Category: Weight Loss Exercise

I can become really inconsistent when I get lazy, in fact I think that this is my fatal flaw, inconsistency and getting started.

I have just gotten over a case of Walking Pneumonia and I am hoping to get back to the gym some time in the next few days. The only problem with this plan is the first time going to the gym. I will make excuses, I will procrastinate, I think I even find strange illnesses to stop me, but once I make it into the door of the gym I find that I am unstoppable.

Life always tends to be like that. We will work toward getting started for a long time when we should actually just be diving in haphazardly and then maybe treading water a bit until be are stable.

You Don’t Have To Be Great To Start But You Have To Start To Be Great

I find this same thinking all over the place, I am not alone I am sure. How many times do you hear people start sentences with “I have to start” or “I really know I should” or my own favorite “I know it is important but…”.

I know first hand that it might be hard to start eating better, but it isn’t hard to buy some healthy food at the store. I know that it is really important to get or stay in shape, even in winter, but it takes almost nothing to throw on some shoes and go walk around the neighborhood for half an hour. I even use to live with being tired all the time, until I decided that no matter what I would try to crawl into bed at 9:30 every night.

Most of the big changes in our life are not really really big to start. They are easy to start just by doing one simple task like throwing on some shoes, walking in the gym door, or buying a few more vegetables. Do this starting today and later today your pride will push you to doing it one more time.

We go through life trying to look back at our past success or failures while looking at the future with hope or dread. Neither of these are really true though. Life is only available in the present moment

I remember in a book that I read by James Altucher a couple of year back where he said that we are alway doing time travel. We are never living in the now but instead remembering things in the past and living for tomorrow. Never do this.

Life Is Only Available In The Present Moment

Of course the idea of mindfulness or present moment awareness are really tough for all of use when we start. It seems that the idea is that we just throw away our past learning and we never plan for the future. Seems great but useless doesn’t it. I found though that in starting a mindfulness practice I still had goals and a past but the important thing was not to dwell. The only thing we can really dwell on is this moment in time that we have control over.

This idea of living in the present moment is not really easy though and it takes a lot of practice and focus. When I do meditate and try and concentrate on my breathing (strictly present moment), that I find that my mind wanders to noises, something that happened yesterday, or even what I am going to have for dinner tomorrow… Useless stuff for right now.

Instead, it is really important for us to just try our best to keep that focus on our present moment actions. Work that is done today will help tomorrow and whenever we do actually act on what we really want in our life the closer we get to our best self in the future.

It’s funny in a way that we live in a society that builds idols to try and live up to and then we rip them down with the first opportunity. And since we all like to see a comeback, we often cheer these people on to overcome.

The point that I think is important is that we have to see our strengths and weaknesses as our own. We must build ourselves up to be the greatest “Ourselves” possible.

Always Have Faith in Yourself

When I say this I don’t mean that we shouldn’t look out for mentors and people to learn from, that is always critical with any change or path that we want to go on. These people though are only great for a message, for motivation, and for a guide.

It is important never to try and become someone else. Just learn from others and then circle back to our own strengths, gifts, and weaknesses to improve ourselves in our own way