When you learn a new skill, you know that the more you do it the better you will be at it. As children, we learned many skills and practiced quite often to make sure that we continued to get better. We may have experienced some frustration, but we didn’t get discouraged to the point where we quit. If we wanted to get better, we just kept on practicing.
Now, much of this was built for us through the structure of activities we were doing. Whether it was a sport, a musical instrument or a particular subject in school, there was always another practice, lesson or class that forced us to keep working on the skill. No matter how frustrated we were, we had to get up the nerve to show up the next day to work on it again.
It’s a shame we don’t have teachers or coaches to keep us focused on our health. Well, we do, but the majority of people are choosing not to use us. That is not a cheap shot or a plug for myself, it just the nature of the way people look at their health. The fact of the matter is, most people don’t look at health as a set of skills that can be improved with practice.
Maybe we should start looking at it like that. Maybe if we looked at health like we looked at learning to ride a bike or learning to play our favorite sport, we would understand that we got better at it the more we practiced. More importantly, we would realize that health is not only possible, but it is much easier the better we get at it.
The more you ride a bike, the less you have to think about the fundamentals. Think about the most basic skills we have and how little we actually think about them. Riding a bike is one example I like to se because I can remember the steps it took to go from a big wheel to training wheels to a mini-bike to a regular bike. It took a long time to make that progression and there were a few skinned knees and even a few tears. I remember thinking after a few falls that it may never happen. Despite this feeling of frustration and failure, I still knew that I was going to have to try again. The next day would come around and guess what: I was back out there trying to get on those two wheels.
No matter how difficult it was, I knew that I had to do it. I feel the same way about health today. No matter what obstacles stand in my way, I will do the things that lead to a healthy lifestyle. I will always exercise. I will always watch my diet and eat good food. I will never smoke and the stress that is in my life will be managed so that the whole of my routine is healthy. The only difference between now and then is that I’ve been doing it for so long that it comes naturally, just like riding a bike.
I don’t have to spend too much time thinking about food or wondering when I’m going to exercise. I don’t have to try to quit smoking or get a handle on an out of control routine that brings me down day after day. That is what many people are trying to do today. They are living unhealthy lifestyles and are trying to change that. It is not easy, but they can do it too.
If we can start looking at health as a set of skills, we can live healthy without the feeling that we can’t do what we need to do in order to live healthy. It is easy for someone that is out of practice to say that it can’t be done. It will be more difficult the longer it has been, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be done.
Let’s go back to our bike scenario. The process of learning how to ride a bike was not easy and it didn’t happen overnight. And we didn’t already have a skill and simply forgot it. We started from square one, not knowing how to do it at all and we figured out what we had to do. Once we figured it out, we still had to practice and practice until we were able to ride a bike. Now we can jump on a bike, no matter how long it has been, and we can ride it comfortably. We may not be as good as when we were riding a bike every day, but that is the point. The more you do something, the better you get at it and the easier it becomes. In other words, practice makes perfect.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Plan B is Better than Nothing
It’s easy to get upset when things to go according to plan. In life, many things we plan get altered and many plans change as we go along. This is part of life. No one can avoid it, but you certainly can drive yourself crazy if you try.
Health is part of life too and planning is part of a healthy life. If you are going to live healthy, you have to plan. If you plan, you are going to have to make adjustments and find new ways to do things. If not you will drive yourself crazy while struggling to make the progress you want to make.
The most successful people in life are able to adjust and continue moving forward despite changing circumstances. Health is no different. Those living healthy or “healthy people” are able to eat healthy foods, exercise and take good care of themselves in all circumstances. Some are just so rigid that they won’t go or do anything outside of their health-zone, but those people are few and far between.
For the record, I am not one of those people. I always try to emphasize this just to make sure you know where I stand. I am a “healthy person” (I better be with all the advice I give!), but I am not healthy because I live a freakish life of strict training routines and a steady diet of rabbit food grown in my own garden. I am healthy because I am able to embrace change and adjust when I need to.
Changes are taking place all around us. As these changes occur, plans are difficult to stick with. At least the first plan is anyway. The first plan is often the best laid and most detailed plan that we are certain is the way to get us where we want to go. The first plan, or plan A as it is often called, is the “right way” or the way we picture things taking place.
Plan A is not always what actually happens. Plan A is a picture in our mind that exists only before we get started. Plan A, even when written down will have notes and adjustments on it by the time we are actually in motion. At least that is the case if you are successful.
Let me explain: being successful is not getting to a certain amount of money, living in a certain house or driving a certain car. Life has showed me that you can be happy in any class, neighborhood or car. Being successful in health or living healthy is more than just the number of calories and the minutes spent exercising. Health Coaching has shown me that you can be healthy with many different methods and patterns and by eating in many different ways.
So what is success? My definition of success makes it more of a process. Success for me is a journey and not a destination. Why is this? Well, if you have to get to a certain place in order to be successful, than it is automatically going to take more time or effort for some.
Let’s say success is Miami Florida. If being healthy is getting to Miami, than someone in Seattle is going to have a much longer journey toward health than someone in Fort Lauderdale. That doesn’t mean that they can’t get there or that everyone is automatically as healthy as their origin. That’s not the case at all. People change all the time. I’ve seen thousands change their lifestyle and therefore change their health.
That is why my definition of success is about the process or the journey that you are on. Success for me is setting goals and reaching goals. If you are reaching a goal, you are successful. If you continue to set and reach goals you will continue to be successful because you will keep moving toward your desired destination.
In health, success is as simple as action. Take action and you will be healthy and successful. Everyone has a different journey, which is why you need to set your own goals and take your own steps in order for this to work. You are successful as long as you are on your journey. The journey may be long, or it may be short. It may be very difficult, or it may be easy. The point is, you have to have goals and set up a plan in order to even get started on your journey.
How do you get started on the journey? It’s all about the plan. If you have a plan for your life, you can get the job you want, the house and car you want. If you have a plan for your health, you can look, feel and perform the way you want to. You just need a plan.
It does get a bit more complicated than that. As you know, life always presents changes and makes us adjust. What happens when we can’t adjust? We fail.
That is where the most important plan comes into play. It’s not plan A, it’s more like the plan that comes to be when plan A doesn’t work. The most important plan is the one that you can use. If plan A doesn’t work, we have to come up with a new plan or change the existing plan in order to succeed.
That is why plan B is better so important. It is often the difference between getting any exercise or eating anything for lunch. Plan B is what you do in real life. You can draw up the best plan A in the history of mankind, but if it doesn’t fit into your life, it will not work.
That is where most of us meet our demise. Plan A looks great, so we set out with that sparkling plan and on Monday morning and as soon as the alarm goes off. Then real life starts and your plan A goes right out the window. This is a problem considering plan A is all we had. It was the end-all plan that was sure to take us to the top, so when it failed, what did we do? We quit and assumed that there was nothing else we could do. If this plan didn’t work, what will?
The plan that will work is the plan that actually fits into your lifestyle. That may be plan B or it may even be plan C or D. I’ve seen people succeed on plan Q as long as they executed it. The point is, most people make plan A and assume it will work. When it doesn’t there is nowhere to go. The journey ends there. It’s like getting on the road toward Miami, running out of gas and choosing not to fill up the car.
When you set out on a road trip, you know that you can’t make it in one tank of gas. You know that when you see the fuel light, you will need to look for a place to fill up. That is part of the trip and you build that right in.
Changing your lifestyle in one sweeping step with a “perfect plan” crafted from nothing but expecting it to bring you the perfect routine is just like setting out on a cross-country trip and expecting to get there on one tank of gas. It sounds silly, but that is what many people try to do in their routines.
Life may be complicated. Health, being part of life, is no different. There will always be something keeping you from the gym. There will always be something that throws your schedule off. There will always be something to make your ‘plan A’ a big challenge.
The solution is simple: Don’t rely on Plan A. It’s good to have a plan, but it’s better to be ready for adjustment and able to put plan B into motion. It doesn’t mean you failed at plan A, it just means that you needed to adjust in order to keep going on your journey.
Running out of gas on your trip doesn’t feel like a failure. So, why does getting stuck at the office or having a crisis in the morning feel like failure? On the trip, we simply pull off, fill up and get back on our way. At home, we see that plan A is no longer possible and we give up.
In reality, which is where healthy living takes place, you need to have a plan B. Plan B is not failure. Plan B is not even secondary. Plan B may become plan A when you realize that the original plan was drawn up with great intensions but simply doesn’t work for you. Again, this is not failing. It is simply adjusting.
In health, the only failure is doing nothing. As long as you have goals to do something for your health, you are succeeding every time you do those things. If plan B is what it takes to do those, do it. Not having a plan B or refusing to come up with one is easy. It’s easy to do nothing, but won’t bring you success. Plan B will bring you success. In health, something is better than nothing. The more you do that, the better you will become at it. As you practice, this becomes your habit and keeps you going. Something is always better than nothing. If plan B is what it takes for you to do something, than isn’t it better than nothing?
Health is part of life too and planning is part of a healthy life. If you are going to live healthy, you have to plan. If you plan, you are going to have to make adjustments and find new ways to do things. If not you will drive yourself crazy while struggling to make the progress you want to make.
The most successful people in life are able to adjust and continue moving forward despite changing circumstances. Health is no different. Those living healthy or “healthy people” are able to eat healthy foods, exercise and take good care of themselves in all circumstances. Some are just so rigid that they won’t go or do anything outside of their health-zone, but those people are few and far between.
For the record, I am not one of those people. I always try to emphasize this just to make sure you know where I stand. I am a “healthy person” (I better be with all the advice I give!), but I am not healthy because I live a freakish life of strict training routines and a steady diet of rabbit food grown in my own garden. I am healthy because I am able to embrace change and adjust when I need to.
Changes are taking place all around us. As these changes occur, plans are difficult to stick with. At least the first plan is anyway. The first plan is often the best laid and most detailed plan that we are certain is the way to get us where we want to go. The first plan, or plan A as it is often called, is the “right way” or the way we picture things taking place.
Plan A is not always what actually happens. Plan A is a picture in our mind that exists only before we get started. Plan A, even when written down will have notes and adjustments on it by the time we are actually in motion. At least that is the case if you are successful.
Let me explain: being successful is not getting to a certain amount of money, living in a certain house or driving a certain car. Life has showed me that you can be happy in any class, neighborhood or car. Being successful in health or living healthy is more than just the number of calories and the minutes spent exercising. Health Coaching has shown me that you can be healthy with many different methods and patterns and by eating in many different ways.
So what is success? My definition of success makes it more of a process. Success for me is a journey and not a destination. Why is this? Well, if you have to get to a certain place in order to be successful, than it is automatically going to take more time or effort for some.
Let’s say success is Miami Florida. If being healthy is getting to Miami, than someone in Seattle is going to have a much longer journey toward health than someone in Fort Lauderdale. That doesn’t mean that they can’t get there or that everyone is automatically as healthy as their origin. That’s not the case at all. People change all the time. I’ve seen thousands change their lifestyle and therefore change their health.
That is why my definition of success is about the process or the journey that you are on. Success for me is setting goals and reaching goals. If you are reaching a goal, you are successful. If you continue to set and reach goals you will continue to be successful because you will keep moving toward your desired destination.
In health, success is as simple as action. Take action and you will be healthy and successful. Everyone has a different journey, which is why you need to set your own goals and take your own steps in order for this to work. You are successful as long as you are on your journey. The journey may be long, or it may be short. It may be very difficult, or it may be easy. The point is, you have to have goals and set up a plan in order to even get started on your journey.
How do you get started on the journey? It’s all about the plan. If you have a plan for your life, you can get the job you want, the house and car you want. If you have a plan for your health, you can look, feel and perform the way you want to. You just need a plan.
It does get a bit more complicated than that. As you know, life always presents changes and makes us adjust. What happens when we can’t adjust? We fail.
That is where the most important plan comes into play. It’s not plan A, it’s more like the plan that comes to be when plan A doesn’t work. The most important plan is the one that you can use. If plan A doesn’t work, we have to come up with a new plan or change the existing plan in order to succeed.
That is why plan B is better so important. It is often the difference between getting any exercise or eating anything for lunch. Plan B is what you do in real life. You can draw up the best plan A in the history of mankind, but if it doesn’t fit into your life, it will not work.
That is where most of us meet our demise. Plan A looks great, so we set out with that sparkling plan and on Monday morning and as soon as the alarm goes off. Then real life starts and your plan A goes right out the window. This is a problem considering plan A is all we had. It was the end-all plan that was sure to take us to the top, so when it failed, what did we do? We quit and assumed that there was nothing else we could do. If this plan didn’t work, what will?
The plan that will work is the plan that actually fits into your lifestyle. That may be plan B or it may even be plan C or D. I’ve seen people succeed on plan Q as long as they executed it. The point is, most people make plan A and assume it will work. When it doesn’t there is nowhere to go. The journey ends there. It’s like getting on the road toward Miami, running out of gas and choosing not to fill up the car.
When you set out on a road trip, you know that you can’t make it in one tank of gas. You know that when you see the fuel light, you will need to look for a place to fill up. That is part of the trip and you build that right in.
Changing your lifestyle in one sweeping step with a “perfect plan” crafted from nothing but expecting it to bring you the perfect routine is just like setting out on a cross-country trip and expecting to get there on one tank of gas. It sounds silly, but that is what many people try to do in their routines.
Life may be complicated. Health, being part of life, is no different. There will always be something keeping you from the gym. There will always be something that throws your schedule off. There will always be something to make your ‘plan A’ a big challenge.
The solution is simple: Don’t rely on Plan A. It’s good to have a plan, but it’s better to be ready for adjustment and able to put plan B into motion. It doesn’t mean you failed at plan A, it just means that you needed to adjust in order to keep going on your journey.
Running out of gas on your trip doesn’t feel like a failure. So, why does getting stuck at the office or having a crisis in the morning feel like failure? On the trip, we simply pull off, fill up and get back on our way. At home, we see that plan A is no longer possible and we give up.
In reality, which is where healthy living takes place, you need to have a plan B. Plan B is not failure. Plan B is not even secondary. Plan B may become plan A when you realize that the original plan was drawn up with great intensions but simply doesn’t work for you. Again, this is not failing. It is simply adjusting.
In health, the only failure is doing nothing. As long as you have goals to do something for your health, you are succeeding every time you do those things. If plan B is what it takes to do those, do it. Not having a plan B or refusing to come up with one is easy. It’s easy to do nothing, but won’t bring you success. Plan B will bring you success. In health, something is better than nothing. The more you do that, the better you will become at it. As you practice, this becomes your habit and keeps you going. Something is always better than nothing. If plan B is what it takes for you to do something, than isn’t it better than nothing?
Monday, June 6, 2011
Personal Pride
When it comes to health, it is easy to let external influences get in the way. There are many obstacles to living healthy. Just take a typical day for example: you have to get ready for work, go to work, you are busy all day at work, you have to get home from work and do any number of household and family activities before getting to bed so you can get up and do it all over again.
If you are anything like me, this routine takes its toll on your mind and body. We all have a routine that we are in. It may be more or less hectic that what we have described, but no matter what you are doing, it is important.
This is your life. You have to do what you are doing in order to make a living and support your family. You have to keep everything organized so your family can do what it wants to do and sometimes you just have to make sure you don’t go crazy.
There are many reasons we do what we do every day. There is money, respect, entertainment and many other factors that drive our activities. As I see health take a back seat, I wonder why. I wonder why people can justify running themselves ragged on a daily basis without even considering their health.
When most people describe a typical day, it looks like above with a million things going on. I know how it is because I am dealing with a schedule like that every day too. I have to balance many things just like everyone else. I have to prioritize and decide what I have time for and what I don’t. More accurately, I have to decide when I have to do things to make sure that they fit.
But how do you know what you want to fit? I use a few things to gage how important something is. We are all motivated by different things. You can talk about money, fear or personal fulfillment. You can talk about any number of things that will get people to do something, but I think we need to think about one in particular.
Personal pride is what keeps me focused on my health. No matter what I have going on, there is time for health. I make time for workouts, for buying and preparing food, managing my stress and many other things during a typical day. The reason I do this is because of personal pride.
There are few ways that pride comes into play for me, so let’s discuss what it means to be proud to live healthy. Pride comes from many places and here are the places I get mine:
Success
When you set a goal and reach a goal, you are successful. The more goals you set and reach, the more successful you are. No matter how big or small a goal is, if you reach it, you are experiencing success. This habit has become part of my daily life. I set goals every day and I take pride in reaching the goals I set. I take pride in being successful.
Results
The results you get from your day to day life depend on your actions. The goals I set are clear and the results I get by reaching them are too. I take great pride in controlling those results. I control results by controlling my actions. It’s that simple and I will always do it. When I am deciding what actions I want to take, I think about the results and I remember that my personal pride will be greater when I take action and get those results.
Control
Health is in our hands. I can decide how I will live and I decide how I feel each day. When I wake up in the morning, I am tired. I feel like the day just started, but I wasn’t ready for it to start. I feel like the night wasn’t long enough. My routine is designed to stop that feeling and help me get on track for a successful day. My morning workout is what gives me the energy to have a good morning. The goal of getting up and going is all it takes (most days) to take action. I take pride in accomplishing that goal to start each day and the rest of my day is on track because of it.
There are many other decisions that I make on a daily basis that determines how healthy that day, week, month, year will be. As these add up, I am determining how healthy my life will be. I have decided that I want to be successful; I want a certain result- to be healthy and feel good every day and have the control to do all of this.
I am proud of my accomplishments day in and day out. I am proud of the clients that have been able to do the same thing. They aren’t doing it so I will be proud of them. They do it because they have their own personal pride. Anyone that is living healthy has decided that their pride is strong enough for them to set goals, take action to succeed and maintain control over their lives.
The same can be said for those that are not living healthy. If you are not able to find time or make decisions that will support your health, you are not finding pride in being healthy. It’s no surprise. It would be difficult to take pride in being healthy when you are not doing it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do it.
Living healthy may not be easy, but if you are willing to start with one step, you can take pride in that one step and keep doing it. The more success you have with that step, the closer you are to taking another. Step by step, you will be successful, see the results you want and realize that you are in control of your life. You won’t stop because you will have something that you didn’t have before you started taking these steps. You’ll have something very powerful that will keep you going. You will have personal pride.
If you are anything like me, this routine takes its toll on your mind and body. We all have a routine that we are in. It may be more or less hectic that what we have described, but no matter what you are doing, it is important.
This is your life. You have to do what you are doing in order to make a living and support your family. You have to keep everything organized so your family can do what it wants to do and sometimes you just have to make sure you don’t go crazy.
There are many reasons we do what we do every day. There is money, respect, entertainment and many other factors that drive our activities. As I see health take a back seat, I wonder why. I wonder why people can justify running themselves ragged on a daily basis without even considering their health.
When most people describe a typical day, it looks like above with a million things going on. I know how it is because I am dealing with a schedule like that every day too. I have to balance many things just like everyone else. I have to prioritize and decide what I have time for and what I don’t. More accurately, I have to decide when I have to do things to make sure that they fit.
But how do you know what you want to fit? I use a few things to gage how important something is. We are all motivated by different things. You can talk about money, fear or personal fulfillment. You can talk about any number of things that will get people to do something, but I think we need to think about one in particular.
Personal pride is what keeps me focused on my health. No matter what I have going on, there is time for health. I make time for workouts, for buying and preparing food, managing my stress and many other things during a typical day. The reason I do this is because of personal pride.
There are few ways that pride comes into play for me, so let’s discuss what it means to be proud to live healthy. Pride comes from many places and here are the places I get mine:
Success
When you set a goal and reach a goal, you are successful. The more goals you set and reach, the more successful you are. No matter how big or small a goal is, if you reach it, you are experiencing success. This habit has become part of my daily life. I set goals every day and I take pride in reaching the goals I set. I take pride in being successful.
Results
The results you get from your day to day life depend on your actions. The goals I set are clear and the results I get by reaching them are too. I take great pride in controlling those results. I control results by controlling my actions. It’s that simple and I will always do it. When I am deciding what actions I want to take, I think about the results and I remember that my personal pride will be greater when I take action and get those results.
Control
Health is in our hands. I can decide how I will live and I decide how I feel each day. When I wake up in the morning, I am tired. I feel like the day just started, but I wasn’t ready for it to start. I feel like the night wasn’t long enough. My routine is designed to stop that feeling and help me get on track for a successful day. My morning workout is what gives me the energy to have a good morning. The goal of getting up and going is all it takes (most days) to take action. I take pride in accomplishing that goal to start each day and the rest of my day is on track because of it.
There are many other decisions that I make on a daily basis that determines how healthy that day, week, month, year will be. As these add up, I am determining how healthy my life will be. I have decided that I want to be successful; I want a certain result- to be healthy and feel good every day and have the control to do all of this.
I am proud of my accomplishments day in and day out. I am proud of the clients that have been able to do the same thing. They aren’t doing it so I will be proud of them. They do it because they have their own personal pride. Anyone that is living healthy has decided that their pride is strong enough for them to set goals, take action to succeed and maintain control over their lives.
The same can be said for those that are not living healthy. If you are not able to find time or make decisions that will support your health, you are not finding pride in being healthy. It’s no surprise. It would be difficult to take pride in being healthy when you are not doing it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do it.
Living healthy may not be easy, but if you are willing to start with one step, you can take pride in that one step and keep doing it. The more success you have with that step, the closer you are to taking another. Step by step, you will be successful, see the results you want and realize that you are in control of your life. You won’t stop because you will have something that you didn’t have before you started taking these steps. You’ll have something very powerful that will keep you going. You will have personal pride.
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