Start Before January

January 1 is 11 weeks away. For a lot of people, that date is the plan: wait for the new year, then try to change everything at once.

There is a better way to use the next 11 weeks. In this article you will learn why you do not need January to start, why every goal begins with knowing where you are, and the one small step to take this week.

You Get to Pick Your Fresh Start

New Year's feels like a clean slate, and research backs up that feeling. Researchers who study what they call the fresh start effect found that searches for "diet," gym visits, and commitments to pursue goals all rise after landmarks on the calendar. The new year is one of those landmarks. So is the start of a new month, a new week, a birthday, or a holiday.

The label matters too. In a follow-up experiment, people chose a date to get an email reminder about a personal goal. About 26 percent picked a certain date when it was labeled the first day of spring, compared with about 7 percent when the same date was labeled the third Thursday in March. A fresh start is partly a story you tell yourself, and you can tell it today.

Here in New Orleans, there is an even closer landmark. Fit Fête Weekend is 30 days away: the Community Games, the New Orleans Marathon, and the free WellNXT wellness festival, Nov 13 and 14 at City Park. That is a fresh start with a date already on the calendar.

Making a real commitment matters as well. In one study that followed people for six months, 46 percent of those who made a New Year's resolution reported continuous success, compared with 4 percent of people who wanted to make a similar change later but did not make a resolution.

Every Goal Starts in the Same Place

Whatever you are after, losing weight, getting faster, getting stronger, or just feeling better, the first step is the same: know where you are right now. A starting point turns a wish into a plan. It tells you what to work on first, and later it tells you whether the work is paying off.

This is not just coaching wisdom. In a review of more than 100 healthy eating and exercise programs, tracking your own eating or activity was the strategy most linked to better results.

A doctor I spoke with thinks about numbers the same way. I asked Dr. Spencer Krane, a urologic oncologist at Touro Infirmary, what he does first when a man comes in with symptoms like low energy, tiredness or a change in muscle: ask about his lifestyle, or go straight to a testosterone test. He told me he is a huge fan of getting labs, and that having numbers does not mean he is going to put you on medication. The way he put it:

"I think obtaining labs and understanding where your numbers are is a really powerful position to be in. Having numbers doesn't require that we put you on pharmacologic therapy following that. It just gives us a baseline to understand where you are."

Dr. Spencer KraneUrologic Oncologist, Touro Infirmary

He made a similar point about the PSA, the blood test used to screen men for prostate cancer. One reading can go up and down, and if you measured it day to day, you might get different levels. What matters most, he said, is not the specific number but the change over time. Your starting point works the same way. It is the first number in a trend, not a verdict.

Over the next three weeks, this series walks through three simple ways to take your starting point: how your clothes fit and how many calories you burn in a day, a one-mile walk or a 12-minute run, and four holds that show you what your core really is.

What I Learned From April Dupré

I sat down with April Dupré, who founded Footprints to Fitness here in New Orleans, and we talked about how to make it easier to show up.

April talked about people who have not done anything all year and then buy a gym membership on January 1. She said they are probably going to taper off by March, if not sooner. Her reason was simple. It is not realistic for them to do.

April told me she has never been a gym person herself. Her view is that if the gym is not your thing, you are never going to be successful at it, because it will always feel like a barrier. Riding your bike, walking your dog, or playing catch with your kids still counts as activity. That is what she wants people to see.

She helps people find things they enjoy and make them as easy and as sustainable as possible. She was honest that not everything is going to be easy. But she said making it a bit easier to fit into your day will hopefully help you stay consistent for the long term. The way she put it to me:

"I always tell people the hardest part is showing up and if you make it easier for yourself to show up, you're more likely to succeed and have longevity in that success."

April DupréFounder, Footprints to Fitness

That is the point of starting now. You do not need a perfect plan or a perfect date. You need a starting point, and a first step small enough that you will actually take it.

What to Do This Week

1. Write one sentence. What do you want to be different a year from now? Make it something you will do, not something you will avoid. In a study of more than 1,000 adults who made New Year's resolutions, those whose main resolution was about doing something reported more success a year later than those whose resolution was about avoiding something.
2. Date the page. This is your day one. You will want to look back at it.
3. Book your starting point. Put 30 minutes on your calendar for next week, with a day and a time. In one study, workers whose flu shot reminder asked them to write down the date and time they planned to go were more likely to get the shot than workers whose reminder simply listed the clinic times and places.

You do not need a new year to start. You need a starting point, a plan, and a reason to keep going. This series builds all three, one week at a time. Next week: your starting point, with one outfit, one photo, and how many calories you burn in a day.

Spencer Maxwell Shilstone

Performance Systems Builder · Founder, MaxWell Nutrition

Founder of MaxWell Nutrition and Shilstone Performance Systems. Spencer works with teams and individuals to help them reach their performance goals. He has the honor and privilege of working with and building integrative performance programs for members of U.S. Army Special Operations Command. Optimum Performance is his column at MaxWell Nutrition.