I talked with a fitness fanatic some months ago. He was filled with fear, worry, self-doubt and other ill feelings, in spite of having a number of big wins in his life.
After a few questions, I learned that he was reading about how to 10X his business… and virtually everything else in his life.
It wasn’t enough for the him to be showing constant and continuous signs of improvement. Nah. It’s gotta be 10X… or else you’re a “loser.”
HAH.
The guy had zero clue as to why his nerves were rattled. Could it be that he’d given himself such a big target that his brain and nervous system were rebelling?
Oh no, it couldn’t be that, could it? Aren’t you supposed to be emotionally rattled on a daily basis?
According to the self-development schexperts, you should set goals that scare you, goals that make you uncomfortable. These same advisors don’t tell you that you may need to live on pharmaceutical medications as a result of this type of thinking.
Then along comes el Furecat, who tells you to set small, incremental daily goals. He tells you to stop the 10X thinking, and focus on the daily actions and habits that will take you where you want to go in life. And that this alone will lead to massive changes over time.
But that’s not good enough for some as they want it ALL and they want it NOW.
To paraphrase Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: “Daddy, I want one of those ooopah loompahs and I want one NOW.”
Sorry, Violet, but Master Willy says no.
And so it goes with fitness.
In the fitness world, you can employ a 10X mindset all you want, but the reality is that you need to prove you can handle a “get started now” workout. After that you gotta prove you can repeat your workout consistently.
As you follow through with your daily workouts, your body begins to change. You get stronger, more flexible and garner greater endurance. These improvements lead to greater momentum and personal power, which lead to you wanting to stretch yourself to a new dimension.
Seeing yourself where you want to be, seeing yourself getting better, is a wise practice.
Doing the work, taking care of the here and now, and accepting that some of your goals are going to take longer than you think, is also part of the process.
Life is closer to being a marathon than a 40-yard sprint.
In 1990, after I ran the Honolulu marathon with a finishing time of 3:35:52, how absurd would it be to ponder 10X’ing that result? Wouldn’t it be better if my goal was to run the next one faster?
Or what if I never run another marathon again?
Now that’s a great idea.
That makes even more sense to me.
But guess what? Whether it’s running a marathon or doing pushups, squats and pull-ups, if you want to keep going, there are going to be days that you cannot break your previous records. Nor is it advisable to be attempting to do so.
The smart people do not attempt to set a new record on a daily basis. They put the work in and watch the results of that work grow. They test themselves intermittently, not daily.
Why? Because your brain and nervous system need a rest.
If you can only do 10 pushups, don’t berate yourself for not being able to do 100 in a row.
You just keep putting in the time.
As you do so, you realize, over time, you’re now able to do 15, then 20, then 25, and if you desire it, you will eventually do 100-straight.
Each improvement along the way is a victory.
Enjoy the incremental stages of improvement and the work that goes into them. Enjoy what sucks; it’s only temporary.
Here endeth the lesson.
Matt Furey
Combat Conditioning Book and DVDs
P.S. Many people with zero interest in fitness read my emails each day, hoping to capture some ideas they can use to improve their online business or to become an effective copywriter. Oftentimes, these people are looking for pithy words and phrases, or “tricks” to model. But as a friend once stated, “You can’t model uniqueness and authenticity.” Discovering and living your unique and authentic self is part of what it takes to make it in this world, and I help you discover how to do that in my Zen Mastery Group.
