Use Your Mind

Happy New Year 2013! Let's start this year off on the right foot: 

"Our mind comes as standard equipment at birth, it’s free and things that have been given to us for nothing we place little value on; things that we pay money for, we value.  The paradox is that exactly the reverse is true; everything that’s really worthwhile in life came to us free our minds our souls our bodies our hopes our dreams our ambitions, our intelligence, our love of family and children friends and country. All these priceless possessions are free but the things that actually cost money are cheap and can be replaced at any time. If our home burns down we can rebuild it and if we lose something we can buy another but the things we got for nothing you can never replace. The human mind isn’t used because we take it for granted. Familiarity breeds contempt, it can do any job we assign it but yet we use it for little jobs. We use only 10% of our minds. What is it you want? Plant your goal in your mind. All you’ve got to do is plant that seed in your mind.  Care for it, work steadily towards your goal." - Earl Nightingale

Just Doing It

"Maybe I led you to believe it was easy, when it wasn't. Maybe you're just making excuses..." - Micheal Jordan

One of the hardest things in life is to find the tenacity to keep going with a task when you aren't sure it can or will really work for you. What's the point of continuing on a path when you don't see immediate results? 

How many of you have started a gym membership or decided in the Springtime that this would be the year you get out there and DO THIS? Or, how many decided that for that next big event you would get in total shape and rock that dress or suit like no one else? This is AMAZING! You started! You did it! You signed up or you went out for your first run! Congratulations! Wait, pardon me? You stopped after a few runs? You got too busy for the gym?

What's really going on here in more cases than others is that we failed to see results we wanted quickly so we scrap the idea and move on. Then we tell ourselves things like "ahh whatever, I'm happy with how I am." We talk ourselves out of the idea and move on knowing in the back of our minds that we will try it again some day. The cycle continues and we never progress but rather we remain stagnant and we all know that stagnancy creates West Nile Virus, just saying.

Friends, I have news for you. I mean this as honest friendly advice. It's EASIER to give up.

A few years ago my husband decided he would become a professional all natural body builder. I, of course, decided to walk this path with him and begin my journey as a fitness competitor. I know what you're thinking "oh what the heck?! This doesn't relate to me or my journey!" Just bear with me for a few more sentences here. It was a passion I developed through time not in an instant so while I was eating nothing but grilled chicken breast with nothing on it, steamed broccoli with nothing on it and brown rice, you guessed it, with nothing on it I began to feel frustrated due to the fact that I wasn't seeing any results. I after all wasn't the one who wanted to do this anyway! I decided that because I had tried this "gym thing" in the past and I had given up easily that this time I would just put my head down, eat my boring food and create small challenges for myself week after week. The challenges were things like seeing if I could lift at least 5Lbs heavier every time I did that exercise again. I also thought "well, my husbands not going to give up so I can't just give up and stay home!" a.k.a. "I can't let him get all ripped and sexy and leave me in the dust!". Five days a week for 2.5 - 3 hours a day in the gym, it was gruelling and hard. It was heavy and I was hungry. 

One day as we did "weigh in's" with one another my husband said to me "uum wow, did you want to put away your ripped shoulders? You're putting me to shame here!" I looked in the mirror and gasped! I had stunning athletic arms and shoulders, glutes that rocked in my jeans, bi-ceps that the other gym dude's commented on and yes...oh yes...ABS! Once I saw this small bit of progress emerging from my skin I realised, I was DOING IT.

Any task I have ever encountered in my life I have attacked as I did fitness. We all work so hard doing the things we need to do to make our dreams happen and we may feel that we NEVER see results. It's a difficult thing to keep working on when we aren't sure if it will work at all. I used to 100% agree with this until I perceived challenges differently; I had to try to find a way to relate anything I faced to a real trait I (and you) possess. When I decided to just do whatever it was I was facing I made it a lifestyle, not just something I "worked for". I decided that with challenge I faced I would apply the same effort and theory that I used with fitness. I thought "I'll just put my head down and do the work" and then all of a sudden there it is, success right in front of you.

Whatever you do, keep going. Keep the determination. No matter what anyone says. Make it a lifestyle choice not a thing you have to do.

It's not work, it's just who you are. So go do it. Go get your 6-pack abs in whatever it is you desire. Just put your head down and make it who you are and one by one those abs will show themselves.