There’s less than a month left until 2020. This is when you start thinking about New Year’s resolutions you’re going to make on January 1.

There’s also a high chance you will remember the resolutions you made the year before that you didn’t fulfil.

Surveys in the US find that over 30% of New Year’s resolutions are to exercise more, lose weight or eat better.

The most common goals, however, find that over 20% of resolution makers don’t even last a week, and a mere 8% go on to achieve them!

The thing is, who’s to say you can’t start right now? Many underestimate what they can accomplish between now and the New Year.

Hit the ground running

First, they will hit the ground running as opposed to working from a standing start come January, with habits already built in.

The commonly used statistic by motivation and personal growth experts is that it takes about 50 days to form a habit.

Fitness app Strava says most people fall off the training bandwagon from January 17th onwards.

With 30 days of December ahead of those 17 days in January, you can cement your new healthy habits when everyone else is starting to falter.

Secondly, if you’re already into your regime, then you will even find ways to exercise during that week between Christmas and New Year, a week when everyone puts on weight.

One of the biggest challenges with New Year’s fitness projects is the added festive indulgence. No one manages it well.

Those who have been very strict for the past 51 weeks view it as a well-deserved break. Those who are dreading the beginning of January’s training view it as their last hurrah. Both camps regret it come January 1st.

It’s quite easy to offset holiday food with an appropriate amount of training. Many manage a week of consistent 1000 calorie daily surplus, but training drops this to more like 500.

If you’re doing resistance training this can even be beneficial after a few weeks in a deficit.

Most important of all is when you begin in December, you’re starting your journey through a stronger foundation. It’s through your own will and motivation, not out of reluctant, obligatory guilt. It’s so much harder to keep something up when you don’t have a good reason behind it.

Exercise because you feel you should

Starting in January usually has “because it’s my New Year’s Resolution” as the “why”, whereas you are doing it now because you feel you should.

Based on the statistic of 92% of people failing to keep their workouts up, chances are that this almost has negative connotations for most.

Thanks to the failures of years past, you’re almost resigned to failing before you start.

Summoning the drive to get started ahead of the “due date” sets a very different tone to the experience. You are no longer an unwilling sheep, but instead the ram at the front of the herd.

There are no statistics on this but an intelligent guess will give you a 463% higher chance of succeeding.

Joompa is a digital platform that facilitates the sourcing and booking of freelance, mobile personal fitness coaches. Available on iOS or via www.joompa.com.my