Should Paul give up his grande caramel macchiatos? ☕️
Paul let out a nervous giggle and I knew we were in for a wild ride.
He didn’t have a great month with his eating. Or his training. He knew it, I knew it.
My preceding question to him was, “How do you think the past month has gone overall, Paul?”
The tone of that giggle told me everything I needed to know - he had not stuck to the plan. No big deal, but if Paul wanted to keep making progress, he needed to make some serious changes.
Let’s break it down, I leveled with Paul. What’s the first meal of your day?
“Okay, I know it’s bad. Every morning I run by Starbucks and grab a grande caramel macchiato with banana nut bread, warmed up.”
My thoughts and my response did not align.
I thought - “How the heck do you expect to lose fat if you’re starting the day with 50 grams of added sugar and no protein?!” I responded - “Awesome man, sounds delicious.”
We’ll table that for now.
“How have the workouts been going?” I tried. Paul diverted his eyes and let out a big sigh.
Here we go.
“Well John, I’ve got to be honest with you. Not good, man. I’ve gotten 3 workouts done this month. After I get to the gym and get warmed up, it’s not bad. I just can’t seem to drag my butt off the couch.”
Needless to say, our check in did not get off to the best start. We were spiraling fast. Paul went on…
“When I visualize my final goal, I really want it. 10 out of 10 I’m motivated. But most days, when it’s time to work out, I just don’t feel like it and it sucks. What can I do?”
Over the next hour, Paul slowly but surely came to understand that if he wanted to achieve his goal, he would need to tweak his lifestyle. These tweaks would be uncomfortable, but not unbearable.
“Tweak” was the key. There was no need to overhaul his life. But if he actually wanted to achieve the goals he envisioned, he had to start embracing the uncomfortable.
Less banana bread (it just can’t be the majority of your diet, Paul), more time in the gym (all I’m asking for is 30 minutes, 3 times/week. Surely you can meet me halfway, Paul?)
By the end of the call, the lightbulb clicked for Paul. If he wanted to keep moving forward, he needed to make sacrifices.
Winning the fitness game comes down to one key trade off:
Exchanging immediate gratification for long term success.
Figuring out how to make this trade off as painless as possible is the trickiest and most rewarding action you can take.
Be a little bit better than yesterday. Progress always trumps perfection.
When you prepare dinner, is it Bobby Flay or bust?
When you play pick up, do you quit if you don’t ball like ‘Bron?
In the shower, do you bail if you don’t belt it out like Beyonce?
Unless you’re the top .00001% in your field, you’re not the best. And that’s okay. Here are three reminders:
You don’t have to be the best
It’s okay to be average
Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction
Often in fitness, these ideas don’t resonate. When you embark on a new journey or set a new goal, you face a lot of pressure to:
Eat 100% clean (whatever that means)
Complete 100% of your workouts
Do everything else 100% perfectly, 100% of the time
It’s exhausting!
If you don’t meet these unrealistic expectations, you might even feel like a failure. For 99% of you, setting the bar so high is ineffective and unsustainable. This approach may even lead to stagnation - “Why should I even start? I’ll never be able to do it perfectly, anyway.”
The majority of the time, you will benefit from prioritizing action over perfection. Accept that your best is good enough, even if it’s not Beyonce caliber or a 100% success.
Keep reading to learn how accepting less-than-perfect is the key to reaching your fitness goals.
Quote of the week:
“The connective tissue between your failures and your successes is the lessons you learn along the way.
It is only by going through your early attempts (usually failures in some form) that you accumulate the insights, skills, and understanding required for success.
Everything is a lesson. Learn enough lessons and the failures become useful.”
- James Clear
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