The most common complaint that I received from clients or people in
general, is that eating healthy and exercising regularly is hard. And they are
right; it is hard to choose vegetables and fruit instead fries and ice cream.
It is hard to get out of bed for a 5 am workout. A person who wants to deadlift
twice his body weight will have to work hard to get there. So will someone who
wants to run a marathon. Exercise is not easy. If it feels that way it’s being
done wrong. Other things are hard. It is hard having your knees hurt every time
you take a step. Getting out of breath going up stairs is not fun. Suffering
from a slipped disc in the lower back because of excess body fat is not an easy
thing. The reality is that everyone will deal with hard; there is no escaping it.
The question is what kind of hard do you want? People who successfully live a
life of good health and fitness have accepted this reality: hard must be dealt
with in some manner. The great thing about having a choice means that a person can
choose differently. Which hard have you chosen?
Motivation powerfully influences of choice. But there is a
difference in the motivation of people who consistently live making healthy
choices for a lifetime versus those who are on and off, or off entirely, is
choosing to live healthy. The people are on and off tend to view being healthy
as being a certain size or seeing a certain number on the scale while this may
be helpful to an extent of the primary motivation for exercise is to look a
certain way, be a certain size or weight, are extrinsically motivated. There
definition of health comes from what they perceive as what others think about
their appearance. Health is dictated by society’s standard of beauty and
health. Why allow the opinions of others to dictate your sense of health and
self-worth? Intrinsically motivated people, however, tend to make exercise a
life-long commitment. The difference in the mindset is that instead of being
influenced by and competing with external factors, the intrinsically motivated
person is only competing against his or her self. The secret of success in
staying motivated is realizing that being better than yesterday is the goal. Do
something today that makes yesterday obsolete and tomorrow easier; living in
the moment to make today better than yesterday is the only way to make
motivation permanent.
In contrast, a lifetime of fitness is about external rewards not
internal ones. Yes, there is an incredible sense of confidence and
accomplishment that comes from staying the course in fitness. That is an
important part of building a healthy mindset. However, most people who have a
successful fitness journey find their greatest reward in inspiring others to
press on in the own journey and to accomplish things that low levels of fitness
may have once prevented. This goes beyond a healthier weight or size. It moves
towards new opportunities. That is the greatest external reward to have the
opportunity to attempt anything without fear of being held back.
When a person begins to see new opportunity as a reward his view of
work changes; freedom is found in the hard work, not in avoiding it. The work,
in and of itself, becomes a part of the reward. I happened to be an avid
hunter. In September I spent ten days in Alberta, Canada elk hunting. My hunt
met with success on the first evening; nine hours into the ten day hunt. Not
every hunt is successful so quickly. Beyond the feeling of accomplishment and
pride in the providing of free range, organic meat for my family, one of the
most joyful moments of the experience was when I strapped on a pack loaded with
the two front quarters of the elk and hiked it out of the valley back to the
vehicle. The physical work was equivalent to climbing Pinnacle Mountain while
carrying 125lbs in a pack. As physically grueling as that work felt, I loved
it. The work was not done that night by moonlight at 10:30 pm. The work was
done over the previous four months preparing for that moment. That night was
the reward for the work. Those kinds of experiences would have been far more
difficult, if not impossible, 100lbs ago.
The final aspect in the mindset of those who exercise comes from
finding freedom in the work; over time, more enthusiasm in the process than the
results. There is nothing wrong with wanting results from an exercise program.
Results that improve body composition and overall fitness should absolutely be
some of the objectives of exercise. However, those results only come to those
who develop more enthusiasm in the journey than the destination. The secret of this
is realizing that once the destination is reached; it is time to pick a new one
and move into a new journey with new challenges. Passion for the journey is the
only way to make the arrival a reality.
The mindset of those who pursue a lifetime of exercise and fitness seek
to become different; in body and mind. The body will only achieve what the mind
can believe. Enthusiasm creates freedom in the work. The reward of freedom is
enjoyment for the process and renewed motivation. It is a choice, a hard choice.
Choose the hard with which you are willing to live.
