This is usually a time when we take stock of what we’ve done in the old year and make some resolutions for the new one. For me it’s been a very tough but productive year as I committed to education and study which really took me out of my comfort zone. I had to work hard but ultimately it was worth it to qualify as a Bowen Practitioner.

I’m not a great believer in making resolutions, we often aim too high and then feel bad when we fail to reach our expectations. When it comes to making lifestyle changes nothing happens over night.

A few years ago I worked in a gym, the wonderful Courtney’s at Water World, now sadly long gone but full of happy memories for the many Yorkies who went there. It’s well known in the fitness industry that January is the time when people join a gym and start off with all good intentions, coming three times a week in a fit of enthusiasm. By the time February half term comes around attendance has waned and most people have dropped right off by the end of March. Come on, it’s obvious, the big gyms around York have memberships in the thousands, if everyone kept up with their fitness regime, they wouldn’t all squeeze in. Gyms depend on people joining and then not going to them. In the fitness industry we expect people to give up on their New Year resolutions, the best fitness class leaders and personal trainers are the ones who keep fitness fun and interesting and give their passion to their clients.

It does seem to be true that we have a built in boredom threshold of around six weeks when it comes to taking on new activities. Six weeks is long enough to get a grasp of the activity you are learning, feel that you can do it reasonably well, and still enjoy doing it. In six weeks you can make a great difference, but long lasting results need an ongoing commitment. So, a month in, you need a new serving suggestion. Accomplishment builds over time, and by regularly changing the approach to your fitness activity you will achieve accomplishment without becoming bored and disheartened.

When it comes to taking on a movement discipline like pilates I often make a comparison to learning a language or learning to play a musical instrument: you wouldn’t expect to be expert at it without putting in the practice, but the process is ongoing. Besides making each class a little different from the previous one, without making things too confusing, I like to remind my students of how far they’ve come in the weeks or months since they started classes. Simple things like being able to walk or run further, being able to sit upright on the floor or being able to achieve a more advanced exercise. I think at this time of year it’s good to look back and see how far we’ve come.