Better to cross the starting line already moving than to begin from a standstill.

Last year at this time I wrote about New Years Resolutions. Some people believe that January is not the best time for resolving to make big changes. See holiday challenges, travel, iffy weather, all that.

I get it.

But, you know what else I get? That any kick in the pants toward forward-thinking and betterment is probably worthwhile.

And so I propose we look at the beginning of a new year with a twist. Instead of thinking of January as the starting point, we’re better off looking at it as a waypoint along our already productive path. Imagine New Years Day like the black-and-white checkered line on a NASCAR track that denotes the beginning of each new lap. Quite like in auto racing, I like to think I’m already moving at a pretty good clip as I cross that line January 1 line.

I view moving toward your goals as more serial than linear. Life is not one steady slog, but a series of moving forward, evaluating, rethinking, adjusting, and moving forward. It is many different acts, not one solitary thing repeated over and over.

You can form a new habit any time of year.

Luckily, I did a lot of work last summer and fall to build routines that I could sustain—and more importantly that would sustain me—during my busiest months of September through February. Those routines could most easily boil down to diet and exercise.

As a collegiate coach, you notice trends. Patterns that individual student-athletes set for themselves and then repeat. Furthermore, you start to see patterns of positive or negative outcomes across classes and generations of swimmers on a team. Some good, others not. It can sometimes feel a little like sitting on the porch and seeing an accident coming long before the drivers behind their steering wheels have any clue something is about to go down.

This is what’s tricky about coaching. You can provide insight. You can try to impart what becomes a vast storehouse of historical perspective. But, there is an element of living through and learning from one’s decisions that you can’t replace with your own experience. Plus, most of us carry a streak of figuring we know what we’re doing and that streak is most prevalent in our youth and young adulthood.

There I go throwing young people under the bus.

Really, we all have our own stuff, it’s just that age gives you the chance to follow certain paths more times and—possibly… hopefully—work some things out.

Here are some of my own past trends I have noticed:

More exercise in the spring and summer (off-season and better weather). Less exercise, more stress, and more holiday eating during the winter months. No recipe for consistent health this.

Nothing shocking here.

This school year I set a few goals for myself, some more concrete than others. The first was my mission to log some type of exercise at least five days per week. Second was the effort to track my soda (and Slurpee) intake with the intention of substantially limiting said intake.

“That which gets measured, gets managed,” as the adage goes. For each of these goals I used apps on my phone to record every single day.

Why did I pick these areas? This little equation may help:

(Sugar Water + Stress) – Sleep – Exercise = Bad Outcomes

My wife is the actuary in the relationship, but this is easy math if you ask me.

Now that 2015 is afoot, I am stoked to realize I improved on my baseline goals for both exercise and the sugar water situation.

Three months ago I locked in what I considered my “maximum acceptable weight gain” for the rest of 2014. Holiday season is tough for a lot of people. In my case, it’s not so much stress eating but the prevalence of great food and a long string of holiday gatherings, galas, and events.

I am realistic. I figured a little slippage was inevitable if I was going to enjoy the holidays.

Never forsaking my exercise routine is tough during the busy season. It can also seem harder to exercise when cold winter wraps her fingers around the Pacific Northwest and I have to wear wool gloves and my bright orange ear warmer to run in Tryon Creek State Park. I persevered. I also kept attending our masters swimming workouts.

Time gets tight and I had to adjust somewhere.

It was the weights. After swim season started, I scaled my strength routine back to a minimalist set of tough exercises that I found success with several years earlier. I knew they would save me time and I’d be more likely to get them in. Heavy loads for legs and back, plus some additional exercises for the posterior chain to manage spinal health and posture during a time of much sitting, car rides, and standing on concrete pool decks.

And I kept showing up.

A rolling stone gathers no moss.

Enter Newton’s First Law of Motion: Every object in a state of motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

In this case, my health and fitness regimen is the object. Work, life, and the extended Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years dreadnaught of gluttony is the external force that threatens even the best intentions.

Thus it is critical to cross the starting line already moving.

In swimming relays, the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th swimmers can use what’s called a “rolling start.” You can be moving before your teammate touches the wall. You just have to keep a little bit of toe still touching the starting block until the person before you finishes and you’ve got yourself a legal exchange.

So it is with a happy heart I enter 2015 already rolling. I find I’m more motivated to KEEP my momentum than I may have been in years past to generate some forward progress after stalling into the drab chill of holiday season.

I consider the past few months a success. These are my takeaways to build on good habits.

1. Timing—Set a habit when it’s easiest to maintain, not when things are getting rough and you need those good habits to keep you afloat.

It’s about getting that moving start before you are scrambling to hold things together in the face of major stress at work or school.

I locked in my exercise routine over the summer. Long, sunny days and a more flexible schedule made this an ideal time. I held myself accountable when it was easiest to do so. I cut back on simple sugars before the holiday season when they are most available. This set the pattern of moderation and provided a cushion when the holidays arrived and I wanted to enjoy some of its sugary offerings. This way, it was a planned-for decision and not slippage.

Less guilt = more enjoyment.

2. Positioning—Make yourself likely to succeed. Put another way: Find things you can already do easily and create situations to augment them.

For my exercise routine, I built on what was available. One of the most beautiful forests in the world is on my way to the office. Some mornings I would change into running attire, drop the boy at daycare, and put in a few trail miles on the way to the office. Since I was already warmed up and sweaty—sometimes muddy—it was not too much more work to change into clean shoes and put in 20-30 minutes in the weight room right after. Two workouts and one shower. Voila.

We have a masters swimming team at our pool. I like the people there and I genuinely miss training with them if I can’t go. Accountability again. And convenience. No big commute across town. Easy peasy.

Pool + Weight Room + Forest. All within walking distance of my home and office. The availability will be different for everyone, but my busy season is not the time for me to re-up my rock gym membership or take us a sport I’ll have to go farther out of my way to pursue.

3. Drive—You have to want it… (and then do it!).

Did we really ever “want” something that we don’t put a genuine effort into accomplishing. The question remains. I am in the camp that believes maybe we only want to believe in the idea of certain successes or improvements when we are unwilling to take the first—or second, or third—step in reaching them.

Want to be more fit? Want to travel the world? Want to love your job, be more respected, get out on the town more? Make art? Keep in touch with old friends?

The question is whether we like the act of following through on these wishes as much as the idea of them while there is no change underway.

A person gets busy, you know…?

Maybe true, but not helpful.

This is where you need to see steps 1 and 2. TIME your jumping-off point and POSITION yourself so it’s easy to succeed. This guarantees you’ll need a smaller Minimum Effective Dose (M.E.D.) of DRIVE to get the ball rolling than if you try to make a change when you’re in the thick of it, barely hanging on.

Does this seem like the path of least resistance?

Good, because that’s just what you want when you are trying to get moving so that you can have that rolling start next time you approach a starting line.