The vast majority of people decided to choose “getting fit” as one of their New Year’s resolutions and while admiral, most don’t know how to go about it.

With so much enthusiasm and motivation at the start of the year you have so much excitement and are on a natural high. What could possibly go wrong?

Unfortunately, after a few weeks of genuine hard work and dedication life kicks in and your motivation starts to wane a little.

Where you were running 4 times a week, gradually gets whittled down to 3 days and then 1. By February you are back to square one wondering what happened.

First of all, don’t be too mad at yourself. Everyone goes through a similar phase and it’s actually more common than you think.

The key is to get back on that horse once you have fallen off. Getting fit is no easy feat and changing habits can be hard, but it’s possible if you take the right steps to build this into a positive habit.

The key word here is consistency. By taking baby steps and increasing the amount of exercise you do over time makes the task that much easier.

Anything worth doing is going to take grit and determination and you are going to face several setbacks along the way.

The idea is to initially set realistic goals so your body gets used to the new regime and then increase the intensity bit by bit so you start to build a habit and it becomes part of your lifestyle.

What you don’t want to do is see this as just another chore.

The most important part of any exercise is making sure you know why you are doing it, your “why” and that it leads to some form of happiness. Be good to your body and it will be good to you.

Focus on getting fit instead of looking fit

If you have spent any time on social media (specifically Instagram) or watched a few fitness videos you might feel pressured to think you should look fit as soon as possible.

Trying to look fit definitely isn’t the way to approach this.

Your main goal and focus need to make incremental gains of getting fit by improving your speed, performance, and consistency.

You’ll find that as your fitness levels start to increase the way you look and feel will be improved with time.

You have the ability to get fit far quicker than looking fit, so please don’t fall into this trap.

Always warm-up before a workout

One of the most common reasons to stop or quit exercise is a minor or major injury. This normally happens when you don’t warm up your muscles properly before exercise.

So, before you carry out any form of exercise, ensure you warm up properly. This will help you exercise for longer and give you optimal performance during your workout.

Stop comparing yourself to others

Following on from the last point. Trying to compare your body size and appearance to others is one of the worst things you can do.

If you think about it, by constantly comparing yourself to others only leads to you becoming disheartened and you feel discouraged and does more harm than good. Especially in the short term.

Don't give up if you're not seeing results.

As I mentioned earlier, there will be several times when you discouraged or just don’t feel like exercising today because you can’t see any noticeable results after weeks of exercise.

This is a common reason why so many fail and give up. Seeing results is going to take time I’m afraid. The quicker you come to this conclusion the better.

Do what’s fun for you

Exercise comes in many forms. It could be doing an hour at the gym. Going for a run or even joining your local dance class.

Whatever is your favourite moving experience, focus on doing more of that. I guarantee you'll be happier for it.

Doing something you enjoy consistently will build a really good habit into the routine of life. This way you’re much more likely to make time to do it and have a decent level of enthusiasm.

If you haven’t found that one thing you enjoy, I would suggest trying several things until you do.

Personalise your routine

This means picking a time and day to carry out your exercises. You may have read an article like this one that suggests the best times to exercise.

To be honest with you, the best time to exercise is actually subjective.

Exercise on a schedule that ultimately suits you and one you feel most comfortable with.

It’s not always ideal to exercise first thing in the morning if you are up early and need to commute to work.

It might be best to do this before you cook an evening meal or at the weekend when you have more time. The important thing is to work it into YOUR schedule, not someone else’s.

If you hate something, don't do it

This might seem blindingly obvious. However, you would be surprised at the number of people that do exercises they absolutely hate.

Just because their favourite Instagrammer chooses to do this.

The bottom line is, you won't look forward to exercising and feel motivated to do it if you actually enjoy doing it.

Make action-oriented resolutions, not open-ended ones.

Instead of just sitting down and writing out a list of fitness resolutions. Actually, make those resolutions action orientated.

Instead of doing sit-ups, say you are going to do 50 sits ups before breakfast.

Instead of saying you are going to exercise 3 times a week. Say you are going exercise Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

By setting action orientated goals you are being a lot more specific which increases the likelihood that takes that path to achieve your goals. This is something that —Brett Hoebel, celebrity trainer and creator of "20 Minute Body" advocates.