I’m sorry to tell you this but whatever your fitness goals are for this year, you’re going to fail at them.
Don’t get mad at me, blame yourself.
Here’s the truth, according to a 2016 study, of the 41% of Americans who make New Years resolutions, by the end of the year only 9% feel they are successful in keeping them.
So 91% of you keep making the same promise year after year only to be major disappointments to yourself.
You know that’s the definition of insanity right? Because you keep repeating this pattern.
Look, I’m not having this conversation with you to bash you. But you know that when you come over here you’re simply getting the truth.
Straight no chaser.
And today, what I want to do is put some pep in your step so that by the end of the coming year, you are a part of that 9% that will cross the finish line with a body that you’re proud of.
What’s Causing This EPIC Goal Setting Failure?
Here’s the question though. What’s causing folks to fail time and again at their body transformation goals?
I want to bring up something you might think is completely counterintuitive to any fitness advice ever given.
And that is, your fitness goals need to be about MORE than just your body.
We live in a society today that is OBSESSED with the body. OBSESSED with perfection.
Pope John Paul II coined this “The Cult of the Body” and that’s something that has always stuck with me as a Catholic.
Pope John Paul II’s “The Cult of the Body”
What is the Cult of the Body and are you a part of it?
I have to admit that I was and had been for many years.
My obsession with my body started years ago. Emotionally tough experiences in my childhood, and the pressures to be thin as I came of age in the ballet world led me into the downward spiral of body dysmorphia and eating disorders for many years.
I didn’t know how to cope with the world around me, and the only way I could feel like I had any kind of control was by controlling my body. What I ate, how I moved, how it looked.
My story isn’t unique. So many people get into fitness with that kind of background. Which is why I tell you time and again, be careful of whom you take advice from. Some aren’t healed.
I eventually got past that obsession only to be led straight into another.
Bodybuilding.
Bodybuilding’s Obsession With The Body And Perfection
I’m not going to say that Bodybuilding was necessarily wrong for me. I flourished in it as a pro. But the obsession with the body, working out, eating, well it fed quite well into the cult I had unknowingly become a part of since the age of 11 years old.
The cult of the body.
As much as I enjoy fitness, I can’t say I’m not disturbed after finally being able to see with eyes wide open what fitness is. Especially in today’s world.
Fitness today plays to our carnality.
It plays to our insecurities and the darkerst parts of ourselves that we shield from others.
Don’t believe me? Look at most fitness advertisements. What’s being sold to you? Promises of FEELING better, FEELING confident, FEELING attractive. These are all putting front center your insecurities.
Fantasies about turning heads, attracting endless streams of men or women, being sexy, a god or goddess. These are all playing on your urge to feel desirable and wanted sexually by others.
Promises of longevity, living longer, looking younger. These are all playing on your fear of aging and facing the music that eventually, we’re all going to die. Not to mention it pedestalizes youthfulness while it denigrates aging as though it’s a curse and not a blessing that you get to live to see another day.
Why Is This Is So Damaging?
The cult of the body places your appearance, and your physicality above all else – removed from the person that you are. It doesn’t care about your mental, emotional, or spiritual development as a whole human person.
It gives a false sense that if your body is perfect, then everything else would fall into place.
But time and again we see this isn’t true. Look around you, look around on social media to see that time and again, people who have it all, underneath, are some of the most unhappy people in the world.
Ok so, how do you move forward so you can move closer to your goal?
And not only that, make permanent changes that not only creates the transformation you want, but establishes the habits to keep it forever?
I want to instill in you 3 building blocks I take every client through.
Make The Decision To Succeed No Matter What
The first step is to show up for yourself, and making the decision that you’re not going to fail.
It astonishes me to encounter so many successful people in life who have incredible careers, education, and social status who simply cannot get it together when it comes to their fitness. Even if their life depended on it.
And for many, truthfully, that’s what hangs in the balance. They would rather die an unhealthy and untimely death due to neglecting and making excuses for their health choices than actually do the work it takes to fix the problem.
So many of you chase career opportunities, degrees, money, and social status like your life depends on it. Yet the one thing you need to ENJOY those things (your health) you so easily ignore.
This is the core behind why you keep failing at your fitness goals. You haven’t made the DECISION that YOU matter. Your health MATTERS, and that you’re going to bring that same kind of intensity, focus, and consistency to it in the same way you bring it to your other ambitions.
It’s laziness and complacency for so many – and this is the ripping off the band-aid moment you need to hear.
Once you’ve held the mirror up, it’s time to get real, and get CLARITY.
Goal Setting For Your Resolution That Gets Results
Set a goal rooted to your why. And answer what you stand to lose if you don’t achieve it.
You know what’s missing from the goal setting equation? Stakes. The wager.
For too many people, it’s so easy to name the goal. It’s easy to get lost in the cushy fantasy of what you think you want to achieve. But the reality is that’s not enough.
What’s the one thing that lights the fire under us to get things done by any means necessary? We stand to LOSE something of value.
What will happen if you stop working today? For many, you’ll lose everything you have and be left in squalor.
What will happen if you stop putting effort into your family, your relationship, and your personal life? It will fall apart, people will get hurt, and can lead to a host of emotional turmoil in your life.
Knowing this, you probably work hard to maintain the success of these things in your life, right?
Well your fitness goals are the same way.
If you don’t identify what you stand to lose, you will lose everything. Because the goal isn’t that connected to you emotionally, mentally, spiritually.
The next step you need to get results – create the game plan.
Creating A Game Plan For Success
But it MUST focus on changing habits, behaviors, patterns, actions and your mindset. Not just the diet and training.
I hate to say it but most fitness influencers and trainers just don’t get it. Everyone is teaching you the HOW.
How to workout, what exercises to do, how to target this muscle or that one. How much cardio to do and when. They’re giving you the fries and a drink without the BURGER.
The workout program and meal plan is the SIDE ORDER when it comes to your approach to fitness. It’s the standard you expect to get when you make an order – or start on a program.
But where’s the burger? Where’s the thing you came for? The juicy meaty stuff that once you put all those workout and diet tips in action gets the results you want and KEEPS it off. That’s the burger and you don’t have that!
What Is The BURGER Concept In Your Approach To Fitness?
The BURGER in this scenario are the actions you have to take to remove your bad habits. To face the music, and to get out of your own way.
The BURGER is taking a look at the root cause of your mindless snacking. The BURGER is facing the fact that you are an emotional eater and need to overcome that in order to stop piling on the weight.
The BURGER is realizing you’re not eating enough and you’ve gotten yourself into the mental mind game of being afraid that eating more will have you gaining instead of losing weight.
It’s establishing the habits, mindset, behaviors, actions and patterns that will get you to change your body and KEEP those results.
Because guess what, whatever you did to lose weight, whatever you did to gain that muscle, that is EXACTLY what you’re going to have to do to maintain that progress.
And because far too many of you are going to extremes to get results, you keep finding yourself back at square one when you return to normal patterns of eating and living your life.
Look, staying motivated to keep going, and to make fitness a lifestyle can be really tough. So I want you to click here to get some help by setting up a FREE coaching call with me. Let’s fix it.
