Imperfect Action
“The key to happiness is having low expectations.”
Key Takeaways
The majority of the time, you will benefit from prioritizing action over perfection.
The pass/fail approach, which encourages us to focus on the big picture concepts instead of cramming every trivial detail into our skulls, offers insight into the best way to achieve sustainable fitness success.
Accomplishing goals that include….
Lose a little bit of fat
Gain some muscle
Have more energy for your family
Live, and be able to move, long enough to play with your grandkids
….does not require perfection.
Before you strive for fitness success, make an effort to clearly define your ultimate goal.
By shifting your focus to realistic, process-oriented goals, you’re much more likely to maintain positive changes and stick around for the long haul in the health and fitness game.
Full Story
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.
Take A Pass/Fail Approach
I’m lucky. I live a low stress life compared to most graduate students and it’s all thanks to the pass/fail system.
In undergrad, I would scratch and claw for every .5%, fearing that relaxing would be the difference between an A- and a B+, a physical therapy school acceptance or rejection, and success or failure. You’re familiar with the feeling, and it’s stressful.
Today, I can rest easy - I just need an 80%. “An 80 is an 100”, we say, a reassuring reminder that any mark above 80% shows up as a nice little “P” on our transcripts. This relaxed approach, which encourages us to focus on the big picture concepts instead of cramming every trivial detail into our skulls, offers insight into the best way to achieve sustainable fitness success.
If you’re like most, dear reader, your goals are quite reasonable:
Lose a little bit of fat
Gain some muscle
Have more energy for your family
Live, and be able to move, long enough to play with your grandkids
Don’t get me wrong. Accomplishing any one of these goals is an impressive feat that will enhance nearly every aspect of your life. However, it doesn’t require perfection.
Perfect Or We’re Not Going
This idea reminds of a Seth Godin blog I read a few weeks back:
“Perfect or we’re not going”When does this rule apply?
It doesn’t apply to anyone we’ve ever hired.
It doesn’t apply to anything we’ve ever purchased.
It doesn’t apply to any project we’ve sponsored.
Or anyone we’ve ever voted for, dated or befriended, either.
In fact, it’s a great excuse for the things we’re afraid to do, or where our inclination is to say no anyway. If you’re hoping for inaction, look for perfect.
This applies perfectly well to lowering the bar in fitness. Don’t strive for perfection, strive for action. The rest will take care of itself.
When The Rest Doesn’t Take Care Of Itself
If you need help lowering the bar, setting realistic expectations, and establishing sustainable fitness habits, consider joining those that have transformed their bodies and improved their health with the help of my monthly fitness coaching.
Having an experienced coach in your corner might just be the push you need to reach your goals and become the healthiest version of yourself. For more information, just click this button right down here ⤵️
You’ve gone too far! - It’s up here ⤴️
Redefine Success
It’s always important to strive for success. But before you start your chase, make an effort to clearly define your ultimate goal. For most, success is not:
Eating chicken and broccoli for every meal, for the rest of your life
Working out every day
Never eating another donut for as long as you live
Nope! If you always define success with those markers, you’ll fail, fall off the wagon, and revert back to unhealthy habits. That’s not what we want.
Instead, focus on productive definitions of success such as:
Making food choices to improve energy and fuel performance
Finding ways to exercise that are fun and sustainable
Prioritizing recovery and quality sleep
Learning to value your mental health over a change in the mirror or on the scale
By shifting your focus to realistic, process-oriented goals, you’re much more likely to maintain positive changes and stick around for the long haul in the health and fitness game.
Wrap Up - 100 Or 36,500?
If you do 10 push ups every day, that’s 3,650 push ups in the year, and 36,500 over 10 years. If you do 100 push ups today, get sore for a week, and quit, that’s 100 push ups in the year, and 100 over 10 years.
10 push ups may not seem like much, but it’s a whole lot more than 0. Don’t worry about doing 100, or more than your ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend, or clap push ups, or behind the back clap push ups (1). Don’t shoot for perfection. Just do ten.
Lower the bar and set reasonable expectations. I know it’s not flashy or exciting, but a commitment to the basics day in and day out for a long time will pay dividends for your health and fitness.
