All personal struggles are fought, and either won or lost, in the mind. Regardless of where you find yourself right now, the direction that your life will take depends almost entirely on your mindset. You must believe that you are capable of success or you will abandon your efforts when your pursuit gets difficult.
It’s ONE Day
So often, we give up on a goal based on ONE day. Everyone has bad days, days that everything seems harder and our goals seem distant at best, impossible at worst. I remind you, this too will pass. Whatever you are going through that makes you want to quit is a temporary situation. Don’t make life-altering decisions based on a temporary state of mind that will change on a whim. Just like the rain on a sunny day, the hindrance will pass and the light will shine on your goals. Don’t quit in the middle of a rainstorm.
Be Willing to Learn
David has a saying that “Everybody wants to be a body builder until they have to do body builder stuff.” One of the reasons that we fail is that all we want is the final outcome. Most people do not want to gain knowledge or build skills. When I first began weight training, the bench press was like a puzzle to me. I had always thought that all there was to a bench press was taking the bar off the hooks, lowering it to my chest and pushing it back up. Little did I know that the method for doing that is complex and detailed. It has taken me the better part of three years to even begin to master that lift. There are so many elements to be learned to finesse the lift that I felt like it was nearly impossible. Setting my safety pins at the beginning turned out to be the most important point, because I failed to do that one time too many. As I struggled to extract myself from what could have been a deadly accident, I realized that the Bench Press was a lot more than picking it up and putting it down. If all I wanted was to wake up one morning muscular and defined then I would have never done another press, but I want to learn all there is about lifting. Only then will I master the ultimate goal of a well-defined, strong, athletic body. To reach our goals, we must be willing to be a student of the components necessary to achieve them.
Lessons, Not Failure
I read a quote that says, “Never mistakes, always lessons, forever masters.” (Unknown). This means that when you fail, you must see that as a lesson learned, not as a sign that you have failed in pursuit of your goal. When the barbell came down across my throat in the aforementioned bench press, I could have quit, thinking that I just couldn’t do it. Instead, I learned. A year later, I believe that I have finally dissected that press. I am far from mastering it, but I am in hot pursuit. “Forever masters” means that perceiving failure as a lesson learned is the only pathway to mastering a difficult task. If you fail, you have learned another way not to do it. Try the right way. It just might work.
One of the most self-destructive behaviors is being resistant to change. If you begin a weight loss program or exercise routine that is not suited to you, you should change your program. I have known of people who would not waver from a program that was not working for them because they had developed an identity associated with that program. They had bought the clothes and equipment or paid their dues to the weight loss company so they just kept plugging away, miserable, until they could not make themselves do it anymore and finally just quit. Regardless of how far you’ve come or what you’ve invested, if what you’re doing is not working for you, do something else! Otherwise, you will quit and regain the weight with more to go with it. When we stop changing, we start dying. Change is growth. Since my mother put me on my first diet at age 4, I tried many programs. If I had been determined to stay with any of them until finding David’s Way, I would have never been successful. David’s Way is the only program that has given me long-term success.
Quit Comparing Your Progress to Others
In the online world that we live in, it’s so easy to look at an Instagram model and think, “It’s no use, I’m so far behind him/her that I might as well give up. I’ll never look like that.” Yes, him or her, men do it too. Seriously, there are at least a thousand levels of fitness. All that matters is that you continually put forth your best effort. If you do, you will one day look like the BEST version of YOU. That kind of athleticism is just as fit as anyone on Instagram, unless they have used drugs or had surgical procedures that look good for a while. If you acquire your fitness naturally, it will last as long as you work at it. While the people who make a living on their looks can create quite an image in the media, if their success is due in whole or in part to anything other than hard work, it will not last as long as your home grown hotness. Work hard and reap the rewards of being an all-natural athlete. Whatever you do, don’t get so caught up in someone else’s life that you neglect your own.
Develop Self-Confidence
An average person with above average confidence is practically unstoppable while an exceptional person with low self-esteem is easily defeated. At the age of 6 years, I was told that I was capable of doing ANYTHING that I wanted to do. While the discipline that I received when I did less than my best was hard to grow up with, I learned beyond a shadow of a doubt that what they said was true. I am capable of doing anything that I want to do. I have always believed that and I have never undertaken a task that I could not find a way to accomplish. I believe that I am capable and I am. This is part of the reason that I can work full-time, care for a special needs son, write and work out on a program that is demanding of time and focus. I know that I can do these things so I don’t have an excuse to fail. Believe in your strength to be successful and you will be.
When you control your mindset, you control your destination.