Ever since I started blogging about my journey to become a fit dad, I've been keeping in touch with others going through the same process who are blogging too. It has definitely helped me stay motivated and I've met some great people along the way.
One of those great people is Andrew over at the Discipline or Regret blog. His enthusiasm for his new life and his dedication to attaining it are infectious and he has a great British (he's a Scotsman) sense of humor that I love.
I recently asked Andrew if he'd be willing to write a post for NMFD and he happily agreed. I hope you enjoy this guest post as much as I have.
By Andrew Scott
Author of the Discipline or Regret blog
The biggest challenge about accomplishing something great is overcoming our self. We hold the keys to our success or our failure, which key we use is up to us.
We are born into this world kicking and screaming the moment we open our lungs and breathe air for the first time and I believe that a God-planned destiny is build into to every human being on the planet. It doesn’t matter if you were born out of marriage, an unplanned conception, an orphan you are not a mistake and you have a destiny!
But, (that’s an awful word ‘but’, it usually spoils everything!) obtaining that destiny is another matter indeed. To unlock that destiny we need to get passed many obstacles, the biggest being ourselves. When I started this challenge to discipline myself to lose weight I had to make many changes to my lifestyle; going to bed at 8pm, getting up at 4am, eating things that I didn’t like, coping with muscle pains, being consistent and not dropping other responsibilities in my life.
Look at these areas; how many depend on someone else? None of them do. If I fail (which I won’t) I can’t blame anyone but myself.
Now I’m focusing on weight loss, but these principles can also be put into other areas of our life to cause change and get closer to your life goals. Let’s look at these five principles;
#1. It starts with you; don’t wait for someone to hold your hand or give you the magic formula, go out and get it yourself. What do you want to achieve; fat loss? build muscle? Add some mass to your scrawny body? Start positioning yourself, educating yourself. Talk to people that have what you want (drain them dry for information), read, find reliable sources on the internet, etc. Successful people are doers. The person who says they can’t will be interrupted by the person who just has, never forget that!
#2. Put your goals on paper; if your thoughts are not written down then you didn’t have them! Simply write down what you want to achieve. It doesn’t matter how big your goal(s) are just write them down. Once they are down on paper then they are thoughts with a foundation; good foundations make things built on them strong and durable.
#3. Put your plan on paper; a concept in education that is called ‘backwards by design’; basically write the end result first, your goal (#2). Now what do you need to do to get there? How can you get lard to become muscle? You don’t, you build muscle and torch the lard! How do you build muscle? Strength training + healthy eating! Ok how do I find out about strength training and healthy eating? Now if you are carful were you look for this information then you should be ok, try these to start off;
And of course keep coming back to NMFD and you will see how Steve is powering through, changing his life with workouts and nutrition that works.
#4. Be a Nike commercial; get off your ass and move fatty! I know, I know I am still causing major eclipses, but I am moving my ass! Yep go like Nike and “JUST DO IT!” – When is the right time? Now! And when is now? Zero to five seconds! ;-)
#5. Evaluate your progress; you have thought about your need for change (#1), you have written down your goal on paper (#2), you have educated yourself and you know what needs to be done (#3), you are going to get up and do what you have educated yourself about (#4) and now you need to get out whatever you need to keep track of everything you do from this point on. Get a notebook, measuring tape, digital camera (even a dinosaur film camera), body fat calipers and start taking some information about your body. Keep checking your progress and this will help to motivate you. Also don’t keep quiet tell people what you are doing, make yourself accountable. Get an accountability buddy.
And remember the only person that can cause you to fail is the enemy in the mirror, I am happy to say that I have removed some ignorance from your mind. You have no excuses now! J
