A Magic Word

Do you find an excuse to look at what's wrong with something well before looking at whats right or what you learned?

Don’t Worry.

We all tend to do that sometimes too.

It's almost like human nature to focus on the negative. 

But it’s destructive when you live there.

Thinking about negative stuff leaves no room for creating what you want or doing great things for others.

Take a look at the news and you’ll find all the negativity you need. 

That’s why I NEVER watch the news.

There is a Law called the Law of Attraction.

It says when we focus on something, the more we think about it, the more it shows up in our lives. 

There is not a living person in the world that does have problems or think a negative thought once in a while. 

The difference between happy people and people who are always looking to get happy is how they control this.

"The quality of your life is the quality of your emotions on a daily basis"
- Tony Robbins

If this is true then we need a strategy. 

We need strategy to be able to shift from negative thoughts to positive ones as FAST as possible.

Here it is:

Every time you have a negative thought..

Complain about something..

Talk bad about someone else..

Get in a funk.. 

Say the word DELETE to yourself.

Delete wipes away the negativity and allows room for more positive things to come into your mind. 

It interrupts your negative pattern.

Say it out loud.

If you’re alone… YELL IT! 

DELETE!!! 

It feels really good. 

Try it, make it a habit.

If you do, more happiness and positivity is in your future.

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

At war with your vices

“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better person.”

Recently, I’ve been digging into the book “To Shake the Sleeping Self” by Jedidiah Jenkins. It’s a memoir about his bicycle trip from Oregon to Patagonia, which he did when he turned 30 (and I felt good about packing up a pickup truck and leaving Western Pennsylvania for Boston when I hit that milestone).

In one of the chapters, at the start of the new year, he references the above quote by Ben Franklin and I was struck by the first part of the quote – to be at war with your vices. The definition of war is conflict and every day I have conversations with people who are trying.

 Sometimes folks have a case of the screw its – where they find themselves actively eating the cookies for a snack when the yogurt is in the fridge, or skipping their workout to watch Netflix.

Sometimes I talk with people who just don’t have the space, emotionally, mentally, or logistically, to make their health and nutrition goals their number one priority. Recently, I read about the idea that there is no such thing as a disciplined life – there are only sprints of discipline that we do until those disciplines become habits.

Last week I was home in Pennsylvania. Despite the warm feelings of home, there are plenty of triggers for me there, and I often struggle to stay connected to the lifestyle I’ve created for myself now. I have plenty of struggles with my vices – with the habits and behaviors that got me through some of the harder times I had when I was younger.

And it’s hard. It’s hard to feel like, despite all of my hard work and personal growth that I could so easily fall back into some of those bad habits. But when I came back to Maine, I dusted myself off and went back to work, on meditation, on exercise, on nutrition.   

When I read the Franklin quote, I was struck by the acknowledgement that when it comes to many of the behaviors that we are working on, it’s a process – and though I know you’ve heard it a thousand times, it’s a process with no arrival.  We do things we regret and feel shame for and about – or we don’t do things and we feel the same way.

All we can do is return to the process. Every person I talk to is working hard – if they weren’t they wouldn’t be talking to me. They wouldn’t be at the gym. They wouldn’t be trying.

So yes, be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every day, every week, every year, find you a better person.

On Deck at Spurling

Hey, Spurling Family,

It's been quite the ride in 2020, huh? 

Well, as much as we've had to pivot and change quite a bit, we feel super confident in the direction things are going and feel we are very well prepared to keep your experience here safe and engaging, all backed by our amazing coaching and community. 

Before I get into the core of today's message, I want to first acknowledge and appreciate your continued support of the Spurling Family. I know my team and I and our families are forever grateful for you. Although we've taken a hit like every small business, we feel very well positioned as we head into the rest of 2020 and beyond. 

I also want to voice appreciation for our team. None of what you experience on a daily basis is possible without all of them. They continue to show up daily giving their best self and are amazing at what they do. Also important to note, all of the ideas/direction outlined below has been a team effort, and they are constantly bringing great ideas to the table to make your experience better. 

As many of you know I have the great fortune of consulting for about 65 gyms across the country, as well as some of those being in the UK and Canada. That not only allows us to share the Spurling Fitness experience from little Kennebunk, Maine worldwide, it allows us to have a really good pulse on where the industry is going, what's working, and be ahead of the game. All that means for you is we are a "lab" for constantly making your experience better. I share that because some of what you're about to read is to not only improve your experience but continue to adapt to where we see the industry going as a whole. 

Now that we're in a bit of a groove (if there is such a thing this year) with indoor, outdoor, and online up and running, I wanted to send over a bit of a sneak peek into what we'll be working on behind the scenes for the rest of 2020, and what's to come. 

To be fair, will all of this go as planned? No, of course not. Also, please see this as giving you a look under the hood, and not anything that should feel overwhelming. However, I hope if this does anything, it shows you that we continue to make your experience as a part of the Spurling Family our number one priority. Also, I hope it brings a lot of joy and excitement to you about the rest of 2020 and beyond as a client of Spurling.

Let's dig in...

1. Indoors: STRONG & SWEAT

We've seen an enormous percentage of our clientele (about 70%) back inside our four physical walls. The "pod" system is working really well for both STRONG & SWEAT, limiting them to 8 clients and everyone has their own individual workout area not needing to share equipment. 

We also will continue to keep the sessions staggered on start times to limit large groups of clients entering at the same time, and each coach has 30 minutes in between each session to allow for proper cleaning. 

We are in the early stages of planning what the pod system will look like into Q4 of 2020 and into 2021, for now, it's not going anywhere. We are looking at a new facility layout/equipment that will allow you to not feel like you're in a "box" yet give you your own "home base." Each session would have their own section of the facility, and each client would have their own workout area (see below). The vision of this is for people to feel safe, while having access to all equipment, and not losing that community feel of people socializing and encouraging each other with the coaches. We’ll see how things move along with safety and protocols, but I think long-term there’s a happy medium of the benefits of pod and free flowing open space. 

Because of the limited session sizes, we do ask that unless you're on an unlimited membership you do stay within your monthly session limit for STRONG & SWEAT. 

This has allowed us to get everyone in while not having too many sessions that are full and waitlisted several days out. 

As always, we continue to evaluate the programming and coaching, while keeping it safe and fun. In short, small groups (STRONG & SWEAT) will be the foundation of our indoor model for the foreseeable future. 

We are also empathetic that some people miss having "unlimited" sessions at the physical facility if you are not on an unlimited plan. I'm hopeful these next three solutions make you smile. 

2. Community Sessions

Kicking off tomorrow with the charity workout we're going to be offering what we're calling Community Sessions. 

During this hour it will be the only session happening in the gym. That will allow us to have 16 people, still, each having their own pod and not sharing equipment. 

There will be one coach leading it, and we're also testing having another coach at the same time leading a group from home on STREAM...all at the same time. Very cool stuff, and you'll see it in beta testing tomorrow at the charity workout. 

Most important to note, because of the larger capacity, all clients will have UNLIMITED access to these workouts, so keep an eye out for these on the app as we head into August.

3. Outdoor Workouts

Over the last couple of months, we've also seen the popularity of outdoor workouts continue to increase. 

If we can bring the same great coaching experience outside 7-9 months a year, why not?

We're going to continue these as long as the weather allows through the fall, and more fun to note, we're in early approval processes of putting up an outdoor gym (similar to the picture below) in our front yard. This would allow us to bring a better experience with more equipment, more variety, better sound, all with the same great coaching. 

The vision of this pavilion space also has some carved out areas for pre/post workout socializing/coffee, adirondack chairs, etc. 

And again, because of the higher capacity similar to the Community sessions, these are available to all clients on an unlimited basis as a part of your membership. 

4. STREAM 

Like many of you have experienced through this pandemic, online fitness is here to stay. You've been able to experience the same great coaching, all from the comfort of your own home. We know that some clients are using STREAM exclusively right now, some are using it as a supplement to their week at Spurling, and some use it if they are visiting family or traveling. We're going to continue to make this better, and are working on ways to make it more than just a workout via zoom. Ideas that we're working through include STREAMing at the same time as a session is going on in the gym, hangout time before and after the session on Zoom, multiple coaches running the same session, equipment bundles at home so you have equipment to use, and we will be increasing the quality of the production by filming them in our very own studio (see #6)! 

Like always, the STREAM service is an unlimited feature to all memberships. 

5. The Spurling App

We are in the process of beta testing a couple of different versions of what will become our very own app. This will be able to do several awesome things including track all of your workouts, show you in graphed visuals all your progress, and store all of our programs/workouts so that you can access them anytime you're not at the gym, whether that be at home or on the road, all on an easy to use app. 

This will be 100% optional (no extra $), and a really cool value add if you want to use it. We will be looking for beta testers in September before we roll something out towards the end of the year. 

6. Infinity Center

We're excited to announce (many of you already knew) that we are going forward with our plans of a ~5300sf addition on the back of the gym, a division of our brand we're calling the Infinity Center. We are scheduled to break ground the first week in August, and there should be minimal to no disruption to Spurling Fitness. 

If you're not familiar with the IC plans, it's 80% for us and 20% for our friends :)

The majority of the space will be a large studio room and multi-purpose space. This will allow us to have a separate space for things like recording STREAM, hosting indoor STRETCH classes, as well as seminars, additional programs, and events. We'll also have some overflow office space for the coaches, and we're bringing on some of our friends in the industry who will be there should you need their services including physical therapy, massage, reflexology, etc. 

Again, you don't need to use anything over at the Infinity Center if you don't want to (it will have it's own entrance/exit, see picture below, so no disruption to Spurling), we're just really excited to be able to expand our program offerings for additional variety, have some separate space outside of the chaos of the gym to do things, and bring on some really great people.

7. Retreats

One of our major goals is to always make things an experience, not just another workout. We've also been thinking about how we can decentralize our offerings, meaning in a controlled way, how else can we deliver our services outside of just our four physical walls. Of course offerings like the outdoor workouts and STREAM are two great examples, but we've always wanted to have destination experiences. 

We're working to have a trial wellness retreat this fall, but depending upon logistics we may have to wait until 2021. This will allow us to take a small group of people to a destination (like a lake house or set of cabins) and offer an outdoor getaway to recharge while pulling small components of Spurling with us like morning STRETCH, a group hike, or some cooking lessons. Think 50% social/getaway, 50% wellness recharge. 

8. Specialty Programs

This is a bit of internal lingo, but if you're curious, we have programs that coaches put on under their "specialty." It's a nice way to add additional program offerings to our clients, and it's a nice way for our coaches to continue to grow. You've seen it in the past with things like Trent running his nutrition programs, and Kim running her life coaching programs. We're excited to continue to give the coaches the opportunity to put those programs on and add variety to your choices at Spurling. In conversation with some of the coaches this year Trent will continue with his nutrition programs, Chris continues to help our running and endurance clients with that programming, Kim will be launching a new life coaching program, and Jess will be putting together some workshops and courses for those looking to get better at barbell exercises. 

9. Events

As we continue to practice social distancing, we're getting creative with community-wide events we can put on to keep the "fun factor" strong. Ideas that are in the works in the next few months include a community-wide MYZONE Challenge, group hikes, a cornhole tournament, a mini-golf outing, and more. 

We're excited to hang out outside of the gym just as much as inside the gym :)

10. More of The Same

Well, I like round numbers, and I couldn't just end with number nine :). 

I mention all of the above not to overwhelm you, and please remember all of these are additional/optional offerings, but to continue to communicate our excitement for all things Spurling. I feel it's very important as a leader to continually communicate the direction we're taking things, and hopefully, this did that. 

However, I also think it's important to note through all of this turmoil in 2020, that our vision and values have not changed and the core of what we do at Spurling will not change; great coaching and accountability backed by a strong community. 

Although my goal in this memo was to shed some light behind the scenes of what we're working on and build some excitement for the rest of 2020, I also hope you know that the same great coaching, accountability, and community is not going anywhere and nothing is changing, you just hopefully have more options, should you choose to participate in them.

Once again, from the bottom of my heart, if you read it this far you must really love Spurling, and for that, I can't thank you enough.

I'm looking forward to a strong second half of 2020 and beyond with you.

1% Better.

Dedicated To Your Success,

Doug Spurling

^ A visual sample "pod" where each client within the group would have their own "bay" yet have open space. This is obviously dependent on where CDC social distancing guidelines go as we head into 2021.

^ A visual sample of what the outdoor gym would look like

^ A visual sample of the Spurling app used to track progress and show results better

^ A drawing of the side of the building as you turn and enter the parking lot. Nothing will change at Spurling Fitness with the exception painting the outside of the existing building to match the shiny new space (no more ugly brown)!

Just move

My nephew JD sits on the couch next to me, wearing the Spider-Man costume I brought for him, sans mask.

“I need to write a blog post,” I said casually, as we watched a Bob Ross painting show. My niece and nephew don’t love Bob Ross, but they know I do and so they put it on for me. (For about five minutes).

JD turns to me with his big blue eyes.

“What’s a blog post?”

As someone who isn’t around kids very often, I’m not accustomed to these questions. I was just talking aloud.

“Well,” I said. “It’s….uh…kind of a story…”

“About what?”

Well, isn’t that a good question – given that I am actively looking for a topic.

“Sometimes I try to help people find motivation,” I said.

“What’s motivation?” 

Have I mentioned that I’m not around kids much?

JD is eight and my niece Ady is 10. So far this morning, we (and my 74-year old mother) have played basketball, baseball, drew on the sidewalk with chalk, then we worked on our squats and our lunges and now we’re inside for lunch.  

“Sometimes people don’t feel like doing things,” I told them. “Like exercise.”

JD, who has professed wanting to be a personal trainer when he grows up (insert proud Auntie moment here) was baffled.

“People don’t like exercising?”

When they are finished eating lunch, we’re going outside to play some more baseball. Then we’re going to get in the pool. Then we might work on our golf swings. Then back in the pool. All we’ll do is move. And that’s all we did when I was a kid.

No one ever told me I had to, though my parents were never fans of video games. They wanted us to go outside, but they never said what we had to do outside.

It’s a funny thing to try and explain motivation to kids. At what point do we lose our desire to just move because we like doing things? Is it when people tell us that we have to do it? Or when we finally develop the self-awareness to judge ourselves for not doing enough?

We’ve spent the morning doing things with no outcome expected. No moving to lose weight, no measurements attached.

We just…played.

I think sometimes we assume that if we’re not “exercising” it doesn’t count. Well first of all, who decides what counts? And second of all, do you enjoy gardening? That’s moving and doing. What about walking? Golf? Playing with your kids?

The nice things about being with JD and Ady are the reminders to not overthink things. Like, anything.

Sometimes things really can be that simple.

Coach?

I'm a coach. 

We have a team of coaches at the gym. 

But do you know the origin of coaches, and why we call ourselves coaches?

As usual, it has nothing to do with fitness...

The word 'coach' actually comes from the 15th century. 

In Hungary, they built wagons that would take people and supplies from one destination to another, and they called them coaches. 

That's why you now hear things called stagecoaches, motor coaches, etc.

A coach is someone that guides the journey, taking someone from where they are to where they want to be. 

Our team happens to do that through the fitness realm, where I tend to focus on the personal and business development side, but it's still all coaching. 

Coaching is about empowering a person to fully live out their calling.

Coaching is about the agenda of a client.

A coach encourages action and change. 

So, at the gym, our team focuses on being great coaches in the fitness realm. 

I aim to be a great coach to them from a leadership and personal development side. 

But it's still the same thing. 

Encouraging action, encouraging change, and empowering people to live out their fullest potential. 

So whether it's leadership, fitness, or business, it's the coaching that makes the difference. 

So no, our team at the gym are not trainers, they are coaches. 

We all need coaches. 

We all need people, whether it's in fitness or another area, that helps take us from where we are to where we want to be. 

It's not the tools, it's always about the coaching. 

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

Perfectly Imperfect

Did you notice?

Last week I sent out an e-mail with a typo.

In fact, I'm sure 99% of my e-mails have a handful of typos in them.

Perfectly imperfect. 

I'm a perfectionist. 

I am obsessive over every little detail, of everything.

Some call it being a control freak. 

It's how I live life. 

I have everything calculated to the penny, I never go to bed with an unread e-mail in my inbox, and I have every process for everything I do mapped out on checklists. 

Yet, I'm not perfect. 

I never will be. 

I've missed many of workouts I had scheduled, I suck at nutrition, I’ve made more mistakes than almost anyone, and I rarely cross the street in the crosswalk. 

Sure, I think the pursuit of perfection can lead to growth, greater attention to detail, and a level of success, but I've learned to not let it paralyze me. 

Kim and I have a saying with each other...

"Ship it!"

Get it out the door. 

Finish the project. 

Done is better than perfect. 

I've sent over 1,500 daily e-mails like this one you’re reading right now.

Imagine if I combed through every single one, analyzing every word before sending it?

You would never see an e-mail from me because I would never press send. 

As always, this translates to every aspect of life, especially fitness. 

Sure, there needs to be some thought, there needs to be some parameters, we need to genuinely care about things, we need to do good work and try hard, but you don't want perfection to stop you from taking action. 

“I’ll wait until I’m in shape to join the gym.”

“I’ll start on Monday.”

“I just need more time.”

We’ve heard it all.

Now, these are all valid reasons, by no means am I saying the above things aren’t real.

What I’m saying is there is never going to be a perfect time.

We’re always going to be short on time, things are always going to feel busy, and you’re never going to feel 100% ready.

The person that wakes up and just does something, anything, will always make more progress than the person that has the perfect plan or intent in their head but does nothing with it.

You will never have a perfect body, you will always find something to fault if that's how you measure happiness or success. 

Perfectly imperfect, in all aspects.

I just call it being human. 

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

Thinking isn't acting

Bad news – thinking isn’t acting

I know, I know.

When you spend a lot of emotional energy thinking, and let me tell you, I am a champion overthinker, it’s easy to feel like you’re actually doing something.

Thinking feels like acting.

But it’s not.

In 2014 I was laid off from a full-time job at the University of Maine at Augusta. In those first few months before I found even a part-time job, I spent hours everyday looking for other jobs.

Looking.

I might even update my resume and draft a cover letter.

But at the end of the day, despite my exhaustion, I hadn’t applied for any jobs.

Sure I’d taken some action. But if I was being honest with myself, I’d spent more time contemplating whether I wanted the job – as though someone was reaching through the screen and offering it to me right then and there. I’d imagine myself working at that particular place and wonder where I’d live and before I knew it, I’d drained my mental energy without taking any action at all.

I’ve had to be careful of this phenomenon, in recent weeks especially, as I approach the reality of the racial injustice in our country. Like many others, I see what is going on and I think about the problem and read about the problem and talk to friends about the problem and I try to try to understand the problem and…

I do nothing.

Thinking isn’t doing. Talking isn’t acting.

For many of us, myself included, this phenomenon gets in the way of our progress, because we never get past the contemplation part of the process.

We buy bins with the idea of going all Marie Kondo on our closets, but then the bins just sit there and finally you start piling your new shoes in them because where else are you going to put your new shoes? I mean, just as an example - certainly not something that I’ve done…

In human behavior there is a model known as the Trans theoretical model of change which highlights the six stages we go through in our preparation to make change.

1.     Precontemplation
2.     Contemplation
3.     Preparation
4.     Action
5.     Maintenance
6.     Termination

In precontemplation, you have no intention of changing anything in the next six months. You’re either unaware that you need to make a change or you are too focused on the cons of changing a behavior.

I would eat healthier, but I hate cooking and don’t have time and my kids won’t eat what I cook.

In contemplation, you intend to change a behavior in the next six months. You’re no longer focused on the cons – you are now weighing both the pros and the cons. Now when I think about cooking, I look up recipes, maybe buy a cookbook and decide that I can watch baseball while I make dinner so it might not be too bad…(the process, not my dinner. That might still be bad…)

Then we move into preparation – and this is sometimes the sticking point. Depending on the task at hand, some of us may never get past this stage. The preparation is downloading the Couch to 5K app, buying that book on Intermittent Fasting, buying a new matching outfit for the gym. Or maybe it’s buying a book about Ireland because someday we’d like to go there.

Depending on the change we’re trying to make, it’s easy to mistake our emotional labor for action. Because make no mistake about it, spending that kind of emotional energy is incredibly draining. Thinking and contemplating and processing are important. Recognizing and being open to change is incredibly significant.

But it’s not enough to just know the truths about yourself and your behavior. If you truly want to make a change, it’s time to stop thinking, to stop talking, and to start acting.

I’m reminded of the line from a college writing class:

Don’t tell me, show me.

Don’t talk. Do.

The Other 165

I sat there, frustrated.

I was working out pretty consistently, about three days a week.

However, the scale was trending in the wrong direction, I lacked energy, and I was stressed as all get out.

Like many of you, the last 3-4 months have been quite stressful.

However, it got me thinking this morning about the importance of what we call “The Other 165.”

In fact, our client-only support group on Facebook is called Spurling 165.

There are 168 hours in a week, for most of us, depending on goal/life, we probably try to average three workouts per week.

Some weeks maybe more, some weeks may be zero, but if you look at a year, the average person attempts to try to get around three workouts per week or three hours.

So, what about the other 165 hours in the week.

Now, I’m not saying that the approximately three are not important, trust me, that’s the base of our business and it’s a key pillar to your overall success in health and wellness, so please don’t take this as me trying to downplay exercise.

In fact, the three hours of exercise a week is probably a massive catalyst to success in the other 165 hours.

We all know when we exercise we have this natural “domino” effect where we start to eat better, sleep better, have more energy, and just feel better about ourselves.

And that’s really what the other 165 hours are.

It’s obvious (not easy) things like proper sleep and eating healthy.

Those are two major factors in our overall wellness, right?

But what else?

How about things like mindset, personal development, spiritual work, mental and emotional health, job satisfaction, overall happiness, purpose, goal-setting, visioning, etc.

The list could go on.

It’s not meant to overwhelm you, and you certainly can’t be improving all of those things at once.

However, hopefully, it brings some awareness or just a reminder that the other 165 hours in the week matter just as much, if not more than the couple hours a week you workout.

That’s hopefully where we really shine in helping people.

Yes we hope our clients love the workouts, we want to customize them to the individual, we want to track and show progress, we want them to be fun, and we want you to look forward to each and every one…

But, we also want to make sure you’re getting the coaching you need in the other 165 hours too.

Whether that be in getting some help with nutrition, or just sitting and chatting with a coach 1:1 to talk about life and how things are going outside of the gym.

It all matters.

Make sure in your journey to the strong second half of 2020 you’re addressing the other 165 too.

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

5 Differentiators

Success leaves clues. 

In every facet of life, if you pay attention, not only to what other people say, but how they act, their choices, and their habits, you can start to learn what makes someone successful. 

Now, as always, “success” means something different to everyone, and that’s totally okay.

For today's sake, let's measure success in achieving the fitness or nutrition goal you wrote down at the beginning of the year.

I like to study why some people get results, and why others don't.

In my opinion, there are five key factors that go into the difference between the person that does get results and the person that's frustrated because they can't seem to see any progress.

Now, there may be others, but these are the main five, the five that make the biggest difference. 

1. A clear picture of what success looks like. I say it all the time, write your goals down. I would bet less than 10% of people reading this have their goals written down. Answer and document the question "what does success look like?" Those that have a clear documented picture of what they're going after know what the target is, and are going to have more success hitting it. It can change (hello, 2020), but writing them down is so important.

2. A deep understanding of why they are doing it. I reference this a lot, for no other reason other than I think it's important. We spend a lot of time talking about what we're going to do (lose weight, drop inches), and how we're going to do it (circuits, nutrition, etc), but we don't spend enough time talking about why. What is the real deep down reason that you want to make these changes? As you know by now, it's more about that than it is the number on the scale. 

3. A positive growth mindset. This journey that we're all on that we call life is going to be filled with ups and downs, just like a rollercoaster. If you approach it like a rollercoaster, without the ups and downs, what's the fun of it? It's those that not only know there are going to be ups and downs, but they stay positive throughout the setbacks, use them as learning experiences, and are always aiming to just be a little better than yesterday, 1% better. 

4. They stack small wins. Making the healthier choice of the two when presented with two crappy choices is a small win. They don't go for the big home run, they don't yo-yo, and they don't try to bite off more than they can chew. Aiming to go for a walk around the block instead of not working out at all is a small win. Getting ten more grams of protein per day is a small win. It's these small wins, added up over time, that build this foundation, this wall, that is an indestructible creation of habits that create lifelong results. 

5. They show up daily. Consistency will always, I repeat, always, win out in this world. The relentless pursuit of just doing something every single day. I like to call it excellence in the ordinary. It's doing the ordinary things (sleeping, eating healthy, exercising a couple of times per week) done with an extreme amount of excellence, consistently. 

As I mentioned above, success leaves clues. 

Those with any kind of success in fitness and nutrition, follow the five habits above. 

They don't chase the shiny object.

They don't look for quick fixes. 

They don't beat themselves up when things get hard. 

The funny part?

Notice I didn't talk about the type of workout they do, a specific exercise, or a fancy diet. 

Those are just tools. 

It's not the tools you use that make the biggest difference, it's the habits you instill in yourself. 

Which one of these are you going to try to develop starting today?

Go take action. 

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling 

Pulling out the weeds

I describe myself as an indoor cat these days, which is mostly true. But without baseball to watch, and now, without Rooney in the house, I’ve resorted to spending more time outside of my house, in my yard, literally digging into new projects. Mostly obsessing with the landscaping around our fire pit.

I’d like to preface this by saying that I don’t like to get dirty or be dirty.

Yes I was a tomboy. Yes I used to play in the dirt. And yes I got very dirty playing baseball and softball.

But somewhere in my mid-thirties I decided to lean into a few of my adult truths:

1.    I hate sleeping in tents. I love nature, but I don’t like sleeping on the ground. I’m done pretending.

2.     Fireworks are loud and I don’t like them.

3.     I don’t like to be dirty. I like my white shoes to stay white and my hair to stay in place.

4.     I’ve basically turned in to the character David from Schitt’s Creek.

Which is why, I suppose, Sheila was surprised when I found her in the garden to ask what I thought was a simple question.

“Do we have any weed killer?”

After a short lecture on why she doesn’t buy weed killer, she informed me that if I wanted any weeds to be gone, I needed to pull them out. By hand.

“By the root,” she said.

*Insert David from Schitt’s Creek response here.

Up to this point in the pandemic, my obsession with keeping our fire pit looking nice has been limited to weed whacking around the stones and gravel and stringing white lights in the trees around it. But last weekend, probably as a result of my unwillingness to be in an empty house without Rooney, I decided to put some more work into the landscaping.

Which is why I found myself wearing gardening gloves for the first time in my adult life, down on my hands and knees obsessively pulling weeds from the gravel fire pit.

And the symbolism kept slapping me in the face too hard for me to not write it about it.

I mean the idea that using the short cut – the weed whacker – to get rid of weeds for a few days versus actually pulling the roots out…

How many places in life do we do this?

It is just the perfect analogy for how many of us deal with so many problems and challenges. Especially when it comes to the emotional work we have to do. Don’t get me wrong - it’s important to manage our struggles, whether that be anxiety or depression or stress. But I guess it’s why I’ve become such a big proponent of therapy. And for many of us, a deeper spiritual practice.

We can take the shortcuts - take the easy way out in dealing with our problems. And that might work for awhile. But if we never get around to digging in - and I mean really digging in and getting dirty and putting on gloves and getting to the root of why we do or feel the things we do and feel, then we’re going to find ourselves, day after day, week after week, trying to bat down the same problems over and over and over again.

There is no simple fix if we want our garden to grow. Sometimes we just have to do the work.

And yes, I think I squeezed every last bit out of this analogy that I could….

Stick

She began to push the pedals but could never gain enough speed to keep going.

My niece has been learning to ride a bike with no training wheels.

About a month ago I was over her house to hang out with the family and after dinner, we went out to the street to get some reps in.

She would get on the bike, give it a few pedals, and then lose her balance.

However, she kept putting the reps in.

Last weekend when I went over their house she grabbed her bike after dinner, and with no help was cruising laps around the culdesac.

How many times did she “fail” before she finally got the hang of it?

Dozens, if not hundreds of times, right?

But wasn’t it worth it for a skill that she’ll now have the rest of her life?

Of course.

Anytime we’re learning a new skill there are going to be moments of “failure.”

We don’t just develop the skill instantly, there are weeks, months, sometimes years of mastering the skill, practicing the skill, before we get it.

By far one of the best traits we can have is the ability to stick with it through all of those learning lessons (failures), to get to the other side of learning the new skill.

Plus, quite often the skill we’re trying to learn will last us the rest of our life, but we first have to be willing to stick through the pain of learning it.

This is true for any physical skill like learning to ride a bike or perform an exercise correctly.

However, this is also true for our mental skills such as self-awareness, empathy, etc.

We have to practice it, stick through the suck, and then over time, we develop a life long skill.

Be willing to stick through it.

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

Frustrated

I was reading an e-mail from my mentor this morning about his son, Alex, who is nine years old.

Alex is an amazing baseball player, and with youth baseball kicking off down south tournaments are back up and running.

Pat was talking about how Alex is excelling in running the bases, fielding, and pitching..

However, his hitting has been struggling quite a bit.

How Alex, at nine years old, responded, is a great lesson.

First, he didn’t let his frustration of not hitting well impact the other areas of his game.

Second, he didn’t complain about it, he just practiced more on hitting.

I thought that was a great lesson for everyone.

There is probably an area in your life right now that you might be frustrated with.

It could be frustrated with the results you’re getting, it could be frustrated with something at work, or it could be frustrated with a friend or family member.

With that comes two big lessons…

I know it’s hard, but try not to let that impact other areas of your life.

Now, I realize that it can be challenging.

For example, if I’m frustrated with something in the business, you bet Megan is going to hear about it, which means it has a chance of impacting our family-life as well.

However, the important thing is when one area of life feels frustrating, don’t bring the rest of life down to that level.

Secondly, what are you doing about that area?

Alex spent more time practicing hitting.

He owned that it is his area for opportunity and he put in the work.

Pretty good for nine years old, huh?

It was a good reminder for me too.

Don’t let the frustration of where you’re at paralyze you to the point of not doing anything about it.

Show up every day and try to make that area of your life better.

It doesn’t matter if we’re going talking fitness or nutrition, or any other area of life.

When the plan isn’t working don’t just sit back and pout, change it, and put in the work to keep moving forward.

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

Five lessons from my dog

Rooney, my 12-year-old basset hound lays beside me as I do what has become a favorite Sunday ritual. I wake up early, feed him breakfast, pour a hot cup of coffee and then sit up, writing in our King size bed, as he and Sheila sleep soundly. I drink my coffee and scratch his head in between thoughts.

 This morning as he lays next to me though, his breathing is labored. He is not comfortable and hasn’t been for several days. He has cancer. Lymphoma they think. And so his morning began, not with breakfast but with a cocktail of drugs that I had hoped would lead to breakfast later on.

 You know when you sign up to be a dog owner that it’s a short-term contract. Hopefully 10-12 years or more, but there is always the possibility of less, as with any of us.  

 Sheila gets in the shower and I carry him to the kitchen. He can walk, but not very well, and so I fold his legs into my arms and sink into the chair where I prop him upright on my lap, as I have so many times before.

 I’ve written often about the comfort I take in him – the way he lays on me like a weighted blanket while I rest my chin on the top of his head. I take in the corn chip smell that is a basset hound, rub his long velvet ears between my thumb and forefinger, and look out into the meadow behind our house.

 His breathing is even more shallow and difficult than it was earlier and I find myself sobbing onto his head and soaking his ear. Because I know it’s time.

 And so it is that Rooney crossed the rainbow bridge on Sunday.

 Sheila drove as I sat in the back with him, arm draped over his body, scratching his ears and thinking of all of the things Rooney has taught me in our 12 plus years together.

1.     You don’t have to yell to get what you need.

A few years ago Rooney and I were staying with a friend when he made his way to her feet and sat, staring at her.

 Does he always do this? she asked.

 I looked up.

 Yes. He always did that. For most of his life, staring was his way of asking for things. For dinner, for a treat, to go outside, to be picked up. Bassets can be a noisy breed, but Rooney seldom barked. And he was remarkably patient. He’s stare at you as long as it took.

 In this day of over-communication, where we almost find ourselves shouting to be heard, I appreciated his method of silence (though maybe not staring at people so intently). He was an ever-present reminder that you don’t need to yell to be heard.

 Sometimes you don’t have to say anything at all. But you do need to be intentional in your actions. And Rooney was nothing if not that.

 2.     Be politely curious

 Someone told me once that a dog stopping to smell things was like a human reading the morning paper. It’s how they know what’s going on in their world. Rooney had a nose like no other, as bassets were bread for hunters to follow on foot.

 When I came home from a day at the gym or out and about running errands, he would give me the once over – his nose twitching a mile a minute trying to take in all of the sounds. He’d wag his tail and let me scratch his neck as he smelled, but he couldn’t rest until he’d taken in all of the scents.

 As humans we are often too wrapped up in our own stuff to be very curious about the people who walk into our lives. We often can’t see beyond the end of our own nose, beyond the shadow of our own problems to express interest in anyone else.

 Rooney could only express interest in everyone else.

 3.     Be flexible

 Rooney loved us as his owners, but he had no real loyalty to us. That sounds like a bad thing, but it actually meant that we could do almost anything with him and know he would be fine. We could leave him with friends for a week. We could leave him with different friends for a weekend. I could ask any client to walk him when he came to the gym with me.

 We could put him in the car for the long drive to Pennsylvania and rest assured that he’d sleep soundly in the back seat.  

 In the end, we had to shove pills down his throat and he let us. Clean his ears on a weekly basis? Yes, he let us do that too. Throw him in a bath tub? He went willingly.

 Last week I wrote about the power of “yes, and.” Well, Rooney really lived that.

 4.     But know when to be stubborn

Bassets are known for their stubbornness, and the idea of clicker training him was a joke. For any of you who have trained dogs in the past, you know the purpose of the clicker – to mark the behavior and give the dog a treat. Rooney liked the training just fine, until his reward was met not with food but with affection, and then he wanted nothing to do with it. For his entire life, if you did not have a treat he wasn’t going to spend his energy listening to you.

 Decide what is important to you, and then dig your heels in to get what you want. And never, ever, ever give in before you get it.

 5.     Be kind and give lots of hugs (when the pandemic is over)

 This is, perhaps, the thing I will miss most about my pup. Rooney was not discerning with his love or his kindness (a trait I know to be true for many pups). He truly liked everyone – to the point where, when out on walks he seemed genuinely confused when someone didn’t stop to say hello.

 Dogs don’t hold grudges. They don’t care about political affiliations or status or appearance. They don’t care about race or religion. They care only that you meet their wags with some modicum of the enthusiasm with which they greet you.

Each morning, when I’d let Rooney out of his crate, he’d stand in the middle of the living room rug and wait for me to get down on my knees. He wouldn’t go outside – wouldn’t move an inch until I got down on the floor – and then he’d bury his head in my armpit and I would scratch his neck and we would take a few seconds before we both went on to start our days.

We live in particularly divided times where it can feel challenging to extend kindness in the face of such disunion. And yet, if we can learn a little from our pets, perhaps we can find ways to start our days with a little kindness and patience.

 And, as the saying goes, try to be half the people that our dogs believe that we are.

Three Things...

I flipped through the pages, realizing how much of it has already happened, yet how much is still left to accomplish.

I love visioning.

It’s almost (ok, it is) a hobby of mine.

I like to think of it as organized dreaming.

Now, needless to say, your goals are probably off track this year, but how about your vision?

For me, I found it quite refreshing the other day to realize that although the time frame may have shifted, the vision is still there.

I firmly believe if you want to be consistent and motivated in any effort in life you have to have a clear vision that you're working towards. 

It can be tweaked, adjusted, and grow with you, but you have to have a north star. 

What's your why?

Why do you do what you do?

Once you know that, each day is just like building a sculpture. 

We're just slowly chipping away at this thing to make it a little better each day. 

This is true for what you want in life, what you want in your career, and what you want in fitness. 

You see, a goal of tightening and toning your butt and arms will only take you so far. 

It's a great goal to start, but it's not your vision, it's not your north star. 

Toning is not WHY you workout. 

Your vision and your why should tug at the strings of your heart. 

As you ask yourself "well, why is that important to me?" you begin to go a layer deeper and you realize that maybe the deeper reason to why you told me your goal is toning is actually a goal of being happier around your family, being a good role model for your kids, and being a better spouse. 

I don't know. 

We each have our own vision and our own pursuit of a vision.

It's up to you to learn what that is and use that as motivation to kick ass every day. 

However, I do know one thing…

If you want to live an amazing and fulfilling life you must live for something bigger than yourself. 

We are driven by only three things:

Autonomy: a desire to direct our own lives

Mastery: a desire to get better at something bigger than ourselves

Purpose: being a part of something bigger than ourselves

I challenge you to fill your life wherever you can with these three things.

Even something as minor as fitness, we try to find the balance of telling clients what to do so they don’t have to think. and letting them make select choices.

For mastery, it might be learning a new skill, a new movement, or a new hobby.

And for purpose, it’s being a part of something bigger than yourself.

This could be your family, your work family, your church family, your fitness family.

It’s making sure you’re doing something for the greater good, not just you (which is important to).

Those three things combined are why you do what you do, your vision, your north star, will get you through any rough patch, any hard times. . 

As we come up on the halfway point of 2020 with hopes of having a better second half, this lesson might be one you want to spend some time on.

1% Better. 

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

In It For The Right Reasons....

Why are you here?

Why are you reading this?

Why are you trying to lose weight? 

Why are you trying to get stronger?

It's my hope that you're truly "in it" for the right reasons. 

Quite often we approach fitness and this journey as a form of "punishing" ourselves. 

Because I'm overweight I'm going to punish myself with exercise...

Because I ate that cake I'm going to go workout...

I need to be so sore that I can't brush my teeth the next morning...

It's comments like that that scare me. 

People are in this for the wrong reasons. 

Exercise is not a form of punishment. 

You should not be working out so hard that you can't walk down the stairs the next morning. 

It's kind of like forcing a kid to eat his vegetables rather than letting him explore them on his own. 

If you force it, he will probably resist them long-term. 

However, if you create a positive environment around it, he'll discover the vegetables he likes best. 

Fitness is the same thing. 

You should be in it for the right reasons. 

In it to add to you, not take away from you. 

Add confidence. Add strength. Add empowerment. Add happiness. 

In it for the fun and community. 

In it for a desire to get a little better every day, 1% better. 

It's the people that are in it for the right reasons that see long-term success.

If you're in it just for the quick-fix, punish myself mentality I can only promise one thing...

Inevitably you will stumble, get burnt out, and never get back on track. 

If you're in it for the right reasons it's not something you have to do, it's something you get to do. 

If you're in it for the right reasons it's not something on your to-do list, it's something you can't wait to do. 

My goal for each of you is to find something, find an environment, find people that will lift you up, not bring you down and beat the crap out of you. 

Find things that cause you to be in it for the right reasons. 

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

Can I get a hell yeah?

In the world of improv, the key to a successful skit is the phrase “yes, and…”

If I start crawling around on the floor and tell you I'm a lemur, the skit will come to a screeching halt if you tell me that no, you're not a lemur, you're a Kim.

First of all, what if I wanted to be a lemur? And second of all, the skit just ended. Improvisational comedy relies on acceptance over rejection. When people agree to do an improv skit, they are committing to the acceptance of whatever each actor brings to the routine.

I think there are many lessons to be pulled out of the idea of acceptance over rejection, especially at a time when managing a global pandemic forces changes and adjustments on a weekly, if not daily, basis in many aspects of our lives. And, much like working with an improv actor, we have little control over what is going to be said and done.

When I think of the concept of “yes, and” I’m also reminded of one of my lacrosse teammates from college who implemented a slightly more enthusiastic version of that acceptance.

Every time we were faced with some horrible conditioning exercise, Sandy would take off running and scream “Can I get a hell yeah?”

100-yard wind sprints?

Hell yeah!

Heart attacks around the lacrosse field?

Hell yeah!

Playing a game in 38 degrees with rain blowing sideways?

No. Just…no.

Admittedly, I wasn’t one for shouting or showing that kind of enthusiasm about anything, but I learned very quickly in sports that part of what you say yes to in competing is going through certain periods of suffering. We have a choice when faced with the moments that present themselves throughout the day, to either accept them or reject them. Even right now, in a time where we have so little control over many things, we do have a choice and some control in the way we respond to what’s happening.

What Sandy always did well was embrace the experience in front of her. And how many of us, purely out of habit, reject the experience directly in front of us. It’s one of the challenges of developing many of the healthier habits that we’re trying to convince ourselves to do.

What do you complain about? What causes you to roll your eyes to the back of your head and sigh the kind of sigh that wakes up everyone in church? What are the things in life that cause you discomfort? What are you trying to avoid?

What if you could look at some of those situations and say:

Can I get a hell yeah?

Or perhaps, if you’re not much of a shouter, what if you said yes…and?

Saying yes leaves you open to possibilities. The attitude of yes feels collaborative and open.  

No has it’s place. Rejection has its place.

But what if you could look at the difficult things in your life and say hell yes? To practice opening up to acceptance?

Carrying forward that attitude of "yes, and" fosters the environment for change, creativity, and collaboration. It leaves the door open for possibilities.

So, can I get a hell yeah?

89 Days (Our Doors Open Tomorrow)

89 days.

89 days of stress, anxiety, frustrations, fears, excitement, confusion…

What other emotions have we all felt over the last three months?

It’s been 89 days since we’ve been allowed to have clients inside our physical doors, but I’m excited to announce that starting tomorrow (June 17th) we’re allowed to run in-facility training sessions.

To say the last 89 days have been crazy would be an understatement, but I think there’s a lot of good to come out of it.

We’ve been able to come together more as a team, our staff energy and culture is at an all-time high.

Our client’s energy and enthusiasm to get moving again is contagious.

We were able to raise over $5,000 for our local community organizations during this pandemic.

Our entire business model has shifted, in a positive way.

We have been able to build out an online arm to our offerings, STREAM allows clients to workout LIVE with a coach throughout the day, and if they miss it, catch the recording anytime.

We added a yoga and mobility session called STRETCH.

We doubled down on our Small Group Personal Training environment with both STRONG & SWEAT.

And to complete the S5, we built in more capacity for every client to do monthly STRATEGY sessions with a coach, 1:1 personal accountability, and “problem-solving” meetings.

You can read more about these upgrades here.

I can say with extreme confidence that after 89 days we’re ready.

We are so excited to welcome you back in our doors, and if you’re not ready, that’s cool too.

Please note, if you’re not comfortable or your schedule does not allow you to walk through our physical doors we’re going to continue with the STREAM (online) sessions, and we will keep up with some level of outdoor sessions, just be patient with us as we evaluate the frequency of each of those offerings week by week.

As we make the transition back into our facility, please know that the health and safety of you and your loved ones is our highest priority. We will continue to follow the orders of the State of Maine and the Maine CDC.

That does also mean that there will be some changes, and I know change is hard, but please be kind to each other as we all navigate this together.

We’re excited to get back into our facility with the following precautions in mind: 

1. While the gym was closed we stripped everything down, painted every wall, cleaned every surface, and even worked on some nice upgrades to the lobby and bathrooms. We also installed a foot-operated door opener on the entry door so clients can enter the facility without using their hands. 

2. We spent thousands of dollars on more equipment to allow clients to not have to share equipment while we all take these extra precautions.

3. We have adjusted our programming and facility layout to allow clients to have their own individual working space in their session, a “pod” as we call it. This allows ample space, marked off with tape, and 14’ of distance between you and the next client during any vigorous exercise.

4. We will be limiting all sessions to 8 clients to allow for more spacing and more individualized coaching.

5. In addition to not needing to share equipment before disinfecting it, and physically distancing each client, we have hourly cleaning protocols in place covering every square inch of the facility. 

6. We will keep sessions to 50 minutes to allow us time to clean the facility for the next session, in addition to the cleaning that goes on throughout the session. 

7. Please remove yourself from a session 24 hours ahead of time to allow those on the waitlist to get notified, and please don’t signup less than 6 hours ahead of a session as the coaches need to prep for each of your sessions.

8. Clients will use the provided wipes to disinfect all surfaces and equipment touched during the session, and the staff will do a second cleaning after the clients leave. 

9. We ask that clients use the provided hand sanitizer pre and post-session.

10. We also ask that you only use the “hands-free” portion of the water fountain at this time

11. The shower is not available at this time.

12. Staff will be wearing masks as they are in the building a “prolonged period” of time, per state guidelines.

13. We originally planned on installing Air Conditioning in our facility this summer. At this time we have put that on hold in plans to have our two 14’ overhead garage doors open to allow for improved air quality.

14. Please don’t arrive more than 10 minutes before your session, and for now, please don’t congregate in the lobby, feel free to socialize outside. This will limit congestion in smaller areas.

15. As you enter the facility for the first time we do have a new waiver and membership agreement for you to sign, so please see the front desk before entering the facility.

I realize this is a lot and you may not like all of it.

I know it can be overwhelming, but it is for the health and safety of you, your fellow clients, and our team.

We’re so excited about the summer at Spurling!

Let’s go!

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

Renew

It’s been a pretty crazy first half of the year for all of us, huh?

Regardless of your situation, we’ve all been impacted in one way or another through this pandemic.

Whether you’re a small business owner like me, or you had to adjust to working from home or teaching the kids.

Not to mention the isolation and what that does to the mind.

I’ve heard from several people…

“I just need a break.”

So today, I wanted to dig into a valuable lesson I learned a few years back.

Rest vs Renewal.

You know we always talk about taking care of yourself first, putting your own mask on first, and so forth. 

We know that in order to take care of those around us we have to be at our best. 

I know that if I want to be a good leader for the team, I have to be at my best. 

The coaches know that if they want to put on the best "show" for the clients, they first have to be at their best. 

You know that in order to take care of your family, you have to make sure you're taking care of first. 

But...

How do you do that?

We're all familiar with resting….taking a break.

It's hard to do, but it's pretty simple in concept. 

Get your 7-9 hours of sleep, take a nap if necessary, etc. 

However, have you ever had all your sleep, taken the weekend "off", or tried to just sit and "rest", and then at the end of any of those you actually don't feel recharged?

It's because you didn't renew yourself. 

Your body needs rest.

Your mind needs to be renewed. 

And for most of us at this point, it’s a mental game.

So, how do you renew yourself?

Some examples...

I’ll state the obvious one first.

Jump into a workout at Spurling, whether that’s online or outdoors right now.

We know the benefits of exercise.

You may feel physically tired at the end, but you're mentally fresh and renewed at the end. 

Another strategy for renewal includes completing a task, get something done off your to-do list, or finally get that desk organized or that project you’ve always wanted to do.

I’ve witnessed first hand so many hobbies come out during all of this…

In fact, I built Megan a raised garden bed and she now takes care of it like it’s our third child.

In all seriousness though, it’s become a hobby of hers, and after the kids go to bed she goes out there, takes care of it, and is inspired by the growth.

She feels renewed.

I know for Kim and I, and maybe many of you, it’s writing.

You get all your current thoughts onto paper. All of a sudden you feel a weight lifted off your shoulders. 

You feel renewed. 

Other things include getting outside, getting into nature.

There is nothing a good nature walk can’t fix.

As a final idea, revisit your vision, your goals, and your why.

I know for me, that renews me, it keeps me excited about the future.

So, whether it’s a hobby, some activity, or that thing you’ve been putting off because you just didn’t have enough time, find something that renews you.

True physical rest is important, don't get me wrong. 

However, my challenge to you today is if you find yourself resting and not feeling fresh and at your best, try to do something that renews you. 

1% better. 

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling

You cannot steer a stationary ship

This quote came up in my life coaching class over the weekend. I’d never heard it before, but the words hit me hard, especially in light of all that is happening in our world and our country right now.

It’s easier sometimes, to be that stationary ship.

You might be stationary because you lack motivation and feel as though you have cement blocks around your feet. Or maybe you feel like you’re slogging through the mud and at some point you can’t find the energy to take that next difficult, muddy step. (I don’t mean to sound dire here, but I feel as though many of you have been here before).

Perhaps you lack motivation because your feeling apathetic. You want to care, you know you should care, but you’ve run out of all of your cares. You gave your last care at breakfast three weeks ago and have been trying to find some cares since then but keep coming up empty.

Or maybe your stuck because you are in a state of analysis paralysis. You’ve literally thought the s*** out of a situation and paralyzed yourself into indecision. You’ve responded to life with the “hang on, let me overthink about that.”

I think it’s also easy to feel like spending cognitive space on something is action. Emotional labor is exhausting. But it’s not action. Now, more than ever, I keep reminding myself thinking isn’t doing. (I need to say that again. Thinking isn’t doing.)

Regardless of the reason, you’re not moving anywhere.

And you’re not going to move anywhere unless you pull up that anchor.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received in dealing with a major depressive episode many years ago came from a therapist who recommended that I “act against it.” If I felt like doing nothing, then it was incredibly important that I do something.

I remember calling a friend that night and saying “I don’t feel like doing anything but my therapist says I should act against it so do you want to hang out?”

She was obviously flattered by my enthusiasm. (But thankfully understanding and forgiving of my situation).

The most important word in that advice is to act. To move. To do something. Because you can’t go anywhere while you’re standing still. Action breeds motivation. You need to find a way to (if I can squeeze out one more analogy) get out of the harbor.

Which can feel scary, I know. Especially if you don’t have a direction.

If you need help moving, reach out - to a friend - to a partner - to a coach. I know from experience how difficult it can be to ask for help - but I also know how lonely it can feel when you do feel so stuck. If there’s anything we’ve learned in these past few months, it’s that human beings, even the most introverted among us, crave connection.

Regardless of how you do it, it’s time to start moving. Because you cannot steer a stationary ship.

RAS

Do you ever get a new vehicle thinking that you are the only one with that model or color, and then all of a sudden you start seeing the same one everywhere you go?

RAS

Reticular Activating System. 

It's the awesome computer in our brain that most of us never use on purpose. 

What we think defines who we are. 

It's not that there are more blue trucks on the road than before, you're just now thinking of blue trucks so you see more of them. 

But it's not just thoughts on vehicles, it's everything. 

Every day we have thousands of thoughts that seem to leap in and out of our minds. 

Those thoughts greatly define who we become and what we achieve. 

Think about the kinds of thoughts you've had today. 

People tend to dwell on what's not working, and our thoughts are dominated by problems and self-criticism.

The RAS is the attitude programming in the brain, and you can control it. 

So if you're telling yourself you can't do something, you won't be able to do it. 

Worrying has the same effect. 

Attitude is the only thing we can control in life, yet it's also the most powerful. 

A very efficient machine, the RAS zeros in on any area of interest. 

So if our attitude is negative, we're going to have negative outcomes. 

So, what does all of this mean for you?

If you're looking to achieve certain outcomes in life and in fitness, immerse yourself in positive thoughts about it. 

Any statement you make to yourself makes a thread in your brain and the more thoughts on that topic that stronger the thread. 

So why not make them positive thoughts?

It's the only way to get a positive outcome. 

That's why goal setting and gratitude journaling are two of our favorite tools. 

Goals focus your attention and force your brain to attract what you want. 

Most people spend more time planning a vacation than they do planning a life. 

Setting goals in every aspect of life, including fitness, puts your RAS to work. 

Having a daily practice of gratitude, it can be as simple as three things your grateful for before you get out of bed every morning, can have a profound impact on your RAS, and positively impact the entire day, leading to more positive outcomes.

I know it can be challenging, but just like when you think about blue vehicles you see blue vehicles, when you think about positive success, you get positive success.

1% Better.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Doug Spurling