The One Question You Need to Ask Yourself.

Strange question?

Maybe. I think there is a huge difference between doing things you want to do and doing things you know you have to do. Especially with fitness, consistency is key. I don’t know of anyone who has made a lasting change in their life without consistency. The main part of consistency is doing the work when you don’t want to.

Talk about frustrating.

You know what you need to workout but for whatever reason you can never seem to do it. Can I let you in on a little secret? I feel the same way sometimes. Everybody on this earth is faced with this problem. Some people hide it better than others but it is hard to do things we aren’t in the mood to do.

The key is to get a little better at it everyday and realize that this will always be an issue. Luckily there are some mental tricks and tools you can use to stay on top of this. 

Many a person has made great progress with a lousy workout routine because they were persistent. I never met a person who had the same amount of success with a professionally designed program who didn’t put the time in.

People will tell me, “Well, it is easy for you because you like to workout.”

True. I like to workout. But on any given day I guarantee you there are about 100 things I would rather do that I find more pleasurable.

• Take a nap
• Watch TV, drink beer and eat potato chips.
• Read a book.
• Take a nap ( did I say that already?)

I am not some kind of masochistic cyborg that lives to punish himself daily at the gym. I have never looked forward to doing a burpee and I am sure I never will. As your coach, , my job is to make you better and to do that, we need to look at the mental game and what drives us.

Part of this is still a carryover from my childhood.

We all bring baggage with us and I still remember growing up a tall, skinny, wheezy, weak kid. The kind of kid who is angry and unhappy because he doesn’t fit in. Lifting weights was a way I could escape from all the crap around me and actually change my life. I bought into that idea at age 15 and it is as true today as was back then. Part of my drive comes from escaping a life I didn’t like. The other part of my motivation is never wanting to be that person again. If you have something in your life that is powerful like that, you need to hold onto it. 

 In many ways I am still that same awkward, geeky kid I was in high school.  I can accept that. What I have found out through the years is that there are parts of my me I like and parts I don’t like. In fact you have all the personality traits you need to succeed right now. All you have to do is access them. I procrastinate but I also get stuff done. 

Your job is to figure out why you are feeding unproductive traits such as laziness, procrastination and get to the root of the issue.

Real change comes from deciding one day that you will not be that persona anymore. In fact, as soon as you make that decision, you become a better version of yourself. You may look the same but inside the wheels of change are turning.

Here is an interesting point. I found I never really disliked myself. I merely disliked certain personality traits. Those traits were not me, they were a part of me. By the way, those traits never go away, they will always be there, they have just lost their power over you.

We all have this battle to fight.

All of us have personality traits we either love or hate. Crap happens in our lives that bring out one side or the other but that is never who we are.

Who we are is who we decide to be.

Another “self-Help gem is “Fake it till you make it”. That is just plain idiotic. If you are faking something, you are not that thing, you are just pretending. You can spend your life pretending you are something or you can start putting the work in and be that something.

Here is the hard part about this.

In order to change, your brain is not going to be happy with you. The brain has spent years or decades creating an assortment of habits built around your lifestyle.The brain doesn’t want to start from scratch and logic doesn’t work.

If you weight 400 pounds, there is a part of your brain, the human brain or cerebral cortex, that knows you need to make a change. There is also the impulsive, chimp side of the brain that knows food gives you something that is missing in your life. The computer part of the brain that creates habits doesn’t take sides. It analyzes what you do on a daily basis and creates habits when appropriate without regard to the impact it will have on you down the road.

The Bottom Line

The act of making yourself do something you don’t want to do every day is the fundamental way to break this chain. By always giving in to your impulses, you can strengthen bad habits and prevent good ones from taking hold. Force yourself to do one thing every day that either you hate doing or you have been putting off and you will feel better. Over time you will start linking pleasure to the the act of being uncomfortable.

 I will never tell you that it is easy. I will only tell you that it is necessary to fight the urge to take the easy way out.

In many ways exercise is a great way to start with your change. 

• You only have to do it once a day.
• It has a relatively short time commitment (30-60 minutes).
• It can be done any time of day and almost anywhere.

Hopefully I have given you a roadmap to help you recognize what is going on in your brain. What can you do today that you have been putting off? Start doing something you don’t want to do everyday and watch your life start changing.