My Health Fit Challenge – Ya This Has Nothing To Do With Business or Does It?
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Are you good at making up excuses?
Are you able to take little things and convince yourself and others that they were much bigger then they actually were and that was the cause of a specific failure?
I know people with the “self talk” mindset believe that…
There are no failures… just learnings!
My reply to that is… BULL!!!
Now I am not going to argue here but if you are making up excuses and “KNOWINGLY” doing things to inhibit progress (whether it is your health, family, business… anything) then you are failing.
Here is exactly why I feel this way.
One definition of failure is…
“An event that does not accomplish its intended purpose”
So… lets say you buy a 6-month membership at a health-club and the purpose of that is to get into better shape. 6 months later your membership runs out and you look back and realize you went 3 times, your health is actually worse and the reason you did not go was because you hated going but you decided that it was easier to come up with excuses like “I was too busy”.
Well.. in my books… YOU FAILED to achieve what you intended to accomplish.
Did you learn something… ya I am sure you did… that you are good at convincing yourself you are busier then everyone else.
If you take the mindset that there are no failures… then you are fooling yourself.
The thing to realize however is… does that mean failures are bad?
NO… not if you can take that failure… figure out what went wrong… learn from it (this is where most stop)… and do something about it.
A failure is bad if you just keep repeating the process over and over again… such as constantly renewing your membership but never using it… that’s just stupid. After all the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results.
OK… so now lets talk about me and my advice as to how to help fight this issue.
Whether you agree something is a failure or not is really up to you… as my dad says… “read another book”.
What that means is you are perhaps believing something because someone in a book said so… well then read another book that says something else. Oh and ya… This is just my side of it
The truth is I hate failure… I hate the word… and I hate the feeling it gives. Often times this causes deeper issues, such as paralysis of progression, which means you are so afraid of failure you do nothing. This is why (in my opinion) the whole “there is no such thing as failure” came about. To get people to stop looking at it as a failure and paralyzing themselves but the word exists and it has a definition and therefore is true… yes failure exists.
BUT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A FAILURE!
Here is the kicker… yes it exists but it is 100% in your power to make something a bad failure or a good failure… and more important that you take that failure and implement something to prevent it again.
So now you are asking me…
“Jason, what is the fit challenge that I hear you talking about?”
I workout at a great gym here in my local northern community called Catalyst Fitness (check it out at http://www.catalystgym.com/) and it uses a CrossFit training system that is like nothing I have done before and you can visit the site to learn more about that.
I joined with the intent of getting back into shape, because sitting on my butt all day in front of my computers is not very active, and about 4 weeks ago (during the Web2Mayhem launch) I stopped. My excuse… no time.
Was it a valid excuse?
Nope… yes, I was busy but funny how I still made time to do a few other things that were way less important. If I was so busy then I would have had no time to do anything except work, eat, sleep, and be with my kids, and yet I did have time for a few other things.
The truth is, I just didn’t want to. Yes, there was one day that I really was too busy, but the next 3 weeks, nope… I was just making up excuses.
Before I continue, I need to know… CAN YOU RELATE?
Have you been in that exact same situation, whether it is a gym, a business, a volunteer position… anything. My gut tells me that 99% of you are going to say yes.
So… was this a failure?
NO, it was a stumble… If I gave up and never intended to learn from this and do something, then yes it would be a failure… but I want this!
So what I did is I went to the gym and handed my trainer Chris Cooper (that’s him in the picture) a hundred bucks and told him that is for him to make sure he calls me every time I have a scheduled workout and make sure I get there. I needed someone to hold me accountable and that someone had to be someone that I respected.
What Chris did instead is set up a challenge for me.. he said that every work out I miss he is going to donate the money to a charity that I do NOT believe in and will put the donation in my name. I am not sharing which one it is but I can say with certainty… they are not getting my money. If after 4 weeks I have not missed (or made up) any of the workouts… the money goes to the charity of my choice.
My results?
Well it has only been a week but I can say that the motivation and accountability is fantastic. Not only am I accountable to someone but also there is a circumstance that happens as a result of my decisions.
So why do I share this long ramble?
You are in a brand new year… you have goals and you want this to be a year that is better then ever for you. If you want the best chance you can at achieving success, then figure out how you can create an accountability system for yourself. But make sure you set something up that has outcomes based on results and motivates you. Yes, it would be amazing if the idea of being in great shape was motivation enough, but that is not the case… it isn’t and as a result I needed to figure out something else to help.
What goals do you have this year that you NEED to be held accountable for?
What are you going to do about it?
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What I started doing is getting up 1 hour earlier than before an going to my gym first thing in the morning – there are very few people in there at that time and it keeps me energized throughout the entire day
good posting. your post make someone of my friend feel better.because your post motivate him .
Thanks for sharing, Greet post!
I usually go to the gym at midnight, which is not that great, lol
i go gym at dawn, which i guss is good
The motivation provided by your trainer is really clever… with the right charity/organization selection that could really work for me, too!
John:
i came across this post on your site http://www.johncow.com/erectile-dysfunction-natural-cures/
It seems spammy and it forwards to some cialis site. Or is that some affiliate 301 forwards