A timely quote from fitness writer, Beth Skwarecki:

“Even if you think of January as when you get your fresh start on fitness and life, you can think of December as your sandbox, the place where you test out ideas and mull over what it is you really want.”

Spot on.

You can use this month to shape a vision for 2025… toy with new fitness goals… or reflect on lessons from last year - so then you are ready to hit the snow-covered ground running.

Here’s something else about starting in December though.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been asking a few coaching clients:

“You know what the best thing is about starting strong in December?”

You are starting during the busiest season.
You aren’t waiting for life to settle down.
You aren’t waiting for calmer conditions.

You are jumping in during the most challenging time of the year – and hitting your stride a month before everyone else. In many ways, if you can get into a solid routine in December, you can do it any time of year.

It’s a launching pad for next year.

Because once things calm down, you’ll already have the mental and physical foundation to take things to the next level and make even more progress (while everyone else is just getting warmed up).

So whether you use December as a sandbox or a launching pad…

Many people will use this busy season as a reason to wait.

Instead use it as a reason to get started.

Kelan Ern
Fitness Coach

P.S. This month there will not be a monthly newsletter. I’m using December as a ‘sandbox’ for improving the MBB newsletter… exploring new ways of adding value… and supporting you on your fitness journey. If you'd like to get the next issue when it's released you can join the weekly newsletter here.

One of my favorite John Wooden (the legendary basketball coach) lessons is when he moved from Indiana to UCLA to coach at a state-of-the-art facility.

(Or so that’s what he was promised)

This new facility wasn’t built until 17 years later…

In the meantime, Wooden had to run practices on the 3rd floor of the Men’s Gymnasium, which was poorly ventilated… had dim lighting… no private locker rooms… and was filled with other sports. So on one end of the basketball court was wrestling practice, the other had gymnastics and the cheerleaders tumbling next to the court.

All this hustle and bustle in cramped quarters gave it the name:

“The B.O. Barn”

To make matters worse, games were played in this tight space, until the fire department forced them to downsize their seating so they had to have home games at the local colleges instead.

However, despite this highly challenging (and odorous) practice environment a few unexpected consequences happened:

“Because of our lack of a real home court an unanticipated benefit occurred. Our team became a much stronger road team because we were virtually on the road all the time... Adversity often produces the unexpected opportunity. Look for it. Appreciate and utilize it”- John Wooden
 
This is just one example of how Wooden was light-years ahead of his time for coaching… leadership… and personal excellence.

That’s why I devoted the latest Mind-Body Breakthroughs newsletter to help you get inside the mind of this genius and use his ‘mental playbook’ to charge through any challenges and break new records on your fitness goals.

Check out his profound philosophy bee-low:

Four Fitness (and Life Lessons) from The Wizard of Westwood

Kelan Ern

One of my favorite rabbit-hole topics is mindfulness – especially its impact on health and fitness.

One recent study looked at its power on motivation specifically:

In this 2024 study, 1,247 subjects (from 91 countries) were divided into two groups: A mindfulness group (who did meditations that focused on body scans, intention setting, self-reflection and deep breathing). And a control group (who listened to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland).

Each group took part in their session digitally for 10 minutes a day over the course of 30 days.

The result:

Both groups had greater improvements in anxiety and overall wellbeing.

But the mindfulness group demonstrated significantly greater levels of interest in health improvement. Meaning: higher motivation for improving sleep habits, exercise and building health habits.

(Even two months after the study, many people from the mindfulness group reported they were still on course with making heath improvements.)

Researchers believe it has to do with mindfulness’s impact on controlling thoughts, emotions and behavior. According to lead researcher Dr. Masha Remskar:

“This finding may represent the way that mindfulness can cause a gradual shift from external motivation to intrinsic, or internal motivation”

This shift from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation is one of the most powerful psychologically but cracking this code is no easy feat.

However, this along with other research shows mindfulness may be the spark for it.

So how do you become more mindful in your fitness?

Here are a few tips that have helped with my own personal workouts:

1. Remove the distractions (phone, TV, and possibly even music too)

2. Continual refocus on the present moment (the dumbbells you are lifting… the biceps you are working… the squats you are doing… the surroundings and experience around you).

#2 is simple but not easy. Sometimes our mind is scattered, distracted and pulling us in a million directions.

But it’s worth it to keep coming back to the present moment.

(In fact, some say that challenge is what builds those “mental muscles”)

Not only does it become more automatic with time but you’ll find a new level of experience with exercise and physical activity that isn’t possible when you are just “going thru the motions”… mentally somewhere else… or trying to get it done with.

For more ways to transform your experience (and results) with health and fitness, check out:

Mind-Body Breakthroughs

Kelan Ern
Fitness Coach