Over the years I’ve learned a few things about myself and the members I work with.

Sometimes we get in ruts. We hit plateaus. We have goals but we struggle with the discipline to stay focused on habits that hit those goals.

When we need a breakthrough, or catapult, or thrusted into high gear, we have found two things that work the best.

#1. SIGN UP FOR SOMETHING IMMEDIATELY

Whether it’s a nutrition challenge, a 5k race, or a duathlon, put it on the calendar. Even if it’s 3-5 months out, having something on the calendar provides us with two things: a deadline and urgency. Whenever we have a deadline and urgency, our intentions change, we stay focused, and we get cerebral momentum. Our brain literally looks for ways to fine tune and polish up our skill sets. None of us want to enter into an event unprepared. Plus, when we invest or buy into something, we’re much more likely to commit to it!

*Note: don’t stress about signing up too far out. Even though it’s fine to have something on the calendar a year later, most of us won’t put our heart and soul into something until we’re closer to the date.

No matter how long you’ve been doing this, we all need an ‘event’ to keep us inspired. When I used to train hard for 5k races, I would put one on the calendar every 4-6 weeks just to keep me motivated. Now that I don’t care to beat my PR, I rarely have motivation to run. Since we are doing the FMU 5k race on August 6th, watch what happens. I’ll start training more. Hey, that’s a good event for you too! Save the date and get ready to join us to help you get ready for it!

#2. FIND AN ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER

We see it in faith, we see it in fitness, we see it in life; we all need someone to work hard on goals with. Is it a friend to meet at the gym at 6:35am? Is it a family member to track food with? Is it a spouse to better prepare meals with?

Having someone in your life to share goals, progress, and wins and losses with, changes the game. Why? Because now you have to be honest with someone else, and show up for someone else other than yourself. I have found that we are much more likely to give up when it’s just us alone. Add a partner into the mix and our level of accountability shoots up many notches!

Even better? Find a coach too. Your life is busy, sometimes you can’t think about learning another thing. Find someone who specializes in nutrition, or fitness, or health, and tap into their knowledge and skill set.

Oh I know it costs money. It’s an investment. You’ll pay for what you value. If you’ve been saying you were going to do something for a long time and still can’t seem to do it, it might be time to hire someone else to push you.

Look, these are the proven secrets of many successful athletes, business people, and shakers in life. We weren’t designed to do things on our own and on top of that, we live in a world full of distractions. To stay on target we need to put systems in place.

Put something on the calendar.

And put someone in your life to checkpoint, challenge, and encourage you.

Never take my word for it. Try it for yourself today and it may just be an absolute game changer for you and everyone in your life.

God Bless,

Coach Theo