I almost lost my fight the other day….Thank god I knew who I was swinging against, total knock out!!!
Hello again! Adam Theodorou here! Founder of FitStudios Health & Wellness Center, personal training specialist, strength coach and certified NO BS Lifestyle coach.
This past Thursday started a little rougher than normal. You see my 4 year old daughter has gotten in to the habit of wanting in our bed at night. Anyone who’s had kids knows what kind of sleep you get with a sprawling child in your bed. They kick, crawl, breath, lay and move all over you all night. And … more often than not, you end up with only a sliver of bed and almost no covers by morning.
So it’s fair to say when my 5:45am alarm went off that day, I may have had some slight reluctance to jump out of bed and go downstairs to start my morning run.
On top of that, on the last Thursday of every month, one of the team members here at FitStudios designs and runs the entire team through what we call “a team bonding session” which is ultimately a nice way of saying “an insane ass kicking”.
Everyone wants bragging rights that their workout was the hardest, and in the end those that suffer together, grow together so it’s a great way to build great rapport amongst the team members.
So with all of this running through my head, knowing what my day had in store for me, and on only a couple hours of very broken sleep, the excuses started pouring in.
“You don’t need to get up now, you’re going to work out later”
It’s so nice and cozy in bed, close your eyes for 15 more mins”
“You’ve trained every day this week already, you deserve to take a break today”
“It’s only one run, you’ll make it up”
I could literally hear the little bitch inside my head feeding me everything I wanted to hear to make the appropriate excuse as to why I didn’t have to get my run in that morning.
The truth is, all of my excuses were valid. I was working out later and a tough one at that, (2.5hrs of misery), I had already trained every day since Sunday, the bed was extremely cozy, and I was tired as F*&%K!
But despite knowing all of that, I knew that if I didn’t keep my promise to myself then one decision would bleed into another, then another and another, and ultimately begin to erode the very fabric of the credibility I have built with myself.
A long time ago, I made a promise to myself about my workout routine and it is one of the non-negotiables in my life. Rain or shine, do or die, I’m getting my workouts in.
If I made just that one decision to sleep in that day, guess what would happen the next time I didn’t sleep well, or felt well, or had a sick kid? The window for the excuses would have been opened. And just like that, there goes my credibility with each promise I break to myself.
You can’t lie to yourself, you know exactly what you’re made of by your track record with making promises and keeping promises to yourself. Your self-perception lies in the little wins or losses you create each day. Make no mistake about it, this is the battlefield of life and you are always in a fight with who you want and should be (your true potential) and the little bitch that lives inside us all.
All of us have that little bitch inside us that would much rather not put in all the work, not get up early, not finish tough tasks, not put themselves in uncomfortable situations, or even worse, not wanting to start something because its going to be tough and challenging.
Needless to say, I dragged my ass to my treadmill kicking and screaming inside my head and began my run. And believe it or not I felt pretty damn good as time went on as I knew I had just stacked another win in my corner first thing in the morning, and that set the tone for the rest of my day…And, even spilled over to the nasty ass kicking I was given later with them team, crushing the second workout of the day.
Each time this happens I’m training my brain to automatically default to this shut up, quite whining and put mentality.
Life is about stacking those wins daily, building that inner credibility, and killing that little bitch that holds us all back.
When you’re constantly stacking those wins, your perception and perspective on who you are and what you can accomplish starts to change and you start to unlock potential you didn’t even know you had.
In short:
- Make a list of non- negotiables in your life.
- Learn to make the difficult decisions always and often while having a relentless conviction to your own commitments to yourself.
- Learn to stack your wins.
- Sometimes we just need to shut up and get out of our own way.
- Building credibility with yourself is earned over time by stacking little wins each day.
The best time to start something was 10 years ago, the second best time is now!
What are you waiting for?
Ps. I would love of hear what your non negotiables are?
Pss. If you think you need a little help building some momentum with your accountability to yourself, FitStudios coaches are the ultimate in holding their clients accountable to their goals…( Especially if you need a kick in the ass)
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