Find Where You Are In Your Fitness Journey

 

  Hi, How Are You Today? 

Funny to think it but everyday we wake up and rarely get to be present with a true check in. We often do as much as we can to just rush out of the door and get to work. The ability to simple check in with ourselves often gets grossly overlooked. 

So how do you fight it or better yet why does it matter. Well this is a great question to ask yourself because believe it or not this is the root of why you are not getting results. You see 90% of hitting any goal is finding out where you actually are in the roadmap to that goal and getting further up the road. What we do by mistake instead is continuously repeat the same actions expecting different results.

What we are going to do today is establish the key phases you should expect to be in a given cycle of mental awareness followed by action. So let's take the time now to see what this looks like and where you are in your journey. 

 

So first I'd like to address that this make you are walking down has various ways of meeting the demand of that arena and it's supposed to, on the opposite end. What you are not supposed to do is linger in any one given space longer than you truly need to. 

 

THE FANATIC STAGE - 

At this stage you are either in the beginning stages or diving full force in the fact that fitness and dieting in a lifestyle change that you know has yielded some results and you are all in to geT the best results. This is different then the beginning stages as you now have a mindset built in and a minimum expectation that you are acknowledging must occur in your fitness goals.

 

This space is often the place where you are already steady into dieting, have a dedicate routine in your workouts and you are simply are adding to the pot each day to get better results. This is usually where you are aligned with your fitness journal so much you have nearly daily entries and you feel as if your life is truly shifting into a space working dieting and exercise is a primary thought as opposed to an afterthought. 

This is ultimately where you want to land and you have taken the shift to a true lifestyle change. 

 

 

THE ROADMAP STAGE

 

The roadmap stage is where you really look to layout all of the things to get you on the right track. I believe that everyone should arrive here but not everyone should start here. Now, why do I say that? Well In say that because action fatigue or fear of taking actions can be sometimes onset by over preparing.

You don't want to line up your ducks so far up the row because the waters going to move them and drift them out of place. Instead, you want to feed your ducks by taking some action, then feeding them as they form a line. 

Ok, a bit abstract but, what it means is that you should take action if that's going to get your next result or plan a little if that gets to take action to result. In the end the action is the key purpose. On the grand scheme of things I simply want you to build. Just go one step at a time. I always tell people to simply plug-in one item for each of these area, no matter the quality, just so you have a solid checklist.

 This checklist should be laid out after starting your first day in the gym or during your first week, if you know it won't bring on crippling anxiety. So if you only figure 2 things in your first week as you take action, that's much better than waiting 6 weeks before taking any action to get all 6 lined up. 

Here is how the checklist should go if you were looking to follow a list:

  • Your Jump Starter // Your Why
  • Your Diet Plan
  • Your Progress Journal (Pre Workout)
  • Your Goal
  • Your Progress Journal (Post Workout)
  • Your Recovery
  • Your Affirmations Support

 

Now the above list is not in order. You'll need to figure out where you believe you are in this journey as everyone starts in the the place of lowest path of mental resistance. So while I can, and actually shall, give you the most natural order. You'll need to see what gets you motivated to take action on first and then string it to the next piece of the puzzle to get you operating in full circle. 

You technically do not need to do every single step but you do need to be doing at least and 5 of these 7 things in order to really get into seeing results whether consciously or unconsciously. You'll really want to make a conscious effort to be doing all 7 in some capacity or another so you can start building the habits and routines and have things flowing in your favor. Here's the best order I believe you should start to get things going for your success. 

  • Your Affirmations Support
  • Your Jump Starter // Your Why
  • Your Workout
  • Your Goal
  • Your Diet Plan
  • Your Progress Journal
  • Your Recovery

This is the general cycle you'll want to be inducing to get you on the path of success. Now some of you might be wondering why we start with Affirmations. Well to be honest this is because I'm going to give away a secret worth your weight in gold just as we speak. 

So let me share, if you start your journey by going to sleep with affirmations of your success in your ear, you'll wake up ready to work out and jumpstart your day into working out or completing some form of exercise. 

Jump start is pre-workout and your why. What do you dream would happen as a result of you working out and achieving your dream body goals. 

If you click the links above you can see a brief description of what they all mean but the key thing is to make sure you are aware that you are somewhere on this path and where you want to be in this cycle. 

Now just by knowing where you are makes this while process 100 TIMES EASIER. Now why is this, well most people fail meeting their goals not because they can't physically do it but because do not comprehend that this journey is not a straight line. It's a cycle that shall have peaks and valleys and the quicker you can recover from a valley the better the results at your next peak. Believe it our not. All of life is like a stock market graph. Some days are going to be better than others but as long as you move forward your stock has the best chance to rise. 

 

So let's take a look at what the rest of the the journey is going to cycle you through and how we think it'll be best to take what supportive actions to easily push you through it.

 

THE OVERWHELMED STAGE - 

 

 

This stage has a three pronged effect as it can happen at many stages of the progression. This often rears it's ugly stage at either the beginning before the results come, or in the middle when you hit a plateau or valley. What this looks is often feel tired, fatigued, or "not ready" to take the next required stop. Good thing about this space is that it's actually an easy fix.

All you need to do is slow down and revist what portion is making you overwhelmed and just skip it for the moment and lean into some affirmations or small actions. What this looks like is finding affirmations regarding clearing paths or removing roadblocks.

Being overwhelmed is often just a gear that you can make a wrong move. Well here's some more good news, keep sticking to taking some action and you'll get through it. Being overwhelmed is also a sign that you know you can do something but the time constraints are feeling closer then anticipated. 

Take a step back, relax, and get centered. Good sleep and relaxation affirmations of videos work great here as well. The biggest leverage though is going to be dialing in on your actual plan. Make sure that what you are doing is going to give you the results you want. So Workout support, diet plans, and anything that's going to provide you with an easy structure to follow usually reduces this overwhelmed feeling.

 

THE SHARING STAGE - 

 

This stage is funny enough most often seen in either 2 stages, just and you get started or just as your become a fanatic. For most people they make the mistake of sharing to much in the beginning of their journey and for some it can have an adverse effect. The reason is by sharing to early in your process you get your friends and family invested in your journey. This is only an issue because oftentimes our friends and family are their to cheer us on for Day one but judge on Day 2.

While I'd love to say that friends and family are always unconditionally supportive, all it takes is one "well intended check in" to take us out of the game, then all of sudden we feel frustrated or defeated. So what this might look like is your partner saying, "How was the workout today?" and if you skipped that day due to work, or you ended it early due to low energy, you can see yourself giving an out of character reaction. So instead of placing yourself between the crossfire of early judgment, we suggest, logging your thoughts, feelings, wins, losses, and progress in a fitness journal, notebook, or log. This is a sure fire way to reduce the feeling of switching into an alternate stage in the cycle like frustrated or overwhelmed. So share sparingly not daringly. If you notice someone is truly in need and they reach out for heartfelt suggestions, explain exactly where you are in the beginning or middle processes, then share your knowledge. You do not have to convince, or sway, just share and get back to focusing on your goal. 

 

 

THE DEFEATED STAGE - 

 

 

 This is a pretty much the second big one to be aware of. This can sneak up at any point and it is often related to a momentary fail. This often happen before we get to the fanatic stage and is usually associated with any form of not meeting our expectations and being to hard on ourselves. Remember there's not such thing as a perfect line or perfect season. Each and every day is a new way to win. You are not going to win everyday but you can expect to win some days, enough to outweigh and get quality results.

So embrace those and remove the rest. Some of the easiest ways to get past this are through troubleshooting a few steps. Re listen to some affirmations, re examine you sleep and relaxation videos, review what you did differently from this week from the last to get back to feeling like you can win an reach your goal. 

You always have to aim for your fitness goals and goals in general with perspective. Defeat is a state of mind, when really in reality it is merely a measuring stick on your progress at the moment. At any given moment in the future this measure can be obsolete. So expect to feel this valley of defeat and embrace the moment for a second then reinforce the words you need to continue to train past that moment. 

This is the stage where you have attempted a few things but the results have not come. If you are in this stage and you are constantly looking for what to do to get your first consistent results then you really need to focus in on you prep work. You mental state of positive affirmations is the best place to start when in this stage. During this stage you should really be getting yourself ready for the goals at hand. 

 

In this stage you would need something like rockstar affirmations or something you can play in you sleep to help give you the hope and energy you need. To be honest, you are missing your spark. 

 

THE CELEBRATING STAGE - 

 This is a stage I want you to carry with you throughout your whole journey but in the perspective of a controlled celebrating. You do not want to be in the space of celebrating as if you've hit the finish line or that you are going to always be seeing the immediate impact of your results at every turn.

In the beginning if you can celebrate to motivate and these deems effective, do it. You should always be your biggest Champion, when it's all said and done, you have to get the results and put in the work.

This is a good sign though. The only thing that you must be aware of, is that each Peak is usually around the corner from a Valley.

This is the valley of Frustration, Defeat, Overwhelmed. These are wear results slow down. This does not have to be a long Valley though. For example, let's say you hit a peak, sculpt your body a bit and you notice the change happening from your fitness goal. Then literally the next 2 days you get bogged down and miss your gym days. This little layover is a valley.

 

Now, you could stay in the valley and miss more days or you can take some action to get you back on track like work out at home or the office gym, whatever fits, then bam you get back on track. This is where you can do a small reinforcing motivating celebration. This too could be logged into your journal so that in the event it happens again, you can remember whatever trigger got you out of the slump and back moving forward.

Stacking moments like these and expecting, or knowing the valley are going to exist in the difference between hitting your goals or never reaching them. 

 

THE FRUSTRATED STAGE - 

 

This stage is that is the noisy killer for most. The biggest hindrance to your success in goals is this little trigger. If you ever get frustrated from your journey then it literally boils down to one key thing, the time constraints you created in your mind are not being met by the results your projected at that time. This is okay and is also a very common thing to look out for.

The easiest way to get this going to stay within cycling through your affirmations and logging. The affirmations are one of the most underrated tools as this allows you to literally reprogram your brain for success. So if you having a really bad day, and have no energy or motivation to workout or diet properly. Take some time to reset then, pop in some motivational or goal affirming affirmations. 

 It is okay to be frustrated but it is not okay to quit. Well honestly that is not 100% true on the quitting portion but you'll need more context to understand why this is true. You have to understand that you are worth the time effort and energy. Focus on the why you have created for doing this. If you do not know what this is then I'll add a link to this here so you can get a better understanding as it applies to all goals fitness, financial, or otherwise. 

In the end if you do enough things right you'll start off running, get some distance, walk, or lower your pace, then sprint past your finish line.