Fitness and the Path to Success

By Mike Inglis

For most of us, the goal of a fitness routine is to ultimately make ourselves healthy and strong.  This often means losing weight, gaining lean muscle, learning to eat right, and being consistent in our workouts.  That seems easy, doesn't it?  And it all sounds REALLY good, right?  So why is it so HARD to make happen?

It's Not Free
Well, as most of us ALSO know, achieving these things comes with a price.  Reaching most of these goals means that we will have to be UNCOMFORTABLE.  You want to eat right and lose weight?  You have to change what you eat, how much you eat, and how often you eat.  You want to gain lean muscle?  You have to push and pull against resistance to break down your muscles.  You want to be consistent in your workouts?  You have to take precious time out of your day multiple times per week and devote it to being uncomfortable.

What's Your "Why"?
The bottom line is that the path to success in fitness requires us to steer towards what is uncomfortable and move away from what is comfortable.  And while some people find the endorphine rush that often accompanies exercise to be addicting, most of us don't find that as a prime motivator to work hard on our health.  We need something more to motivate us to spend our time and energy moving against the current of our human conditioning.

People who struggle to find the motivation to be consistent in their workouts and nutrition efforts are not alone!  Willpower by itself will not make you successful.  You need to find a strong and profound reason WHY you are going to focus on your fitness and health in order for you to be truly successful.  Some people have a natural sense of the connection between their health and their quality of life and use that as their motivation.  Others have had health issues in the past and striving for good health spurs them on.  Whatever the motivation, it is important to have a strong one. 

The Path To Success
Believe it or not, the path to success in fitness is an easy one to follow.  Even the least knowledgeable of us in the ways of fitness can name SOMETHING that we could do each day to improve our health.  So it's not that we don't know what to do.  And it's actually EASY to do the things needed to make changes happen.  That's not the problem.  The problem is that it's also easy NOT to do them.  Any given day we can choose to get up a little earlier, add another workout to our week, eat less bread and eat more veggies.  Or we can choose not to.

Every day we make choices.  And every choice moves us a little closer to either the path of success or the path of failure.  Unfortunately failure doesn't happen after just one bad choice.  If it did, we'd all learn to change a lot sooner!  Failure happens gradually over time as a result of repeating bad choices over and over again each day.  The next thing we know, we are feeling old and tired, looking out of shape, and trying to figure out how we got to this place.

But the GREAT news is that we can change this at any point in time that we choose!  We can start making the choices each day that point us in the direction of health.  At any time we can start doing the little daily disciplines that make us stronger, leaner, and more alive.  We can start this today.  That is the beautiful thing...the door is always open to us.  We just need to walk through it.
So take some time and think about the choices you are making each day. 

Are you on the Path to Success which leads to great health, tons of energy, and a positive view of yourself?  If not, take that first step today!