Transform Your New Year’s Health Goals With Your Assistant

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Transform Your New Year’s Health Goals With Your Assistant
Athena Member
January 3, 2025

January 4th, 2024 (the previous year). I walk into a local gym at 7 AM after making a classic overachiever’s mistake…

I’d signed up for a 75-day program that demanded:

  • 7 AM workouts
  • One 45-minute session per day
  • Zero alcohol
  • Strict keto diet
  • Cold showers

By February 1st, I was sitting in my car outside the gym at 7:15 AM, googling "how to quit a fitness challenge."

Made it exactly 19 days.

The funny thing is I'm not alone. Data shows 92% of New Year's resolutions fail. Most people choose the "aggressive" route to goal setting right out of the gate.

3 potential reasons why things go wrong:

1/ They don’t asses their REAL commitment level to making a change
2/ They don’t know what mindset they need to make a change
3/ They can make a change, but can’t sustain it

Aspect Incremental Moderate Aggressive
Commitment Low Medium High
Fitness Short and easy workouts (10-15 mins) Balanced exercise routine (3-4x per week) Intensive training regimen (5-6x per week)
Diet Slow, small changes Balanced meals, well planned Strict meals and macro tracking
Mindset Focus on small wins and consistency Mix of challenges and flexibility High accountability with structured goals
Risk Low risk of burnout Moderate risk if flexibility is low High risk if unsustainable

Think about your past attempts at a consequential habit change. Did you tend to start small and build gradually? Or dive in headfirst? How long did those changes last?

This is where having an assistant changed everything for me. Instead of just setting aggressive goals, we analyzed my actual patterns:

  • What time of day did I consistently have energy? For me, I am not a morning person ever, even though I’ve tried to be.
  • Which habits had actually stuck over the past year? I did manage to realize one of my goals last year (read 1 hour a day), but we started with 20-minute increments.
  • When did previous fitness attempts break down and why? The last few years haven’t worked because I tried jumping into the deep end each time, assuming wholesale change will lead to overt benefits that more quickly reinforce positive habits.

We figured out that most of my successful habits started out small. Really small. Looking back at my patterns and habits, burnout tends to be the highest risk for me. I am motivated but find sustainability over time more challenging.

Fifteen-minute workouts, not hour-long sessions. One meal swap, not a complete diet overhaul.

Most importantly, the changes that lasted weren't motivated by the calendar. They were built on systems that matched my natural rhythm of living.

Can’t recommend enough tracking any goal like a business KPI…Clear data, honest feedback loops, and adjustments based on real patterns.

-Gem C.