Anna Smith,
NASM CPT
Revolution
Personal Training Center
Lawrenceville,
GA
The desire to
fit in is strong and it is engrained in us. For many reasons I don’t know and a few I do, we all strive
to go with the flow of our society.
It ensures our survival as a species and also in our local communities
from a young age. And in our
society, being overweight is normal.
Being unhappy and reactive is normal. Being negative is normal. Everything from our nation’s economic state to the behavior
of parents at children’s sports events reflects the unhappiness and knee jerk
negativity of our culture.
As fit body seekers, we must fully accept that we will not be normal if we achieve our goal. The pressures to go with the flow are like a deadly undetectable gas waiting to kill your will power. Unless you are looking for them and have gauges in place to detect them, you are powerless and you never know what hit you! Your failure is a mystery. You therefore classify your past attempts as your lack of will power, your weakness as a person, victim of circumstance, or some other self sabotaging and self attacking reason. You were wrong.
You have all the will power you need to succeed.
You have always had everything you need to succeed. You just need to be sure you are truly ready to change, and you must be willing to step out of your comfort zone and endure the short term discomfort of change in exchange for the result you are after. Changing a lifestyle is like turning the Titanic around. Whether you have 9 pounds, 99 pounds or 199 pounds you still have to gather all your strength and give everything you have to reversing the forward momentum of your current lifestyle and fight until you are on the course you want to be on. The resistance is fierce and persistence and a clear idea of exactly where you want to go is mandatory at all times to turn around a ship that big. Most people interpret that force as the self attacking reasons above and admit it or not they give up. It’s plain hard. But once turned around it takes a lot less work to stay on course.
From here on, remember this: A failure describes an event, not a person. Trying in the past just shows you the better way for the next time. You’ve only failed when you decide there should be no next time. Your will power is not the issue. Your integrity and dependability is not the issue either. You do all kinds of things in your daily life that are not fun or comfortable, but you do them to get a desired result in the long run. Other depend on you too. Do you have a job or a family? Do you wake up and perform daily cleaning, self-care, work tasks, arrive places on time, make doctor’s appointments for yourself and give of your time and attention even when you are tired or even sick? Do you have a savings account or retirement plan that requires discipline even though it would be fun to go out and blow that money today? Do you change the tires on your car? Pump gas in the rain? Go to work even if you would rather stay home and watch movies? Do you routinely fail at this stuff? No, because you are not overweight because you are a lazy, undependable, uncommitted person. You are just unprepared for the forces around you to fit in. You are content to stay in your comfort zone and scared to fully embrace and commit to change.
Once you accept
that you are going to have to endure the discomfort of change, to reap the
rewards of success, you are ready.
You need to realize that you must give up many things you are used to in
the short term for a long term reward just like investing in a retirement
account, getting doctor and dental check ups or even changing the tires on you
car.
To see our latest testimonials of real life people making real life changes click
REPLY TODAY TO GET STARTED...THAT IS THE FIRST STEP - We respond to your email with options for a FREE MEET AND GREET FOLLOWED BY A FREE TEST DRIVE SESSION WITH YOUR TRAINER! Its fast, and easy and there is no cost to you. Why not try it today? Simply click info@revfitnessgroup.com and request a test drive!
Are you ready
to do that?
If so, I
suggest you introduce a radical cost and reward system to your approach. If you know that you are going to be
turning the titanic around, then you know its much easier to let go of the
wheel and jump overboard. I
suggest you set up a guaranteed reward and cost tied to your goal that gives
you a sense of urgency and focus throughout your endeavor. Last time I checked, none of us are
working in an isolated sweat factory where our day is consumed by 16 hours of
work and 4 hours of chores just to have basic needs like food and water and no
say over our daily activities. In
reality, WE are in charge of our daily activities and when things happen out of
our control (I guarantee they will), you are STILL in charge of them. It’s our decisions not outside circumstances
that control our destiny. Nobody
feeds you but you. Nobody decides
your workout schedule but you. As
daily life and force of old habits work to derail you, would you still succeed
at your goal if some evil villain were guaranteed to sneak in and assassinate
your family if you failed?
Of course! No matter how
inconvenient, outside your comfort zone, or downright painful the goal-driven
actions were, the cost of not doing them is bigger and that drives you
forward. That was extreme but the
point is made. You just need a larger cost and larger reward than you currently
have to keep you focused and committed through the discomfort of change. The costs and rewards you choose
measure your commitment, and there must be ZERO chance that the cost and reward
is carried out. More on this after
we go over some examples.
Examples
-Pay for
‘after’ pictures in advance
-Bet a painful
sum of money, your kid’s Christmas fund, your Grandma’s ring...you get the
picture.
-Tell others
about your commitment, especially others you’d hate to fail in front of
-Enter a
contest
-Commit to some
public humiliation if you fail
-Go on a
special trip if and only if goal is achieved by date (pay in advance!)
-Buy a special
item if and only if goal is achieved by date
-Buy your child
a special gift they really want if and only if…
-Commit to do
something you really hate doing if you do not weigh in on target each week.
PITFALL # 1
Whatever you
choose, put the cost or reward in someone else’s hands and put in place as many
barriers to retreat as possible. I
suggest first that oyu pick someone who will not pity you and give the money,
ring, picture, etc.. back. If you
have the littlest inkling that you will be pitied and not accountable, you have
rendered this useless. Pick
someone who WILL hold you to your commitment. Then I suggest a written contract that no matter how much
you beg and plead, that person must carry out the contract. Do not pick someone who will feel an
allegiance to you and “go soft” at the end or who you will hold a grudge
against for carrying your wishes out.
PITFALL # 2
Uninspiring
costs and rewards are worthless, you might as well have nothing. For example, my client placed a $100
bet on her weight upon returning from summer vacation. I suggested much more. She has a personal trainer and lives in
a nice house, so the relative value of the cost of failure was low. I was not optimistic and suggested no
extra cost, since if you are not willing to go for it, then you are going to
lose it. The cost is too small to
turn the titanic around. We
communicated during her trip and she was not doing well. She did not respond to my motivation
and support and I was not surprised when she returned unsuccessful. She even cried and said “my husband is
going to kill me.” Two
things this illustrates. If she
had been willing to put $1000 or more on her actions, I would have anticipated
her success based on her acceptance of personal responsibility and belief in
herself. And with a big number
like that over her head, it would have been impossible to rationalize her
actions, and she would have sucked it up and come home successful.
Again, to see our latest testimonials of real life people making real life changes click
Again, to see our latest testimonials of real life people making real life changes click
REPLY TODAY TO GET STARTED...THAT IS THE FIRST STEP - We respond to your email with options for a FREE MEET AND GREET FOLLOWED BY A FREE TEST DRIVE SESSION WITH YOUR TRAINER! Its fast, and easy and there is no cost to you. Why not try it today? Simply click info@revfitnessgroup.com and request a test drive!
