In which we prepare to #RomjulROAR into 2020 (because you deserve better than New Year's Resolutions)
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Coach Sarah and Coach MK are recording this podcast on December 12th, the Day of Miracles, and Coach MK is burning a sandalwood candle to summon St. Anthony, the Patron Saint of Lost Things. So what have we lost, exactly? The kind of love and respect for ourselves and our achievements that we ALL deserve. Coach MK thinks New Year’s Resolutions had something to do with it. And that’s where Romjul comes in.
SO, what is Romjul? In 2018, MK heard Nadia Bolz-Weber speak about the way “the soul felt its worth,” an idea that she really loved, and that same day she watched her Instagram feed go from “the soul felt its worth” on December 25th to “I’M GONNA FIX MYSELF IN THE NEW YEAR” on the 26th. All the marketing for the New Year kicks into gear as soon as Christmas ends, asking us to face the fundamental wrongness of ourselves and start spending our money on fixing it. It’s a deeply embedded cultural tradition that few of us are able to avoid completely.
The first rule of financial modeling is “Before you do ANYTHING else, check your assumptions”. Coach MK wishes this simple rule existed in our everyday lives. New Year’s resolutions rely on the assumption that something is wrong with you and you need to work on it, change it, fix it. The quest for self-improvement that the fitness industry wants to sell you is presented as noble, hardworking and humble, the antidote to sloth and laziness and inertia. These assumptions are IMPLICITLY baked into New Year’s Resolutions - without them, what would you buy?
So with that in mind, Coach MK and Coach Sarah talk about how to start the process of examining those assumptions, calling them out for what they are (abusive and unkind) and flipping the script they have been writing for you. Many people subscribe to the notion that goals have to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) but we argue that that’s more abusive bullshit. We would rather you stop and THINK about your New Year’s Resolutions: are they True, Helpful, Intelligent, Necessary and Kind?
If you’ve spent February and March of every year feeling like you’ve fallen off the bandwagon (like this meme describes), ask yourself why you were standing on a moving bandwagon to begin with - maybe what you were really doing was walking a tightrope, and we would argue that you really don’t need to be doing that shit. This reframing of the New Year’s Resolution is going to feel unnatural, and we are going to help shepherd you through the process because we KNOW how much is working against you after years of believing you needed to change. Send us your resolutions, and we will transform them into Romjul ROARS on December 29th, the last Sunday of 2019, during our normal Ask Away broadcast time. Coach MK will be joined by Jummy Olawale the Therapist and Dalia Kinsey the School Nutrition Dietician to help set you up for a thoughtful (THINKful?) 2020. You are perfect just the way you are and you do not have to change.
So, you have your work cut out for you. Read MK's own reflections on the why of Romjul, listen to the podcast, and think about your own New Years past. As you think about what resolutions you want to bring to MK, Jummy and Dalia during the livestream on December 29th (now available to listen to in our podcast feed!), let our Romjul infographic (https://bit.ly/2Q2qosY) guide your thinking about what you did well in 2019 and want to do MOAR of in 2020.
Other links:
https://blogs.transparent.com/norwegian/happy-romjul/
MK Fleming is the founder of Fitness Protection, LLC and Sarah Axelrod leads Fitness Protection's #CoachedandLoved Community. Try our accessible, affordable monthly running plans at www.fitnessprotection.com!