an unsupportive environment, then you try unsustainable strategies that you have to force yourself to do like the keto diet. And of course, you’re going to fail. You can’t be consistent. You’ve got to find a way to be consistent. You’ve got to find a way for you to be consistent enough so that it eventually becomes automatic, just like driving a car. There’s no difference, folks.  

Of course, there are some differences. I don’t want to get into the technical differences. And quite frankly, I don’t know them. But what I can tell you is this: a pattern of behavior, whether it’s driving a car, playing a piano, exercising after work, stepping on the scale, looking at the number and saying, “You know what? That’s just the number right now. I need to take into context, the overall trend.” Those are all habits. And so this is what’s really going on.  

And I want to share the final mistake, which is lack of accountability. And this is the secret sauce here. And I want to tell you, I’m not just the Hair Club for Men. I don’t know, maybe you’ve seen this commercial. But it’s like, I’m not just the Hair Club for Men… it’s one commercial where the guy is like, “I’m not just the owner, but I’m also a client.”  

I think it was a Hair Club for Men. But it might be a suit for men or a suit warehouse. I don’t remember. But my point is this: I’m also a client of coaching, I need the accountability. In fact, I’m going to tell you, I did a year of business coaching and it was incredible. I shared my challenges with a business coach. And when I first started it, but then man, I turned a corner and we crushed it. Last year was incredible growth on a personal level and in professional level. 

And 2023, oh, man, this is going to be my best year ever. Best year in business, best year personally. I’m feeling on top of the world. But I had a little bit of a break with my business coaching. And man, I felt the lack of accountability, the lack of clarity, the lack of direction.  

Now I’m good on my own. I can make money. That’s not the problem. That’s not why I need business coaching. Why I need business coaching, is, how do I scale my business and still keep high quality results?  

How do I train my assistant coach who is incredible, but he needs training? And he looks to me and my business partner, Giselle for it. How do I train him effectively? What are the other things that I don’t know that my business coach knows that he can help me with, so I can avoid some of the mistakes I would make on my own trying to figure it out? And I just signed up with him again, and I can’t wait to be back in the zone with coaching.  

And what I want to tell you is this, if you are having trouble, if you’re going on and off again, if you don’t know any strategies other than CrossFit, and keto, and five by five for whatever strong lifts or whatever type of routine that you’ve been following, and you don’t know how to change it, you don’t have the skills, the knowledge to be flexible with it. 

You don’t know how to manage your stress, you don’t know how to view the whole process, you don’t know how to put all the steps together in a step-by-step method that makes it easy for you to stay consistent until this becomes automatic. Well, that’s when I come in. Because those are the real hard things to do.  

Forcing yourself to exercise. Forcing yourself to diet. Forcing yourself to work against unsupportive environment. I don’t want to call those easy. But those are the quick fixes. Those are the things, the patterns of behavior that people fall back into. The real hard thing is leveling up, changing your strategies, making the necessary changes in your lifestyle, making the time for yourself so that you can see you have the space time mental bandwidth to achieve your health goals.  

Because if we don’t, we default to those bad habits again, as soon as the diet becomes too hard to keep up. As soon as the workout just takes too much time, or leaves you too sore. And this is a pattern, doing it on your own and repeating the same patterns over and over again. That’s why coaching is such a game changer.  

That’s why not just the systems, but the mindset and the accountability can take you to the next level faster than what you can do on your own. And to wrap this up, the mistakes we’re talking about is: The wrong mindset, chronic stress, using unsustainable strategies, living in an unsupportive environment and Lack of accountability. Those are the five mistakes.  

And if you feel like you resonated with this, like you know there’s something about what you’re doing that needs to change because you just fall into the same patterns over and over again, and you’re an entrepreneur, founder, or a busy professional, you’re doing well in your life, you’re doing well in relationships, but this health piece is that last thing that you just haven’t conquered yet.  

And if you want to conquer it in record time, record for you at least for me, it’s normal to get great results, then I want you to book a call with me because I’m looking to coach three entrepreneurs, who are busy professionals, to get into the best shape of their life, both mentally and physically.  

And if that resonates with you, go to www.legendarylifeprogram.com/apply and book a 15-minute call with me. Don’t book it for me. Well, I guess you will but book it with me. And on that 15-minute call what are we going to talk about? We’re going to talk about your goals, what’s in the way of achieving your goals? What you’ve tried in the past and what you feel you need to succeed and then I’ll help you put a game plan together to making it happen.  

And if you and I feel like you’re a good fit for my coaching, then we’re going to talk about that. But let me tell you, things are going well for me, if I feel like I’m not right for you, there’s no hard sells, is what I’m trying to say. I’ve built my business in a way where I can look for win/win relationships, look for the ideal clients, who not only I can help, but who are a pleasure to work with.  

And if you want in on that, let’s have a talk. So, that’s again one last time, www.legendarylifeprogram.com/apply.  

I hope this helped today. I hope you started to shift your mindset and see things differently. And I’d even ask, what was the big takeaway from listening to today’s episode that you can go and apply in your life? What change can you go make? That’s the question I want to leave you with. Hope you have an incredible year. And I’m really looking forward to this year both for you and for me. That’s it. Love you lots and speak to you soon.