If you want to see change, YOU have to change.
That may sound silly but some of us don’t live that way.
We want to lose weight but eat the same garbage day after day.
We want to get stronger but lift the same weights over and over.
We wonder why the person in the mirror doesn’t change while returning to the same old habits that created that person.
Wellllllll What Happened Was… (Insert Shitty Excuse Here)
Matthew Kelley writes in his book The Rhythm of Life “Everything is a choice. This is life’s greatest truth and its hardest lesson.”
He continues on “it is a hard lesson, because it causes us to realize that we have chosen the life we are living now.”
This is a difficult realization but there is a silver lining. Unfortunately (or fortunately) our choices have gotten us to where we are now. The good news is that once accepted we can begin to make better decisions to get to where we want to be and not simply accept where we are now.
A young gentleman by the name of Christopher Wallace is quoted for saying “Damn right I like the life I live because I went from negative to positive.”
Scholars have argued for years whether he was talking about his bank account or his outlook on life but for our purposes I’m going with the latter.
If you see life as something that happens to you then that is exactly what you will get. If you see the choices you make as something you have control over you will suddenly see things start to shift in the exact way you want them to.
Change Your Mindset, Change The World
Christopher Wallace was also quoted with saying “We can’t change the world until we change ourselves.”
If you want to lose weight you need to adopt habits of people that have lost and kept weight off.
If you want to get stronger you need to adopt habits that have been proven to create some big bad mofos.
Take a minute to sit back and analyze your daily habits. You SAY that you want to do X, Y, and Z, but are you actually taking the necessary steps to achieve those things?
If the answer is yes, good, keep doing you baby!
If the answer is no, you have to figure out why that is.
To break it down in simple terms, either you don’t know what it will truly take to accomplish your goal or you don’t care as much about it as you say you do.
Once we have a little more clarity on the subject we can move forward. Now it is either time to do some research and find out the right steps, hire a coach to help guide you there, or pick a new goal that is more in your wheelhouse.
Damn, How Do I Know What Is Right For MEEEEE?!
Let’s think about these three choices for a hot second, starting with doing the research yourself.
If you have the time to read quality material, take a course, watch tutorials, shadow professionals, and discuss and debate ideas with others then by all means do so.
Learning more about the why and the how of the things you desire can be an incredibly rewarding experience. You’ll be a smarter and more interesting person at parties and nobody can take that away from you.
HOWEVER!
This is the most time consuming of the three options. Depending on your goal it could end up being costly (investing in learning), will be challenging at times, and if you aren’t truly driven to learn it may never come to fruition.
FOR THAT REASON most people turn to coaching. Coaching doesn’t need to translate to a personal trainer. There are coaches in every facet of life and seeking out and finding one you connect with may be the solution for you.
Coaches are meant to “illuminate the path” and assist in trials along the way. COACHING IS NOT making decisions for you or telling you every single thing to do.
That’s babysitting, and you aren’t a baby (I assume).
A coach will push you to do things you didn’t know you were capable of. A coach will expose pain that you haven’t acknowledged for the purpose of your long-term benefit. A coach will pick you up and get you moving when your own motivation and fire seems to dwindle.
If that is something that sounds like it would benefit you, give us a call.
If you don’t like any of these options then it just isn’t the right time for you, and there is nothing wrong with that. Get clear on what you want before blindly pursuing any random desire.
You got this champ.
