Fitness Needs to be mental as well as physical
This progress shows more how I developed mentally more so then my physical. I looked like the first picture for years. The after photo is really only the last year of progress.
Something I really only “recently discovered” was how you must progressively pursue both the physical and mental aspect of fitness. You must raise your personal set points using a progressive model to see change or you won’t see any at all. It’s regretful that I only have been practicing this for a year or so, because if I had discovered this earlier in my journey I would be so much farther along. But I am going to help you do better than I did early.
You may be thinking, what the heck are you talking about? But let me explain. We all have set points in everything we do. Our work, relationships, fitness, attitude, happiness, health etc. They are all determined by our philosophy and how you have developed it or not. It’s what we tolerate in ourselves. Your set point is like an air conditioner on a hot day. Set at a specific temperature that always kicks back in when it needs to return things to this set level. Get a bit hot and it kick backs in, get to cold and it turns off. Your overall personal development and way you see yourself is no different. The person you are right now is your current set point. It’s why so many people stay exactly the same or even regress in many aspects of their life over time as they never improve this set point through personal development. In regards to fitness this could be very vast. You could be anywhere from over weight, skinny, muscular, Lean, strong, weak, skinny fat, fit, lose your breath on a stair climb, be a binge eater to having great will power, to being the apex of health or on the verge of a heart attack. This is your current reality. Whatever it is for you personally it was set by you and how you progressed yourself.
When I say I only recently discovered this I am not kidding. I spun my wheels for years in fitness and nutrition until just recently. I started to get into success principles and personal development about attitude, leadership, happiness and progressive positive thinking. For almost 14 years in fitness I worked out but stayed pretty much the same as seen in my “before” picture above. I always thought I was progressing when really, I was never pushing my personal development in any subject to raise that set point. So the result was I stayed mostly the same and if I gained even I little, my set point would always fall back down to where I was currently personally developed. Until about one year ago I realized it was 100% because I was not progressively thinking, challenging my beliefs and current set point. I was not envisioning and developing what I was pursuing and doing daily improvements to that set point. I did not see the goal or even understand how to achieve it so I never did.
For those who know success principles and how much positive thinking can effect your life, you will understand this. For those who don’t and constantly find negative in every situation I recommend starting to get into personal development, because other wise you wont be able to raise that standard you have set for your self. You don’t even know it but it is sub conscious. You tolerate how you look, feel and see yourself. Whether you are overweight, skinny, obese, or how you eat and pursue health. You are self-sabotaging yourself and you don’t even know it. Your set point just keeps throwing you back down. Personal development is person responsibility. It’s a high form of maturity in which you understand and recognize your decisions and choices in your life and how they affect you. It’s not coasting like a zombie through your daily decisions. It comes from education. Books, seminars, training, advice, influence and alike. It takes time to build and a personal will to finally take charge of your life.
How many people, or you for that matter have started a fitness or nutrition program or plan and failed? Probably a lot. It’s at least 80% of the population. How many times have you seen the same person inconsistently workout here and there eat healthy here and there, and still look exactly the same or worse as you see them then the next day order a pizza and have some McDonald’s? The reason all stems back to your personal set point and development. They are coasting through decisions. You did not educate yourself enough and build up a proper mentality for change. So you did not pursue what you truly envisioned and therefore did not achieve it. Knowledge is not power, it is the potential for power. I’m pretty sure most people know McDonalds is bad for you, yet it is the number one restaurant in the world! But people still eat it because they don’t know how to control their decisions for change. Once you have the knowledge you need to envision the goals you are pursuing and what it is they look like when you reach them, you can then progressively tackle the challenge both mentally and physically in raising your personal tolerance of your current self.
If you want to become consistent at working out you better raise your personal set point for habits and commitments other wise they will fall off like any other time. Learn how to become consistent with your daily activities. Learn about tracking, planning and goal oriented tasks. You won’t be able to stick with them unless you do. If you want to learn how to eat better, you must learn and read about nutrition and develop your understand of health and its benefits. To stop seeing yourself in a negative way in the mirror you need to start learning and reading about the effects of positive thinking and attitude to raise your own self-worth and see your future self, long before it becomes reality.
To fix any issue in life you need to become more. Not do more.
Raise your personal set point by learning, thinking positivity and then you can use progressive models in fitness to raise it physically and stay there. If you don’t develop yourself mentally you will not succeed physically.
The book that changed my life for this was the Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. It started my path to personal development. Don’t read this blog and not go get it. Its life changing and will start you on that path to change.
If you don’t, the next few years will coast by exactly the same as the last few years and you will wonder why some cosmic force seems to always be against you and you can never stick to that workout plan, you never seem to eat better, your health never improves and you never see success from things you take on.
