The guy who tried to skip the line!
Story time! Today I want to tell you about the guy who tried to skip the line and how it relates to your fitness goals and maybe even your life in general.
A few weeks ago we arrived in Mexico after 4 flights and the best part of 2 days in airports and planes. It was my partner, our 2 year old son and I. Super tired, hungry and ready for a sleep we were greeted with a giant line up of probably 150-200 people at the immigration area. There were only 2 immigration agents working so this line was taking forever.
After about 10 mins of not moving, this one guy ahead of us (let's call him "no patience Patricio") decided he was going to get out of the line and see if there was a way he could skip it. I watched him as he spoke to the airport officials one after the other.
By the time he realised there was no way to skip the line - another plane had arrived and the line up was even longer!
No Patience Patricio tried to find a shortcut and in the end had to wait twice as long to eventually reach his goal.
I see this play out all the time with people and their fitness.
It happens in 2 different ways:
1- Looking for the short cut. Diet after diet, keto, weight watchers, low carb, no carb, whatever. They do these short term things trying to find the holy grail in 4 weeks. Every time you do this, like Patricio you find yourself back at the start, only now you're feeling disheartened and you've potentially done some damage to your metabolism, digestion, gut health, mental health, etc etc.
2- Quitting when you get busy / hit a plateau. This is akin to saving really hard for 3 months then blowing it all in a week or two. Every time you do this you go back to the start of the line. You're better than that. Busy or not, you and the people who love you deserve the best version of you - so cut that BS for everyone's sake.
The antidote?
Stay in the line. Sometimes you won't move for a while, sometimes the line will move quickly. Patience is the fast track to success in the long run. Stay disciplined, focus on your daily habits and remember that there is no end destination that you reach here where you can just stop.
Even once you achieve your goal you want to stay there right? So enjoy the journey, it's a process. If it was as easy as do a few workouts and drink a protein shake for a few weeks - it wouldn't be as rewarding. You wouldn't learn anything about yourself on the journey and you wouldn't build the self respect and confidence you earn when you stick something out.
As Dory says best "just keep swimming."
Be your best self,
Coach Jake
