No matter where you want to take your health and fitness, you’ll be bringing all of your habits, knowledge and personal experience from across your lifetime – it’s your personal luggage so to speak.

I prefer the term luggage because “baggage” has such negative connotations from pop-psychology.

Your luggage represents where you are now and your current state, which is a product of everything that you’ve experienced (nurture), and your genetic make-up (nature). And to be in a good position for change, you have to embrace your current state rather than seek to ignore it.

There are no clean breaks; there's no such thing as a clean slate.

Setting ourselves up for change is easiest when we’ve done regular maintenance and personal housekeeping along the way. If you’ve been doing your laundry, mending tears, buying some new clothing and throwing out the old along the way, then you’ll be setting yourself up for a solid platform from which to launch significant positive growth.

Taking care of your luggage throughout the year is perhaps the most important thing to remember during a time of fresh starts. Maybe this is the year to buck the trend of making resolutions and instead take some time to ask yourself: “What shape is my personal luggage in?”

To find out more about this week's Pulse author, Kenzai Trainer Malia Hirschmann, read her trainer bio page. Or visit her Kenzai Blog!