Eating an Elephant

elephant-on-plate

Getting started is the hardest part to making a change.  The first step is always the toughest because it is easy to get overwhelmed by the entire journey ahead and because you don’t have any positive momentum yet.  Let’s address how you can overcome both of those issues to make a bold first step towards your body transformation.

Proper Focus

“The best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.”

I always say that a body transformation is preceded by a lifestyle transformation.  It is totally understandable that the idea of changing your lifestyle can be overwhelming and even scary.  When the thought of change is scarier than the thought of staying the same, people will always stay the same. 

The key is to break the big vision of a body transformation down into smaller steps that are easier to wrap your head around.  What I like to do is to focus on each individual step of a big undertaking as if it is a unique project all by itself.  I find that this allows me to stay present, keeps me from getting overwhelmed and keeps my energy levels high throughout the entire project because I have a beginner’s excitement for each step.

From a rational perspective the only way anything is every accomplished is one step at-a-time. Worrying about the tenth step when you haven’t even taken the first step is a waste of energy, not to mention totally impractical.  Keep in mind that success on the final step is dependent on success of each previous step.    Each step of the journey will require you to be in the present moment.  Devote all of your energy to the task at hand so that you ensure your success on this step, which will give you the opportunity to have success in the future.

Momentum

The laws of physics tell us that an object at rest tends to stay at rest.  The first step of any project is always the hardest because there is no momentum working in our favor.  Ask any lifter and he will tell you that the first rep of a Deadlift set is always the toughest.  Writers that are having trouble getting started on a project call it the 10,000 pound pen.

The following are some ideas for making that first step a little easier to take so that you can get momentum on your side from the start:

1. Start easier than what you think you are capable of starting with.  If, for example, you are thinking that you want to start exercising for an hour three times a week, start instead with 30 minutes of exercise three times a week.
2. Get started and figure out the details later.  Don’t wait for the perfect plan to get started.  Creating a perfect plan usually results in nothing happening because the perfect plan is impossible to create.  A good plan will do just fine.  In fact massive action without a plan is still better than no action.
3. Take sudden and immediate action.  If you are considering joining a gym or starting a bootcamp do a google search as soon as you finish reading this and make an appointment to check it out tomorrow.
4. Schedule it.  Whatever your first step is must be put in your schedule.  I live and die by my iCal.  If something doesn’t go in my iCal it doesn’t get done.  On the other hand anything that gets put in my iCal always gets done.
5. Start your transformation by eliminating bad habits rather than adding new things to your life.  This is best for someone that is really busy.  Rather than worry about adding to your already busy life, try addition by subtraction (Hint: Television is a great start).  After you have subtracted for awhile you will magically find that you have time to begin adding positive habits.  This works great for nutrition too.  Take bad choices like soda, sweets, baked goods and fried food out of your diet before you concern yourself with cooking new foods that you aren’t familiar with.

Making a Daily Masterpiece

JohnWooden bench

"Make Every Day Your Masterpiece." - John Wooden

Throughout the Rebirth Body Transformation I have stressed focusing on the journey rather than the destination.  There is no better way to do that than to focus on making every day your masterpiece.  Living a masterpiece for me is when I am living inspired and acting on it.

The idea of the perfect balance of mind, body and soul is something that inspires me. Longevity inspires me. Self control inspires me. Strength inspires me. Those are things that get me fired up. When I am fired up and passionate about what I am doing it is easy for me to live in the present. When I live in the present I enjoy life and peace of mind. When I enjoy life and my mind is at peace I find myself getting more inspired by the things I love. This whole process becomes a self perpetuating cycle of enjoyment.

The catalysts to this process are my consistent routines. My routines prepare me for my day, ground me and give me a sense of rhythm to my day that keeps me very productive without ever feeling rushed.  When I stick to my routines I really enjoy my day.

My history with routines started when my parents started making me do two sets of push-ups and two sets of sit-ups before breakfast when I was in second grade.  That was my first routine.  I am so thankful to them for teaching me the importance of a morning routine and discipline at such a young age.  I have stuck with a morning routine, adding things from that very first one my parents gave me, to this very day.

In his bestseller, The Power of Less, productivity guru, Leo Babuata, explains his practical, Zen-like approach to productivity and success.  Creating simple daily routines, especially in the morning and evening, is something Babuata stresses throughout the book.  He goes so far as to write that one of the most rewarding changes of his life has been finding peace with a morning routine (I agree).  This is coming from a man who went from being in debt over his head, overweight, unhealthy and rarely able to spend time with his family to a man has doubled his income, lost 40 lbs., run two marathons, finished two triathalons, published a best seller, and the list goes on.

It makes sense that a morning routine is the place to start the conversation on daily routines.  If you want to create a masterpiece you have to start with a masterful first brush stroke. The elements of my morning routine are my first brush strokes.

If you don't already have a morning routine I strongly suggest you start one.  You will need to give it a couple weeks to become a habit.  Stick with it and you will be rewarded.

Check out Morning Routine Ideas to see what I do to kickstart your own morning routine.  I also included a list of some other ideas mine and Leo Babuata's from The Power of Less.

Some of the benefits of a well-planned morning routine include:

1. Preparing for  your day, setting your goals, making to-do lists
2. Getting in exercise, meditating, reading, writing, or other things you normally don't have time for
3. Doing something peaceful and calming to set the proper tone for your day rather than setting the tone for a stressful day by waking up in a rush.

Habit Helper

At the beginning of the year I discovered a habit tracking app that I fell in love with for its simplicity and visual appeal.  Check out the Lift app.

For the next 21 days I'm going to track the following habits.  Track along with me!

FYI...You have to spell and capitalize the exact same way as me if you want to track along with me:

1. Exercise
2. Floss
3. Meditate
4. Self Myofascial Release

Connecting the Dots

Point A Point B

I wasn’t a geometry major, but I do remember that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. If everyone had a definitive straight line drawn out for them that would take them from where they are now to where they want to be, we would all make like Johnny Cash and walk the line.  Body transformations would be a lot easier and I would be out of the job…Wait, that is my job!

Imagine having complete faith that this step-by-step guide would help you achieve your goals. In addition to having the plan you would also have the peace of mind that every step you took was one step closer to your goal.  A great plan is valuable.  Faith is priceless!

Point A - B Messed up

There is a question I have seen written that asks, “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?”  Few things have inspired me as much as that question, or more accurately, my own answers to that question.  When you free yourself from doubt, your mind is free to focus on the present.  Western and Eastern spiritual traditions from the teachings of The Bible to the Bhagavad Vita teach that presence of mind is the key to happiness and enlightenment.  People also pay handsome sums of money to their therapists to achieve this state of mind.

I am not attempting to teach you how to achieve total presence of mind.  That is way beyond the scope of my expertise.  My goal is to help you reach your goals and to show you how you can thoroughly enjoy the process to the point that the journey becomes the destination.  First, however, I need to point out that you will never be able to walk on that doubtless straight line unless you have an honest assessment of where you are now, Point A, and a crystal clear vision of where you want to be, Point B.

Point A

When you don’t have an honest assessment of your Point A you are trying to shoot a basketball into a hoop blindfolded after someone walked you out on to some random place on the court.  You don’t know if the basket is in front of you, behind you, to the side or how far away it is.  It is safe to say that you are doomed before you even begin.

In order to take the blindfold off you have to be brutally honest with yourself.  You have to take responsibility for the fact that you are where you are at right now because of the sum total of your decisions and actions.  There is no two ways around that.  Deal with it and you can move forward.  Refuse to deal with it and you will be shooting baskets with the blindfold on for the rest of your life.

Your body is the way it is today because of the choices you have made.  Think of the way you move, eat, think and live as the language you speak to your body.  The way your body responds to those choices is how it talks back to you.  This is the cycle of communication between you and your body.  The way you move, eat, think and live tells your body how it should develop, feel, function, grow, shrink, stay young, age, progress, digress, repair itself, stay in a state of disrepair, fight off illness or be chronically ill.  When you become aware of this language you unlock a world of change.

The first part of the Rebirth Body Transformation is to honestly define your Point A.  A simple way I suggest doing this is to fill out a 7-Day Lifestyle Diary.  I have posted one on my Facebook Fan Page that you can download and print out.  Follow the instructions and fill it out in its entirety to get the most honest assessment of Point A.  Include any other benchmark measures that you would like to keep track of like weight, bodyfat, max push-ups, or max pull-ups to name a few.

Point B

“Your life is your tapestry and it should have great pictures, rich colors and a tight weave…Your life is your message.”  - Dan John

Before we cover the ‘how’ of fitness, you need to come up with the ‘why am I doing this?’  The crystal clear vision of where you want to get is your goal and your Point B.  To be more specific, your Point B is the lifesyle you want to be living that will allow you to achieve your goals.  Make no mistake, a body transformation is always preceded by a lifestyle transformation.  Living the same lifestyle you live now and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.  That is a different program that I don’t teach.

A lot of people I have worked with in the past have a clear idea of their Point A, but a much fuzzier idea of Point B.  They come to me saying, “I want to be more fit,” or, “I want to be healthier.”  How do you define “more fit” or “healthier?”  You have to be more specific.  Someone at a networking group I am apart of once told me that specific is terrific.  As corny as that is you should apply it to your goal setting.  Also remember to make your goals S.M.A.R.T.

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Attainable

R – Realistic

T – Time bound

Part of any good strategy is good goal setting.  As with anything else there is effective goal setting and there is ineffective goal setting.  To paraphrase the great John Wooden, paying attention to details when you prepare a plan is and exercise in preparing for success.  Read my earlier blog to learn more about Effective Goal Setting.  If you are really committed to making a lifestyle transformation I suggest you take 20-30 minutes over the weekend to go through my Breakthrough Coaching Exercise.  Commit 5 minutes to reading Designing Your Ideal Day and I feel confident you will want to commit the additional 20-30 minutes to do the exercise.  The return on your investment of time is beyond anything else you could spend 30 minutes doing this weekend.  That is one thing I can guarantee.

Once you have defined your Point A and Point B you have taken the first steps to making a transformation.  In the next steps ahead we will draw the shortest, straightest line possible to connect the two.

Lessons from the Yard: Effective Goal Setting

kid mowing grass

When I was a kid it was always my responsibility to mow the grass every Saturday.  Mowing the yard in the middle of the summer in south Louisiana can be brutal, especially after two hours of basketball practice in a gym without air conditioning.  Sometimes I think the reason I drink so much water now is because my body is still trying to get hydrated from those Saturdays.

On those Saturdays I learned that there is a right and wrong way to do anything.  To be more precise I learned that there is an effective and ineffective way to do anything, especially cutting my dad's yard.  You see my dad has been in the golf business for over 40 years and to my dismay he wanted his front yard to look like the fairways at Pebble Beach.  That meant I had to "stripe" the front yard at a very precise angle and cut each swath of grass twice.  This method of cutting is what makes the outfields at baseball stadiums and golf course fairways looking like they have stripes.  It takes some practice and a lot of attention to detail.  If I ever tried to hurry up and cut corners he would wait until I was completely done and then make me do it all over again.  That is when I learned that saying you finished cutting the grass doesn't tell the whole story.  You have to qualify that with I "effectively cut the grass to your exact specifications."

The key here...There is an effective and ineffective way to do anything, even goal setting.

Steps to Effective Goal Setting:

1.  Start with your Vision.  Vision is what most people call goals or Resolutions.  It is the "big idea" without much specificity.  Examples of visions are statements like, "I want to be fit, i want to get leaner and I want to learn a new language."

2.  Turn you Vision into a S.M.A.R.T. goal.  Specific is terrific...

• Specific - Example: I want to lose 10 lbs, I want to do 50 push-ups in a row, I want to be able to have a 10 minute conversation in Spanish.
• Measurable - You have to have a quantifiable way to measure what success means.  There is no way to measure "getting more fit."
• Attainable & Realistic -  Don't set yourself up for failure by making unrealistic goals.  I'm always pushing myself to greater height of achievement, but you have to be realistic.  Losing 50 lbs. in 30 days is possible, but not probable.  Wouldn't you rather set the goal at 20 lbs and be stoked when you lose more than that?
• Timebound - This one is huge.  What is the time period that you want this happen by?  Next week, next month or a year from now.  Set a specific date.  Remember, specific is terrific.

3.  Behavioral Goals vs. Result Goals...Most Important Step...A result goal is a goal that focuses on the end result that you want to achieve (Duh).  An example of a S.M.A.R.T result goal is that you want to be able to do 50 push-ups in a row with perfect form touching your chest to the floor and locking out your elbows at the top of every rep by April 1.  While it is important to have some results goals in mind in truth it is only the beginning of effective goal setting because you still need to plan an effective process for achievement.  My S.M.A.R.T. push-up goal example has no call to action or progression of achievement.  That is why behavior goals are so important.  Behavior goals set your path to achievement.

Let's say that I can do 25 perfect push-ups in a row right now and my goal is to do 50 by April 1.  Those numbers are my starting and end points.  Behavior goals are each step between those two points.  My behavior goals are my daily and weekly goals that will lead me to my desired end result.  For this example my behavior goals might look like the following:

Week 1: 20 push-ups x 2 sets on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday

Week 2: 23 push-ups x 2 sets on MWFS

Week 3: 26 push-ups x 2 sets on MWFS

Week 4: 30 push-ups x 2 sets of MWFS

Week 5: Do one set of as many push-ups as possible on MWF to test progress.  Let's say that I did 35 Monday, 38 Wednesday and 35 again on Friday.  The average is 36.

Week 6: Average from Week 5 minus 3 push-ups x 2 sets on MWFS

And so on and so forth...

4.  Execute your behavior goals with diligence.  This isn't really apart of the goal setting process, but it is worth mentioning.  Don't be a list maker.  Be a doer.

Finding Your Passion

Rich or poor, we all suffer in some way. Suffering is part of life. However, suffering can give life meaning and be the seed from which much happiness and personal fulfillment can grow.

Passion by definition means to suffer for love. Greatness comes to those who can generate passion, those that are willing to suffer for love. I believe that idea is the essence of how the universe works.

The karmic nature of the universe shows us that there is balance to all things. Good can't exist without evil, pleasure without pain. There cannot be happiness without sadness. Passion, suffering for love, is the essence of the balance of pleasure and pain, therefore, living life passionately is the path to living a harmonious life.

Armed with this knowledge we should all become seekers for our passion. Determine what you love so much that you are willing to suffer for it in every nuance of the word: physically, emotionally, financially and so on. Generating passion and deeper levels of meaning for your suffering is a never ending job that is a requirement to staying on course.

Your passion will change you as a person. You will evolve. As you evolve so will your passion and it's meaning to you. It is a continuous cycle. It is work. Don't forget that.

So how do you generate passion? I'm going to take an excerpt from Dan John's book Never Let Go and put my own spin on it regarding generating passion.

Travel for your passion. Experience your passion in other places than your own comfortable surroundings. See what other people in other places that share your passion are doing. I am so thankful to have the opportunity to travel around the US teaching training seminars and training with other people outside of my comfort zone. I learn something new and am inspired to push myself harder every time I go train or teach somewhere new.

Hang out with people that share your passion as much as possible.

Read, listen and watch everything you can to become an expert in your field. I am so thankful I love to read because it has enriched my life beyond what words can express. I believe you have to be a seeker of knowledge to experience your passion to the fullest.

Travel some more, hang out some more and learn some more.

Spend money on your passion! In my experience the return on investment is always much more than the financial buy-in.

See number four again.

There were several people that inspired this blog entry. Two that stand out are Dan John and Bronny, the Serbian massage therapist that worked on me earlier this month. I want to give them both credit for helping me get these words down in a way that makes sense to me. Hopefully, this resonates with you too.

A couple closing thoughts...

Live life passionately!

If it is important, do it every day, if it isn't important, don't do it at all. This can be applied to life, exercise, love and learning.