Get out of your own way. Seriously! This may not be the constructive beginning to a blog that you might expect but I urge you to hear me anyway. Get out of your own way!
I talk to so many clients week in and week out who say that they really want a change. But do they? How much do you really want it? Are you willing to get out of your own way for it? Are you willing to break some old habits? Are you willing to let of your comfort foods and comfortable routines? Are you willing to struggle? That is what it is going to be. That is what it is going to take to make any significant change. To stare into the deep, dark corners of your life and face the things that make you uncomfortable. Deal with them!
A great quote used in local ad campaigns by the United Way is that “nothing ever changes if nothing ever changes.” This Yogi Berra-ism may be overly simplistic because with all living creatures, we are either growing or we are dying. If you and I are not actively nurturing our growth then we are the latter. So I ask you …. No, I challenge you! What are you going to do about it? How will you grow today? What action are you ready, willing, and able to take?
Will you get up earlier in the morning, today, tomorrow, or every day for that matter to establish a new routine?
Will you say good bye to that vice of soda (diet or regular), or whatever mindless drug you turn to when you are tired, stressed, anxious, depressed, lonely or bored? In order to say….”I will not drug myself…I will deal with my discomfort!”
Will you go to bed earlier to get the rest your body so desperately needs? Even at the cost of missing a couple of t.v. shows that you watch every week?
Will you exercise a little bit each day? More as you are able. Will you push the limits of your possibility and really stretch your boundaries?
Will you challenge yourself each day, one choice after the next? Today is your day if you choose it! Take some time right now to consider what burns inside of you. Sit with the emotions that you often suppress. Put it and the goal that stands between you on paper as descriptively as you can. Now, I want you to make a commitment to yourself today. Share it with someone whose opinion you value. It could be a best friend or significant other, a child or anyone else who will care enough to ask you if you did what you committed to do each day. Choose someone who you will struggle to give them the truth even when it isn’t what you’d hope to report. Because remember, this will be a struggle and you will not be successful all the time.
More importantly than just sharing that commitment with that significant other is to take that first step TODAY and again tomorrow! Do something each day that moves you one step closer to the health and to the life that you deserve. Do something each day that moves you closer to solving the problem that you have been covering with body weight or any other bandage. No matter how big or small, take one step forward each day. Make no excuses about why you did not do it. You are either committed to growing or you are committed to dying. Either way you are committed. Which one will you be committed to? I challenge you to be committed to becoming your fullest potential for you and for everyone whose life yours touches.
By Garrett Stangel, MA, HFS, CPT
www.balancebygarrett.com
New Year’s resolutions come and go and for the cynics and skeptics they are a waste of time. According to Aristotle "the unexamined life is not worth living". If Aristotle is right the time we spend on contemplating, strategizing and taking action to improve ourselves and our lives may be what makes it worth living altogether. Then why do so many of our resolutions go unresolved? Simple answer may be that we spent so much time thinking about what we want or how we want to be and not enough time thinking about our real why. What is your real motivation? For you and me it may be several layers deeper than what we really think. Let' take for example the all too common weight loss goal. Do you truly want to lose weight? Maybe. Maybe not. If so, why? What does the number on the scale represent to you? Failure? Loss? Scorn? Judgement? Or perhaps as far back as you can remember you weren't good enough to someone for some reason.
A second reason why this resolution may not be realized is that you are likely trying to fit a new goal into an old dysfunctional way of living. Often without letting go of what already occupied that space. Sort of like trying to put the square peg in the round hole. Looking at it another way it is our way of attempting to put more stuff into a bag that is already full or overfilling our bathtub. Use whichever analogy you like. So if you really want this what else needs to change? You won't change your reality until you change your way of thinking about it.
Whatever your goal is, it's important for us to connect with your real reason for why you want it. Get down to the real truth. Peel back the layers of the onion. What really strikes that nerve for you to want this change? And what is going to strike that nerve for you to place this at the highest priority in your life? If you can't reach that nerve perhaps this goal isn't ready yet. In which case it is either destined to fail or it should be responsibly put to the side until we are ready to get to its roots and deal with it. Please chime in on this blog. Is your goal already been abandoned this year? Are you willing to look deeper at it? What is your goal? What is your why? Be brave. Let's engage in this conversation.
By Garrett Stangel, MA, HFS, CPT
Balance Fitness
www.balancebygarrett.com
As I browsed the pages of facebook this morning I see post after post of my clients who are rising to the challenge of resisting the seemingly inevitable demise associated with aging. While it is certainly true that we will change as we get older, the most important factor in the health, vitality, and ultimately in the quality of our lives is not locked away in our DNA. In fact, it is through our choices of how we will live our lives, how we will face the obstacles of our days that determine its quality.
The challenge I referred to is that of committing to the belief that we are every bit as important as the other variables in our life. Not secondary to our jobs, our friends or our families but rather of primary importance. If you do not care for yourself and for your potential, who will? Like Aesop's story of the goose that laid the golden egg. Rather than a moral against greed, though related. I argue ours is against selfishness. If we continue to take more and more from the goose until it has nothing left to give us what do we have in the end? In today's story you are both the goose and its owner. And if you are not continuously nurturing and caring for yourself, you are selfishly slaughtering the goose of your own potential. To what cost? What could your better health do for your energy and mood? How could you use more quality years in your life? How much more could you help those you are dedicated to? How much more could you serve the causes that inspire you?
I thank those of you who have raised the bar of consciousness for me and others this morning (and throughout the year) in your celebrations not of completing the Tough Mudders and Ironman Triathlons, or even of smaller pursuits but of your demonstrations of what is possible when you are committed. Today you are thriving and inspiring us with new life. How will we respond to your call to action?
As I browsed the pages of facebook this morning I see post after post of my clients who are rising to the challenge of resisting the seemingly inevitable demise associated with aging. While it is certainly true that we will change as we get older, the most important factor in the health, vitality, and ultimately in the quality of our lives is not locked away in our DNA. In fact, it is through our choices of how we will live our lives, how we will face the obstacles of our days that determine its quality.
The challenge I referred to is that of committing to the belief that we are every bit as important as the other variables in our life. Not secondary to our jobs, our friends or our families but rather of primary importance. If you do not care for yourself and for your potential, who will? Like Aesop's story of the goose that laid the golden egg. Rather than a moral against greed, though related. I argue ours is against selfishness. If we continue to take more and more from the goose until it has nothing left to give us what do we have in the end? In today's story you are both the goose and its owner. And if you are not continuously nurturing and caring for yourself, you are selfishly slaughtering the goose of your own potential. To what cost? What could your better health do for your energy and mood? How could you use more quality years in your life? How much more could you help those you are dedicated to? How much more could you serve the causes that inspire you?
I thank those of you who have raised the bar of consciousness for me and others this morning in your celebrations not of completing the Tough Mudders and Ironman Triathlons, or even of smaller pursuits but of your demonstrations of what is possible when you are committed. Today you are thriving and inspiring us with new life. How will we respond to your call to action?
