WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM GUNS & ROSES
The 80’s rock band showed us what long hair, outrageous outfits and a guy named Axl could do to your rock career and getting groupies. One of their songs includes perhaps the best advice ever for each of us to make the life changes we want and begin to live the life that we want to:
That song is called Patience and patience may be the key to your fitness success.
Roughly 97% of people will never reach their fitness goals, whether it’s to get stronger, lose weight, improve their golf score. Whatever their goal is, they won’t get there.
They will never live the life they want to.
How sad is that?
Why do so many of us never get there? It has nothing to do with knowledge- you know already what you need to do to reach your fitness goals. You have all the info you need. You know you need to go to the gym or be active 3-4 days a week. You know what foods make you feel good and feel energized and those that make you feel sluggish and like crap.
Whatever training approach or program you choose and the diet you decide on is less important than choosing one and sticking with it…having PATIENCE.
You need patience to let the process you have bought into actually work. The program you choose matters less than just choosing one and sticking with it. Especially if you are new to fitness, anything will work, if you stick with it long enough.
“Trust the process”
That’s the phrase we like to use around our gym.
Why is it so hard for us to have the patience? Is it because the outcome is unknown? We are not sure that if we commit to something that we will actually end up where we want to? We fear that it won’t work? We fear that it’s not the right plan for us and we are missing out on the right plan?
What is the kryptonite for fear… certainty?
If you were certain that the diet you started or the training program you initiated was going to work, even if you knew if was going to take 12 months or longer to get you where you wanted to be you would likely stick with it, right? If you are certain there is no reason to be fearful.
SO how do we create certainty?
We have to start with our “WHY.”
Uncover “why” whatever you want to change is important to you. Often it is something emotionally deep inside you.
Next, recognize that those changes you want to make are a process. That process needs to be broken down into small chunks.
We have seen people decide it was time for a diet change. They start by making drastic adjustments and going from ALL to NONE: no sugar, no alcohol, no caffeine, no carbohydrates, no more of anything they have been eating or drinking for the last 5, 10 maybe 15 years. They stick with this plan for a week, a few weeks, maybe even a month or two and then go back to what ever they had been doing feeling like a failure. This is no a realistic way to live.
What seems to be more effective is seeing big changes by making smaller, more realistic steps when it comes to fitness and diet.
What if these people had taken a different approach and decided to focus on one small change to their nutrition. Perhaps they could have decided to make sure they had protein in each of their lunches. What if they got good at planning a few meals each week. What if they choose to cook dinner at home 3 days a week? Maybe they choose to have two drinks per night instead of three
The likelihood of success is much higher when the changes are so small they almost seem too easy.
Do that one small thing every day and day after day it will add up to a BIG CHANGE!
Consistency creates Momentum, Momentum creates Progress.
The more progress you see the more you abandon your fear that what you are doing won’t work.
So let’s have a little more patience and you may be amazed with what you can achieve.
