Lose weight without giving up some foods you love, reach your strength and fitness goals without pushing yourself beyond your comfort level, make a huge lifestyle change without changing your habits…and on and on and on.
Almost every diet, workout, or money-making fad promises big changes with little to no discomfort. I hate to break it to you, but ITS ALL COMPLETE CRAP.
Three things you need to come to terms with when going after a big goal personally or professionally:
1. It’s going to be uncomfortable.
2. You are going to have to work extremely hard consistently.
3. It’s going to take longer than you think.
We have all heard at some point in our lives that we need to get out of our comfort zone. I think that phrase has lost its meaning. It has become something people say, but they don’t fully accept what it means.
What it means is this: IT’S GOING TO HURT.
No matter if it’s physical or mental, in some way it will be painful. Whether we are talking about muscle soreness from starting a new workout routine, the mental strain of staying up late or getting up early, or the psychological struggle of passing up your favorite sweets; on the path to success, being uncomfortable is unavoidable. Denying that will only make it worse, but if you accept it you will significantly increase your ability to follow through. Remember, because you are still breathing your record of making it through adversity in life is 100% thus far, so when you feel like you can’t keep going, know you have before and you can now.
Consistency, consistency, consistency. This cannot be overstated.
I truly feel this is where a lot of people fall apart. A lot of us at some point have taken part in a 30, 60 or 90-day challenge. They can help jump start you and get motivated to finally take action on your health and fitness goals. However, make sure you aren’t just mindlessly following a plan or routine. Educate yourself and acquire some tools from that challenge that will allow you to continue to live this way.
This is your life, your health, your happiness…TAKE OWNERSHIP OF IT.
What you fuel your body with and how you exercise is a journey that requires an ability to constantly adapt and persevere. Life will always happen. Changes in your job, family, age and circumstances will never make it easy. If you consistently have good days, those turn into weeks, which will turn into months and years.
YEARS…that’s right, I said years.
Let that sink in for a minute. Long term goals and delayed gratification are not terms that are in our societal vocabulary any more. Nowadays if the video we want to watch doesn’t start in less than 10 seconds we get frustrated and move on. This mentality has carried over into how we perceive fitness and weight loss should be. You have treated your body a certain way for 5, 10, 15, 20+ years but you expect to reverse it all in a matter of weeks? How does that make sense? In short, it doesn’t.
Whether you are looking at an elite athlete on TV or a friend and think, ‘It must be nice to just be able to eat that, lift that much weight, run that fast, or look that way.’ Thoughts like that have the mentality that these individuals were just given those abilities. What people don’t think about or see is all the blood, sweat, years and tears that have been put in…the hundreds and thousands of hours spent working hard to be able to do these things.
It was EARNED.
I truly believe people can achieve more than they ever dreamed if they would be patient, trust the process and stay the course. If something isn’t working, change it. If there are certain people or circumstances holding you back, change it.
Is it easy? No, but anything worth achieving never is.
You can be anywhere you want to be. You just have to be willing to consistently be uncomfortable longer than anyone else.
GO BEYOND better, to your very best.