Let’s face it: getting lean and ripped is no easy task. Thanks to the endless advertisements we see in magazines and on television, people often underestimate the amount of effort it requires to get the body they’ve always wanted. Our perception of the amount of work required is flawed. We think if our results aren’t as impressive as others we’ve seen or don’t happen as quickly we’ve failed.
You may experience a significant amount of progress only to find that all of sudden your progress stops suddenly. This is often referred to as a PLATEAU. At this point you have to ask yourself if you’re a winner or a quitter.
The WINNERS will accept plateaus and setbacks as just another detour on their journey to success. In fact, winners not only accept setbacks, they EXPECT them. Winners focus on where they want to go, not on where they are now. They look at plateaus as FEEDBACK, not setbacks. If something stops working, that simply means it’s time to change.
The QUITTERS throw their arms up in frustration when they reach a setback and slowly fall back into their old habits because they tried “everything” and it didn’t work.
So, the first step in overcoming a setback is to stay positive and focused on your long-term goals. Not everything you do is going to get you the results you want. But that doesn’t mean you failed. THE ONLY WAY TO FAIL IS IF YOU QUIT.
Just ask Thomas Edison. He tried thousands of experiments to find a filament that would burn in the electric light bulb. When someone asked him what it felt like to fail so many times, Edison said he didn’t fail. He said “If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.”
Many of us are familiar with Beachbody’s trademark slogan : DECIDE.COMMIT.SUCCEED.
However, let’s not forget that just like the person we admire who has the body we’ve always wanted, Beachbody’s path to success did NOT come easy.
After TWO YEARS of development, P90X went on air and failed. CEOs Carl Daikeler and Jon Congdon tweaked it and put it back on TV and it failed again. It wasn’t just OK, it was a MASSIVE failure. They tried again and it failed a third time. Most companies would have given up, but Carl believed in P90X and did not quit. It took him more than a year and then in a focus group he finally started to understand some very basic pieces of information that customers needed before they could say yes.
He put his learning into the next infomercial and it tested positively. It was good enough to put back on air again and the rest of the story is still unfolding (hundreds of millions of dollars in sales later).
I know many of you (myself included) are struggling when it comes to achieving your fitness goals right now. But I hope you believe in yourself as much as Carl believed in P90X. It may take a few months, even a few years, to find your groove. But once you learn to believe in yourself and what you can accomplish you’ll experience the success you’ve always wanted. If something stops working (or never did) it’s time to try something different. Ask ANYONE who’s put in the blood, sweat, and tears if the time they put into achieving their goals was worth it.
DECIDE, COMMIT, fail, commit again, fail, commit again, fail, commit again…SUCCEED…and find that it was all worth the effort.
Amanda is a wife, toddler mom, PMAD survivor, certified nutrition and running coach, recovering perfectionist, and minimalist-in-training. Her mission in life is to help others get off the pity potty, embrace their own brand of weirdness, and get after their dreams. Proverbs 3:5-6