One Step Forward

So here it is.2015.The New Year is upon us.The year in which we gravitate towards our goals, dreams and aspirations.Or is it?I know many of us have good-willed intentions to make things happen to improve and/or upgrade our lives in some way, shape or form. We start to make those mental notes in regards to where we want to be and what we desire to accomplish.

We begin to jot down and create a checklist of sorts that will help us adhere and stick to the game plan so that we may stay on course.As the days and weeks progress, we begin to check off the daily “To-Do’s” and start feeling good about ourselves, or so we think.We start off strong in the beginning while accomplishing as many things on the list as possible. We’re motivated - staying focused and feeling awesome about getting through the day.The next day arrives and we lose a little steam due to the after effects from the previous one.We note a little muscle soreness from the workouts we did, a bit of mental fatigue from all 20 things that needed to get done by the end of the day, we’re moving a little slower than anticipated possibly due to the 4-5 hours of sleep.As the days & weeks’ progress, the tasks, the checkmarks next to the goals and accomplishments on the list starts to diminish.We lose our drive, motivation, inspiration, enthusiasm and we revert back to how things once were.What happened?!How could this be?We started off so strong and adhered to the plan for a while with great results!Being in the fitness & health industry for 24+ years, I’ve witnessed and have understood the vicious cycle of “New Year’s Resolutions”.

Gyms and fitness studios get packed with avid gym goers and fitness enthusiasts who declare that ‘this is the year’ – the year of making a comeback. They intend to jump back on the wagon to eat right and clean up their bad habits.Somewhere along the lines, too much becomes just that – TOO MUCH!We start getting overwhelmed; we lose focus and our inner drive, and get complacent simply because we ‘bit off more than we could chew’!Or maybe, just maybe, we didn’t plan accordingly and gave ourselves a fair chance to build upon our habits….one step at a time!I remember going down to a conference in Long Beach, CA during the Perform Better Functional Training Summit tour and attending a lecture that Dr. John Berardi, co-founder of Precision Nutrition, gave as he spoke about behavior change and how to be successful by building personal habits one at a time. In a nutshell, he mentioned how research showed that when people try to change a single behavior at a time, the likelihood of retaining that behavior for a year or longer is 80% or greater. When two (2) behaviors are attempted, the success rate drops down to about 35% or less. When people try three (3) behaviors or more the rate of success plummets down to 5% or less.In other words, when people try to attempt to overhaul or renovate their lifestyle in short order, the changes don’t stick because as I mentioned above, it becomes too much!And when we take on too much, we spread ourselves too thin thus creating less success in our lives.I get it that we all want to see rapid results and outcomes starting yesterday.But life has a funny way of showing us those quick fixes and shortcuts are never truly the long-term solution to lifelong results.When we take on too many things all at once, we stress ourselves too much and eventually quit. Before you know it, we’re back to square one starting all over again.When things get ‘out of whack’, so to say, and when we feel that enough is enough, when we get the feeling that we’re sick & tired of being sick & tired, there comes a tipping point in our life when the pain of not doing something is far greater than doing something.As the author of book “The 4-Hour Body”, Tim Ferris calls it, this is ‘Harajuku moment’ in life – it’s the realization when you recognize that a nice-to-have in life turns into a must-have.It’s the point when the snide remark and/or comment and the person staring back at you in the mirror is the reason that causes you to start hitting the gym to lose that weight that you’ve put on over the past 10+years.It’s the time in your life when you feel the need to take massive action to alleviate the mediocrity and/or staleness that you’re in.It starts with a choice and a decision to do something about it and to get out of the funk you’re in.It starts by taking one step forward.

If I could start by doing one thing and do that one thing very well, I know for a fact that I will be able to stick with it. And just by sticking with it, I will be successful in doing it repeatedly over time while reaping the rewards in upgrading some facet of my life – relationships, finances, personal development, spirituality, work/career, social life, etc.By reverse engineering the process, it’s more about identifying why you stop doing something vs. why you start it in the first place.One of the Core Values that we live by here at Vigor Ground Fitness and Performance is “Act As If”. This simply means that you start acting as if something has already happened in a successful and/or favorable way even before it actually happens.

Personally, the method that I use may sound silly, maybe it even sounds ridiculous, but it works and has worked for me in a favorable fashion in more ways than one.I visualize myself in a way that I want to be recognized and the person that I want to be. I also look at people that I respect and study the things, practices and daily habits that make them successful.Then I simply start doing those things - one thing at a time then build upon each habit.It doesn’t have to be complicated as it really is that simple.Give it a go and see what happens!After all, what have you got to lose when you have everything to gain?~ Coach AR