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Changing The Self With Matt Lavars | #Perspectives podcast with Sharon Pearson

Updated: Apr 13, 2022



Head trainer at The Coaching Institute and one of Australasia’s leading coaches, Matt Lavars joins Sharon Pearson on the first episode of 2021 of the #Perspectives Podcast Did you know that 80% of the New Year’s Resolutions don’t work? Millions of people around the globe make New Year’s resolutions each year but only a very small number of them manage to keep them. I spoke with the Head Trainer at The Coaching Institute, and we broke down the reasons why new years resolutions don’t work and what the most effective strategies for goal setting.


You live in a fantasy world. It’s time to get real.


Imagine this, it’s the beginning of the year and you are excited and pumped about the new year ahead. It’s a new page and you want to make it your best year yet. You set goals without thinking it through and it’s like you live in a fantasy world.


“Making a change in your life is about ensuring that it’s done in a substantial way. It's not enough to just declare it on one day of the year. Willpower will always be defeated by our imagination.”

Personal Responsibility

There’s a culture rising that doesn’t agree with personal responsibility. We tend to be reliant on external forces more than internal forces. It’s like ‘I’m going to eat less’, ‘I’m going to drink less’

Love it and Nurture it Goals aren’t something that you just tick off your to-do list, it’s about playing the long game, not the short game. Think of your goal as a flower, in order for it to flourish, you need to nurture it, you need to care for it, give it water and sun. It’s the same thing with goals.


It's easy to make a goal and forget all the reasons why we didn’t achieve it the previous year, but if we don’t work out all the reasons why, we are setting ourselves up for failure.

It’s time to take things in your hands, accept personal responsibility and make changes along the way rather than playing the blame game. Goals aren’t just decided, they are planned and worked upon. It’s about brainstorming and pulling to pieces. It’s about working out what worked for us last year and what areas you need to work on. It’s about having understanding what factors are involved in that What, within my control and influence to let myself down on, where was I strong? Where could I be stronger? Where can I put, so I put a lot of sunlight on it.