Right now I’m typing this as I hunch over my kitchen island, cringing in back pain.
Being tall has it’s advantages, but one of the downsides is because your trunk is twice the length of the average human, your spine is usually more at risk for injury, and as most of you read yesterday, I hurt my back pretty hard over the weekend.
It’s happened before, I’ll be fine, but this weeks goals in the gym shifted to…
What do I need to do so that I can move and feel better?
Rolling, stretching, upper body, cardio only, etc.
Sitting around is the worst thing I can do.
As always, it made me think of a great lesson.
Actually two lessons…
One, never skip your warm-up :)
Two, what do you want to be able to do?
We all have these vanity goals of looking better (lose weight, achieve a certain body fat, etc), but what do those goals allow us to do?
Why do you want to lose those 20lbs?
No seriously.
Why?
Do you actually even know why or do you just want to look better?
There's nothing wrong with that, but the clearer you get with your goals the higher success you will have with them.
For most of us, it's not the 20lbs (just using that number for the sake of example), it's what the 20lbs allows us to do.
I want to weigh 152lbs.
Why?
It's a number.
You don't want to weigh 152lbs.
You want to fit into your jeans, feel confident around your husband, be able to climb the stairs without getting out of breath, be around and healthy with your grandkids, look good in that bathing suit for your trip, etc, etc, etc.
Does it really matter if you are 152lbs or 162lbs if you can achieve all of that?
You'll hear us preach until the cows come home that the scale is just a measurement of gravity.
It never tells us the full picture.
Sure, most of us have some excess weight that we need to shed off, but if you want to have long-term success, you can't focus on the number on the scale but instead focus on what you want behind that number, what you'll be able to do.
Now, I'm not saying I don't want you to lose the weight if that’s your goal.
Of course I do.
If you're carrying too much weight we need to work on getting it off.
But don't dial it down to a specific number on the scale.
Dial it down to a feeling, a look, or an ability to do things you can't do right now.
That's ultimately may come down to hitting a certain number on the scale, but it most likely is not the number you think it is.
I'm going to challenge you again...
Why do you want to lose those 20lbs?
It's not hitting a number on the scale, it's deeper than that.
Because what happens when you see the number you want?
You smile, pat yourself on the back, and go back to your day.
What we really want is to be able to do certain things (fit in jeans, have confidence around spouse, gain energy, sleep better, keep up with kids, go on that trip/hike, be injury free, feel comfortable in a bathing suit, etc) that we currently cannot do.
Focus on what you want to be able to do and use that as your measurement of success, not the number on the scale.
Because let's face it...if you can do all of the things you want to do, feel the way you want to feel, and have the look you want, does it really matter if you weigh 185lbs or 179lbs?
My final two thoughts...
1. We challenge you not to focus on the scale, not because we don't want to see change, but we know in order to have long-term success you have to have other ways to measure success because you'll go crazy if that's all you focus on :)
2. The number one thing we need to remember is our actions (changes) need to match our desires. If you're not getting results, we can beat around the bush 1000 ways and get into the weeds, but it ultimately comes back to this. The more change you want to see, the more changes you're going to have to make. And from our experience (ourselves included), our desired result is not backed up by the amount of change that is necessary.
1% Better.
Dedicated to Your Success,
Doug Spurling