A Big Ah Ha day!
Anyone that knows me well or even a little bit knows I am a voracious reader, I love reading. Until recently I could easily read 4-5 books a week. Two 45+minute train journeys a day added to any downtime, and coupled with an intense dislike of the rubbish on the goggle box, and those books get read.
On holiday this year, I decided on a slightly different route. Sure I'd bought 10 books on my kindle (just in case), but my friend Richard had talked me into trying audio books.
It meant that rather than sitting in the shade trying to find a comfortable position on my sun lounger to I could read my book, I just plugged in my headphones and listened to someone reading to me.
I started with a few books that I'd read before and hearing someone else read them, they were almost unrecognizable, I enjoyed them all over again.
I've kept this habit of listening to audio books going, and this morning the book I am listening to started to discuss the idea that knowledge is power. Almost instantly I was on it. No it's not!
Anyway the author carries on going, and starts to expand the subject. He told this little analogy which I'd never heard before:
If someone gave you a personal treasure map and at the 'X' mark there was a million pound (or a million dollars) that all you had to do was rock up, open the box and it was yours, are you already rich? No trick, the money is going to wait for you.
No you're not till you actually follow the path and open that box. Then and only then are you rich.
Fitness, health and losing weight is a bit like that. I am asked on a very regular basis for diets, training programs and rapid weight formulas. Then the majority of people don't even start. Or I get the "I haven't got time" or "Do I have to give up alcohol?" or "Does it work if I only do it 2 days a week?" and the questions go on and on...
You yourself may have even asked me these questions.
In 12 weeks (that's 3 months), probably 95% of anyone around us could achieve a lifetime fitness/ shaping/ goal of some sort.
So really you could be 3 months from your dream. Whatever it is. But we make excuses. We sabotage ourselves. We break promises.
Many years ago I read a book called the 1 Minute Millionaire. Half the book is a how to, the other a novel/story. In the story the heroine is married with two children and her husband is killed in a car accident. Within months she has lost her home, her income, the love of her life and then her in-laws claim she is an unfit mother and take custody of her children. She is given 3 months to prove she is a fit mother. It's an interesting story because it highlights that with the right motivation and with a big enough goal we can almost achieve anything, from the most impossible starting position.
None of us are disadvantaged to that extent, so really we don't have those excuses. If you're fat, somewhere along the line you have overeaten, drunk too much or not taken care of your health and well being. So far in my 25 year career I haven't met a overweight person who was a natural chubster, because they don't exist. Ask someone who lived all their life obese then got off the couch and did something about it. If they are lean, they can tell you exactly how they got there.
If you want something go and get it. Look I know what it feels like, on Saturday I walked through M&S craving sweet stuff, mince puffs, fruit and nut, blackberry and apple lattice pie,walnut whips and so many other delicacies for us sweet toothed people.
One thing stopped me. If I eat these foods, I won't achieve my goals.
Think about that.
On holiday this year, I decided on a slightly different route. Sure I'd bought 10 books on my kindle (just in case), but my friend Richard had talked me into trying audio books.
It meant that rather than sitting in the shade trying to find a comfortable position on my sun lounger to I could read my book, I just plugged in my headphones and listened to someone reading to me.
I started with a few books that I'd read before and hearing someone else read them, they were almost unrecognizable, I enjoyed them all over again.
I've kept this habit of listening to audio books going, and this morning the book I am listening to started to discuss the idea that knowledge is power. Almost instantly I was on it. No it's not!
Anyway the author carries on going, and starts to expand the subject. He told this little analogy which I'd never heard before:
If someone gave you a personal treasure map and at the 'X' mark there was a million pound (or a million dollars) that all you had to do was rock up, open the box and it was yours, are you already rich? No trick, the money is going to wait for you.
No you're not till you actually follow the path and open that box. Then and only then are you rich.
Fitness, health and losing weight is a bit like that. I am asked on a very regular basis for diets, training programs and rapid weight formulas. Then the majority of people don't even start. Or I get the "I haven't got time" or "Do I have to give up alcohol?" or "Does it work if I only do it 2 days a week?" and the questions go on and on...
You yourself may have even asked me these questions.
In 12 weeks (that's 3 months), probably 95% of anyone around us could achieve a lifetime fitness/ shaping/ goal of some sort.
So really you could be 3 months from your dream. Whatever it is. But we make excuses. We sabotage ourselves. We break promises.
Many years ago I read a book called the 1 Minute Millionaire. Half the book is a how to, the other a novel/story. In the story the heroine is married with two children and her husband is killed in a car accident. Within months she has lost her home, her income, the love of her life and then her in-laws claim she is an unfit mother and take custody of her children. She is given 3 months to prove she is a fit mother. It's an interesting story because it highlights that with the right motivation and with a big enough goal we can almost achieve anything, from the most impossible starting position.
None of us are disadvantaged to that extent, so really we don't have those excuses. If you're fat, somewhere along the line you have overeaten, drunk too much or not taken care of your health and well being. So far in my 25 year career I haven't met a overweight person who was a natural chubster, because they don't exist. Ask someone who lived all their life obese then got off the couch and did something about it. If they are lean, they can tell you exactly how they got there.
If you want something go and get it. Look I know what it feels like, on Saturday I walked through M&S craving sweet stuff, mince puffs, fruit and nut, blackberry and apple lattice pie,walnut whips and so many other delicacies for us sweet toothed people.
One thing stopped me. If I eat these foods, I won't achieve my goals.
Think about that.
Comments
Post a Comment