There is a difference between consumption and completion.
Any of us can consume content about fitness, food, mindset, or changing our life. Many of us will fail to apply the principles we find in it.
We can put the two major reasons for this downfall into two buckets.
Bucket one is the “Gap Theory” bucket.
Simply put, if you don’t see tangible results soon enough or often enough when working on something, you’ll stop. There’s too large of a gap from where you are now and where you want to go. This is why most of us would sit through the last 15 minutes of a terrible movie, but get up to leave if we are only 15 minutes into it. The closer we are to a result, the likelihood of staying committed increases dramatically.
Closing the Gap.
The fix for the Gap theory bucket is to back off from your big major goal and shorten your timeline. Instead of asking where you want to be in a year, ask, “where do I want to be next month?” Next week? Tomorrow?
You can still have a big objective in mind, but you’ll have milestones along the way in reaching it. Those should be your goals. Because each time you reach one, you win! Losing 30 lbs will take some time, effort, messing up, and dialing back in, but losing 3 lbs can happen this month, and losing going a day without Starbucks can happen even faster.
If you can win this month with 3 lbs, it makes the 30 lbs (and everything associated with it) real.
Bucket two is the avoidance bucket.
Some of my clients want to be successful in losing weight, but they still may have a hard time getting their food prepped because they disdain grocery shopping or planning things out. The motivation is there, but the will is not.
Beat avoidance by hiring your alter ego.
My Mentor, Chris, has a mentor too. his name is Todd.
Todd has an interesting story.
He was selling personal training at a big gym in New York City (and mostly failing). Then Chris Rock told him about “the alter ego effect”: the strategy many top athletes and stars use to get ready for their big game or performance. For example, Beyonce becomes “Sasha Fierce” when she takes the stage, and even Bo Jackson put on his “alter ego”—Jason from “Friday the 13th”—every time he took the field.
Todd got some fake glasses and transformed into “sales Todd”—and he became the club’s best-selling trainer of all time.
The key to avoidance can be well, anything. But a quick way to ignite some action (so you can reach that quick milestone goal, is to put on your alter ego. Before you have to make a call, prep some food, or attend a workout you have been putting off; grab some non-prescription glasses (or a collared shirt, or whatever your alter ego would wear), and become “Sales Jeff” or “Prepper Pete” or “Organized Ally.”
What would your alter ego do? Let them do it instead of you. Viola! Action!
With both buckets addressed, your road of action becomes paved a little more at a time. You can consume all the books about paving a street, but you’ll have to do it with your hands, a little at a time, no matter what.
I’ve kept this post short on purpose. Less to consume means more to take action on.
The things your avoiding doing are probably what’s holding you back.
Pick one.
What’s a milestone you can hit in one day to one week with it?
Put on your glasses.
Let’s see you do it.
Now go get em!
PS. Did you really do this? Write to me about it. I’d love to know.
Signed,
Writer Jeff
