Reasons or
Results!
Fitness Nutrition Training
Sovereign Michael Valentine
SPN, CFT, Eft, Yft, Cft, SSc, GFI, CMCht, CERT, Reiki Master
206.225.9647
email: sovereignmv@gmail.com
web: bnbbs.myshaklee.com
Special Report #2
Part of the
“I see you to succeeding"
series
Fresh Start!
Ok, ok, we know that New Year "resolutions" in-and-of-themselves don't work.
Why is that?
Here's why: When we talk about reaching our goals "once-and-for-all" or say["This is the year for me"] we're really saying that we assume the change or improvement we're wanting comes from the outside and we hope it affects us on the inside...it implies the idea to ourselves that something other than being fully engaged in the process of personal change (the time of year, for example), will be responsible for our resolution to come to pass...it's an underlying, unconscious symptom of lack of self confidence and self defeat.
It also points to the idea that once the "New Year" has passed, responsibility and accountability as also waned.
In reality, permanent, productive change occurs from the inside out and is a lifelong process... -not a one time event managed by the date (New Year) or a made-up deadline.
Success is not in beginning but in continuing!
Success comes disguised as a process, not an event.
This is because success only comes from
self development which is not present in the beginning!
(Read that again!)
A secret to personal success in any endeavor comes from the personal development of the self...working through the personal blocks that got in the way of previous attempts...not in the declaration of a new, bigger goal but in following through to discover things about the self!
Another way to say it is that the things you need to know to succeed you won't know until you follow through!..seems backwards, right?
The goal doesn't get the goal, its in defining what hasn't worked but felt so comfortable and doing new actions which feel so uncomfortable and inconvenient but following through anyway!
Isn't that the crux?...that in order to attain a better version of self, you have to do things which are inconvenient to your current world and ways of being!
In other words, one of the greatest and most common misunderstandings in relation to weight loss and fitness / health improvement type goals (all goal categories for that matter), is the assumption that the world on the outside will affect us is a way where we'll become a different person, get different results and have a better life without having to do work [behavioral change] on the inside, first and foremost.
Secondly, I think the next most significant reason for us not being reasonable in our expectations for goal setting is that we assume we know what went into someone else attaining remarkable success.
In other words, we see someone super healthy, fit and sexy athletic type running or on the treadmill and presume they got that way by running. Or, we see someone's before and after photos and we think we should get similar results in the first week. (The small improvements are the motivation fuel to keep going one day at a time, not that every workout will produce the final goal in the first week!)
SIDE NOTE: 80% of the results you get, how fast you get them or the results you DON'T get are related to the quality and timing of your whole food, functional-food and supplement routine. (This is why nowadays, I simply don't accept personal training clients who intend to skip these 3 nutrition factors). It's that important!
One reason we get unreasonable expectations related to our goals, is that our culture is set up to imply that we can "spend money" on a product or service and it will "do us" so we have a different result than what we get from our habitual behaviors (daily routine). The quality of products and services you invest in certainly can enhance your exercise time, but quality is definitely "the difference that makes the difference".
Purchase mediocre supplements and you'll be exerting more energy than you should have to in order to get the same amount of results. In other words, high quality supplements make it so you get better results with less time, energy and $ invested.... And that's why I love Shaklee... There simply aren't any better supplements out there...the results are measurable both in your body composition and blood chemistry values that your doctor will likely be pleased by if they are paying attention.
Admittedly, some people adapt to change more easily and efficiently than others, making new, more productive behaviors easier and more sustainable. Personally, I tend to adapt to some kinds of change easily and some kinds of change with challenge, it just depends on the context.
So, when imagining what changes you want for your life, first and foremost imagine that you'll have to be decisive about trading the unproductive parts of your personality which led you further from your goals, in exchange for new, more productive behaviors / habits that support your new goal. At first it will feel foreign, but it will get easier each day you stick to it and follow through.
In other words, there are about four or five different stages that people go through in making a solid decision to attain a new goal, from 1) thinking about it, to 2) planning, 3) following through and creating new habits to 4) attainment and 5) maintenance mode.
Sometimes people think they have made a decision inside, when in reality they just purchased a gym membership; maybe paid for personal training but skipped the step of making a solid decision on the inside.
This step seems obvious in hind site, but it ties into the mistake of thinking that spending money affects the necessary change to get what you want. It's not! It's just that spending money is the easiest part and where the real work BEGINS!!!
Purchasing a gym membership or supplements provides greater opportunity to enable yourself to make better decisions...but don't mistake those purchases for dynamic internal improvements in decision.
When you do make an integrity based decision, nothing gets in the way of the day-in and day-out behaviors to work toward the goal you say you want...workouts and dietary improvements.
You simple have to get to the place of [internal resolve] where you feel you can no longer go forward without having the thing you want. A single point of focus. A non-negotiable. [A contract with your soul.]
The "idea", "goal", or "resolution" is simply the first step in making a thorough decision to begin the process of change to get different results in life...like seeing a road sign before starting the journey. The sign is not the accomplishment and saying is not doing.
Get it? In order to get what you want you have to change as s person to get what you want.
Oh, I KNOW!!! It's so un-PC to say people should change. But in reality, the idea of PC is inherently designed to enable people to feel comfortable about things they shouldn't be comfortable about! And the "change" is simply you changing to get what YOU insist YOU want!
So, we all know that you have to be [reasonable and specific] about what you want as well as [attach a specific date of attainment] to it so you can measure progress or lack there of.
For example, burning 15 pounds of fat by March 30 is reasonable (15 pounds per month is doable if your nutrition is "dialed-in", so 15 pounds in 3 months is conservative) as long as you started and follow through the first week of January. This goal is [specific] since it's easy to measure your body composition and know if the behaviors you're doing are working efficiently or not. [Whether you're honest with yourself about the results of your body composition is beside the point]. And then of course [attach a date of completion] for accountability purposes (you're the only one that makes it happen or prevents it from happening).
,
Rarely, does anyone progress perfectly on a pre-planned timeline no matter the goal or the context...you have to plan for time it take to adjust course...otherwise you risk unreasonable disappointment when you don't reach the goal on a date that was simply in your imagination and not based in reality.
Next, know that your daily routine is either helping or hindering your success. So, the actions and behaviors you'll need to do will [at first] feel foreign and unnatural...that's natural! That's normal for any change work. (You don't get to stay the same, maintain your current lifestyle, keep eating sh*t-food, drinking and doing the same things but get different results). [Unreasonable expectations].
I've had weight loss clients who bought $5,000 worth of training and then insisted they had neither the time or money to get their supplements, but when we itemized their daily routine and daily spending habits, it turned out they were setting aside $200-$300 per month for getting their nails and hair done and another $200 for coffee!! Is that not insane? (unconscious expectation that fitness is a thing that happens from the outside-in versus the inside-out).
When we look at the motivation of this kind of routine we often find that the "hair and nails" client doesn't have full length mirrors in their home. In other words, they make sure their hair and makeup are done [look good from the neck up] and of course they can see their beautiful nails out there at the end of their hands, but they rarely even see themselves in a full length mirror! (I suggest everyone put a full length mirror somewhere near the kitchen / dining area in their home so they can get present to the reality of the situation).
So, by looking at how much time, energy & $$$ they were setting aside for nails, hair and tanning their obese version they were able to see "how" they could afford themselves the supplements, food and personal training which ultimately is going to be more satisfying anyway.
And that ties into why people often "wake up!" once they see a full body, candid, unexpected picture of themselves... they can't see themselves and stay in denial about the fat unless they have some other mental issue which is competing with becoming a more healthy person.
Third, people tend to think that change / behavior habits are "comfortable" for people who are traditionally successful in any area of endeavor. But, the truth of the matter is that changing behavior isn't comfortable (at all) for anyone unless they get some satisfaction out of pain! (This is a real phenomena). In other words, you want to make comfortable what you perceived would be an uncomfortable experience...the experience of working toward your goal one day at a time...overriding the stagnation or inertia of being stuck, out of shape and fat.
And, once a person has consistently succeeded at attaining their goals through uncomfortable behavioral change, then the discomfort in the first three weeks will be associated with the long term payoff of reaching your goals and the discomfort of new behavior isn't perceived as a negative thing. (The first three weeks is the most psychologically and emotionally challenging time of establishing the lifestyle that supports the new goal, regardless of whether you're working on your first goal or you're a highly successful professional regardless of industry or context).
Finally, get professional help!
Most everything we master in life we begin by seeing someone else do first, learn it from others or get lessons and learn it correctly from the start!
The most common manifestation of self-sabotage is saying "I'm going to "try" it on my own first".
"Trying it on my own" is essentially saying, "It's just not that important to me...I'm going to leave it to chance".
Hoping it will work is not a plan.
People who hire a trainer who have no intention of changing their lifestyle, continuing to indulge in SADCRAP, get fatter and fatter but can say they tried everything and yes, they are the only person in the planet which the fundamental laws of nature do not apply to them.
But they "tried e-v-e-r-y-t-h-I-n-g" except changing from the inside out, which is not in conflict with being authentic...to improve and be truly authentic you have to continually improve from the inside out!
You have to work "cooperatively and reasonably" with natural laws of nature you can't make up your own rules and expectations, ignore the laws of nature as though they don't apply to you and then insist the natural laws "don't work for you".
What I know as a trainer who has been doing this for decades, both personally and professionally, is that the vast majority of those people who don't succeed with their initial goal (15 pounds fat loss in three months) will quit by March and gain 1-2 pounds of fat per month until January of the following year!
In other words, if you don't get professional help, from a good professional, from the beginning (first 3 weeks to 3 months), the odds of you doing your nutrition, exercise and habits correctly from the beginning are stacked against you. It simply doesn't work. As you probably already know from my previous blurbs, until I got my first trainer I consistently didn't get results and consistently got hurt exercising. There's a reason personal trainers exist, you're not "above it" and even personal trainers have personal trainers! Duh!
Now, bear in mind there is a wide range of qualifications with personal trainers. How to know if you have a decent trainer is whether you're getting the results they imply in the time frame they imply.
In other words, if you're 1) taking their advice and 2) doing your part (consistently showing up and following through), [especially during the 164 hours you're not at the gym] but not burning at least 12 pounds of fat per month, either you aren't doing your part or the trainer doesn't know what they are talking about. (When your nutrition and exercise are dialed in, fat melts off fast.)
Make sense? You have to get trained, but the training has to be quality as your supplements and whole food do also. You have to be a smart consumer. It's just not reasonable thinking that a person who got themselves fat living a fat lifestyle will be able to lead themselves to fit and lean without leadership and guidance. It's just not reality. Even I continue to consult with trainers, physical therapists, chiropractic, etc., in relation to my own health at this stage of the game.
Personal training is not an informal formality like getting your car washed. Trainers are suppose to get you started correctly so you develop your instincts based on correct action... so you know how to adjust your own course as you get closer to your goals or hit a plateau.
If your trainer doesn't hold themselves accountable to YOUR goals they aren't worth the $15 hour fast food workers are trying to earn. Absolutely the bottom line is, "Will your trainer teach you to get body composition below 20% without injuring yourself or compromising your health.?"
If they can't do that or they can't adjust the course if what they initially set as a path isn't working they aren't worth what they charge...just because they have you going through the motions doesn't mean you'll reach your goal!
Activity does not equal success... specific activity equals success!
Do it now, do it consistently!
"I see you succeeding."
