Motivation
To be successful at your healthy goal of losing weight and improving your
health and fitness, you are going to have to put as much time and effort
into becoming and staying motivated over both the short and long term, as
you put into your actual diet and exercise program. Becoming and staying
motivated to achieve your goals will take some very deliberate and constant
attention on your part. Remember that things aren’t always going to go well
for you during this process. You are going to become distracted more than
once at some point and unless you have planned for how to overcome these
distractions and re-motivate yourself on a daily basis—you will fail.
I am always surprised by the almost complete lack of planning that people
put into staying motivated over short and the long term when beginning
a weight loss and health and fitness program. Dozens of times I have sat
down with a prospective client who hired me as a last resort, and heard
the same story, about how they lost their motivation. It is always the
same story, too. I call it the “Typical Pattern of Failure.” The stories
will have different actors and different situations, but always the same
story with the same result. It goes like this:
Typical Pattern of Failure
- Client begins fitness program. Client sees progress. Client continues
with program. Client continues to see progress. Time goes by…
- Client briefly becomes distracted and misses workout and/or cheats
on nutrition plan (for whatever reason)—and there are lots of really
good reasons for this. Client tries to recommit. Time goes by…
- Client continues to be distracted regularly. Client’s progress
slows or stops. Client becomes frustrated. Time goes by…
- Client begins making excuses for failure. Client begins to believe
excuses. Client is only giving half hearted effort by now. Time goes
by…
- Client is skipping days and weeks at a time with workouts and meal
plans. Client’s progress has stopped and maybe even reversed. Client
decides that now was not a good time to begin an exercise program—decides
to try again later. Client fails.
This is a very common pattern of failure. If you have failed with a program
in the past, you probably recognize it. Most people can absolutely count
on it happening unless they are taking deliberate steps to counter this.
I have clients that I have worked with on and off over the years that I
could set my watch by when I expect them to hit the proverbial wall of
failure. It happens every time at about the same week of their experience
because they refuse to anticipate distractions. WHEN they hit the wall
will be different for each individual. What is not different is that IT
WILL HAPPEN at some point. Everyone—even those who succeed will experience
parts this pattern of failure. What sets those who succeed apart from those
who fail is that those who succeed usually have coping mechanisms in place
for distractions. In other words; they have figured out how to become and
stay motivated to achieve their goals over the short and long haul.
The greatest program in the world (like this one) that includes everything
that you will need to achieve optimal health and fitness will not be enough
to keep you from becoming distracted. Even if you are getting great results!
I first learned this when I was working with one of my “super-fits.”
I have clients that go above and beyond. They never miss a workout. They
never make silly meal choices. They give their workouts their all and become
very, very successful with lifestyle change; fitness; performance; body
fat levels and every other aspect of weight loss and health and fitness.
I call these my “super-fits.”
My “super-fits” amaze me. They are able to take their fitness
levels to a level that meets or exceeds even their own expectations. At
the beginning of my career I always expected that results alone would keep
a person motivated to progress and succeed. This is not the case; as I
would learn from Sheryl.
Sheryl came to me because she was approaching her 40th birthday. After
many years of being in and out of shape and after having 5 children she
wanted to “be in the best shape of [her] life” according to
her. So we put Sheryl on my Bio-Kinetic program and BAM! She just took
to it. Man, I can tell you, even I didn’t expect that kind of change
in that short of a time. In no time at all she became one of my “super-fits.” Bottom
line is she looked great. She lost 25 + pounds. Got down to around 9% body
fat (that’s competition level). And firmed and toned every part of
her body. This story has a happy ending right? Read on.
Now remember, Sheryl has 5 (very active and popular) kids. Their ages
ranged from 3 up to 17 at the time. All but the very youngest were active
in sports and cheerleading and other extracurricular activities. See potential
for distraction yet? Also, her husband was a small construction business
owner who was growing his company to become a very large construction business.
Sheryl had always been a very big part of the development of the company.
She would tell me how she had built whole home by herself while her husband
had to attend to other parts of the business. By “building whole
homes by herself” I mean framing, tiling, cement, etc. She did it
all and was still very much needed to help grow the company. See potential
for distraction now—as if you didn’t before?
To make a long story short, Sheryl became distracted. Despite making outstanding
progress and getting killer results she eventually quit. People (especially
fitness people) always try to tell me—“if people get results
they will stay motivated.” Well, this just isn’t my experience.
I just talked to Sheryl the other day. I haven’t had the pleasure
of working with her for over three years. In the last three years, she
has gained 25 lbs. This is on top of the weight gain that put her back
to where she was before doing my program. She has also sustained some very
critical back injuries that have made it difficult for her to function
on any level. She said that her arm went numb and became paralyzed for
a time as a result of one her back injury. I didn’t want to say this,
so I’m glad that she volunteered it: She said that if she would have
stayed in shape, she never would have sustained the injury as badly. She
also thinks (and so does her doctor) that she would have recovered at a
much faster pace.
Bottom line
The bottom line is that in order to be successful at weight loss and improved
health and fitness it will take a very focused and deliberate long term
effort on your part. This effort will take forethought, planning, and consistent
follow through. Know this; becoming and staying motivated should be given
as much time and daily effort as the actual exercising and eating plan.
That is the brass tax of it. Anyone who says differently is mistaken or
wrong. And I have a 5 step process to help you get started with this. This
is a process that I have had enormous success with my clients and I’m
sure that if you use it…it will help you.
