Small Daily Improvements Lead to Staggering Long Term Results
This article channels a few of my favourite metaphors about the patience, commitment and mindset required to create long term and lasting results in your training and your life.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will you build your ideal body in a day, a week or even a month.
Success comes as the result of performing a handful of small daily disciplines that pile up over time. Small, positive accomplishments stacked repeatedly and consistently on top of each other, create mountains of accomplishments and truly great things are achieved.
The negative side to this equation is that failure is as equally easy to accomplish. A few small acts of neglect each day, performed consistently over time, add together to create a circumstance that becomes a mountain that is seemingly insurmountable. But……….
No one ever got fit or fat overnight. Where you are right now is the sum of YOUR own small daily habits, some good and some bad, which have built up over time. Your daily habits are the foundations of your life. The good news for you is that the CHOICE is always YOURS which habits you CHOOSE to nurture moving forward. Start piling up these ostensibly tiny daily victories and there is no goal that is too magnificent.
When many people begin training they have totally unrealistic expectations about what they can achieve in a short period of time. The Biggest Loser has definitely contributed greatly to exaggerating the capabilities of people to achieve large and most importantly, SUSTAINABLE weight loss. The metabolic damage that is done to the participants on this show is huge and as many people know, the majority of the contestants on these shows end up back to where they started, and sometimes even worse. Creating long term and lasting change is about addressing the small decisions you make each day and allowing these to compound over time. There are no shortcuts on the extra mile!!
Patience and persistence will be your 2 greatest allies on the voyage to achieving your goals. My last article here on challenging yourself spoke of the importance of gradually increasing the difficulty of your workouts in order to continue inducing favourable adaptations. This one imposes that those gains are very gradual and require consistent dedication and FOCUS. I want you to think of the famous sculptor Michelangelo. He began by starting out with a huge chunk of stone in front of him. Before a single move was made, he first envisioned what he wished to create. He then progressed by slowly chipping away tiny pieces of stone. Small piece after small piece he continued, while this one-time lump of stone gradually started to take shape. Michelangelo displayed patience and dedication, and had a definite end goal. The result for Michelangelo was the creation of world renowned masterpieces. You are Michelangelo and your body and your life are your chunks of stone. Your bad habits are the tiny pieces that you must chip away in order to reveal your own masterpiece. The greatest masterpiece you can create for yourself is a life in which you are happy and fulfilled in all aspects.
You don’t need to be perfect 100% of the time, and you shouldn’t beat yourself up if you have a rough week and the diet or training goes out the window. The journey won’t always be smooth but whenever you’re knocked down, as soon as you are physically able you need to get up, brush the dirt off and never lose the optimism.
Now Michelangelo, I want you to be like a crop farmer!!
A farmer plants his seeds, waters his crops and fertilizes the soil. Then he………. is patient. After a short time the farmer doesn’t go out and start digging up the ground looking for vegetables. He knows that the process takes time and that he must continue watering his crops until the time is right. You too need to be patient and trust the process. Keep watering your ground and understand that through your small daily efforts, your harvest will come. There are no unrealistic goals, only unrealistic time frames.
Just like the farmer you will have challenges along the way. The journey is rarely smooth. For a farmer, one of the biggest challenges he faces is the weather, for you it is the weather between your ears. You need to fight those little voices telling you that you aren’t worthy, or that you can’t do it (for more information on this check out my article on belief systems here). In your fitness or weight loss journey you will undoubtedly encounter; sickness, injury, relationship dramas, or it could be work colleagues or family trying to chop you down. You need to keep watering the crops through this adversity and remember that criticism is the defense mechanism used by people who fear change. Remain stoic and always keep your goals in mind. Your harvest will be huge and the payoff worth every drop of blood, sweat and tears.
A really important part of your transformation is to enjoy the journey. Like the farmer who whistles as he works, who loves the sound of the currawongs chirping and the rain on his roof (tributing my grandad right now). You too need to enjoy the process of change. The journey never ends, so enjoying it is essential to being happy. Allow yourself little victories along the way and permit yourself to enjoy them thoroughly, before focusing on what comes next.
In your training, and in your life, rich rewards flow from honest effort and hard work. There are no easy options and no quick fixes. You must be patient and persistent and never give up on what you set out to achieve. Everyone has the power to achieve remarkable things, you just need to decide that there is no other option for you!
I will finish this article with a quote by Og Mandino. I love it (potentially because it lets me call myself a lion).
