By Lara Foster
How do you stick to training schedules, nutrition schedules, work schedules, when Life has other plans? Progress, Goals, all seem to be put on hold when Life throws you a big one. What do you do?
How do you look at life when these curve balls come hurling through? Sometimes they’re feelings, sometimes something unexpected happens, meetings change, sometimes people leave us…
Sometimes I don’t feel like going to the gym. So I search for a deal I can make to convince myself to go. I’ll just do 50%, I will just mobilize, I will just do 5 reps. I can do 5 of anything.
The trick is finding a way to get yourself to Show Up.
To follow through.
To just BE there.
I know that once I get there 9 times out of 10, my feelings change. I am excited to see people. I am grateful to move. And so I do, just start moving. Through this action of involvement the movement overtakes me. I start doing things I didn’t think I was capable of a mere 2 hours ago.
This is a tactic I have utilized for years. And it works. When I was 350lbs and drinking alcohol non-stop, I knew ceasing that behavior was one of the things I needed to do to change my Life.
I needed to set myself up for success.
I needed to follow through with positive productive joyful actions.
I didn’t really want to quit drinking. I enjoyed it, or so I thought. But what is joy if it is detrimental to your health, your clarity, and is completely disintegrating every relationship in your life. Not true joy.
In order to stop drinking, I had to cut a deal. The deal was this…
ONE YEAR.
I will stop drinking for 1 year.
At the end of that year I will re-evaluate. If nothing changes in my life, I can go back to drinking. If things change for the better, I will continue to follow through on the actions that helped create this new better clear Life.
The date I made this deal was July 22, 2007. Needless to say…
It worked.
I lost 150lbs in that year. I learned about nutrition, exercise, and commitment. I showed up for every single training session with my personal trainer, no matter what, I found a way. I may have been a bit rigid in my execution, but it was what I needed to do to prove how serious I was about doing this. I had dug a pretty deep hole and I was bound and determined to get out.
I knew that in order to continue moving in this progressive way I needed to set myself up for success even after I’d reached my goals. I felt that the best way to do this was by becoming a personal trainer. I fell in love with the process of program design and facilitating others growth towards their own goals. I paid it forward by making myself available to those who needed a similar structure to be successful. I became a Master Trainer.
Progress can be made by approaching one small step at a time. Each small step adds up to a larger whole, moving from certainty to uncertainty one small leap at a time.
For example, I know I can bench press a solid 180lbs. But a couple of years ago, I could barely do 135lbs. And that had to be ‘on the right day’, at the right bench, with the right bar, encouraged by the right spotter. I could maybe squeeze out 1 rep, and even then, it was hit or miss.
If you told me two years ago that I would be on the verge of benching 200lbs I would’ve said that’s impossible.
Say it to me NOW, and the statement is, YES, I am going to do that someday. The sentiment feels a bit more like, that might actually happen! The feeling is, believing.
What is the mindset of an ELITE ATHLETE? How do they work through resiliency? I wonder about this all of the time. What sets the people apart from wanting to go to the Crossfit Games and actually getting there? I break it down further… How do these seemingly normal people I see at the gym every week get to the Crossfit Regionals? What is THAT mindset? How do they do it?
I am super interested in this topic. Not because I want to get to the Crossfit Regionals or the Games… But I do want to know how to be ELITE at my chosen craft, which is writing, designing, and producing game plans, programs for Success.
I utilize exercise and nutrition to help formulate ideas around what it takes to be successful. Right now, there’s a sense of RESILIENCY ringing true in my Life.
Life may throw some unexpected punches at you, that is the adventure of LIFE. It shifts and changes through spontaneous, creative, motions. Sometimes these changes can produce shock, disbelief, anger, or frustration within us.
No matter what happens, the truth about Resiliency is…
How quickly can you stand back up?
How quickly can you re-center?
How can you adapt, be flexible, and mobile with what is?
How can you transform what is, into something you want it to be?
I feel like this is the true testament of Resiliency, and through resiliency comes persistence, dedication, commitment, consistency. It’s all there.
Sometimes Life adds sprinkles of joy to your plan to inspire true success, to clear the path. Your ability to realize this as an opportunity to be in a resilient moment, a catalyst for inspired change, to further help you on your path is part of the Operating from Abundance I speak of.
Progress happens IN the resiliency of realizing that having a bad day, a bad moment, a subpar workout, not following through, losing something, losing someone… Is not the end. It is the OPENING to a Greater Beginning, A better Story, An adaptation to your Elite mindset, True Fulfillment, Success.
So, get back up. Try again. Wake up tomorrow with Hope. Wake up right Now with hope. You can do it at ANY moment. A lot of people just need a big shift or change to Realize the moment, and so the mysteries of Life play through.
But I believe you can be pro-active about your adaptation, your transformation. You can be consciously aware and present IN the process, IN the progress, IN the resiliency. Your Active Participation and vigilant expression of this is what will set you apart from the rest. That is how we define ELITE.
RESILIENCY.