I’m going to let you in on a little secret that will have you achieve any goal you want: fat loss, muscle gain, ultimate fitness…wealth, health, prosperity. Anything you want! Curious? I thought so. Well here it is – Whatever goal you want to achieve in life you must prepare to be appropriately unreasonable.
“What the?” I hear you mutter. What’s that supposed to mean?
Let me explain and to keep things relative I’ll keep my examples in the realm of exercise and nutrition. Everywhere I go I meet people who are unsatisfied with either body shape, fitness, state of health or all of the above. Often times these people are completely sedentary. A typical day consists of waking up getting in the car and driving to work then hacking away at a computer all day. Then it’s back in the car heading for home where the sit down in front of the t.v for a few hours before going to bed. In other words all the do is sit on their butts or sleep. They do this day in and day out year after year. You may know someone who lives like this and if you do there’s a pretty good chance that either their body shape, fitness or state of health is not where they want it.
What should this person do about it?
They need to do something UNREASONABLE!
For them doing something unreasonable could be going for a brisk walk for 40 minutes, 3 times per week which would be excellent for their health and very unreasonable.
Now what if I told you they wanted to lose 10 kilos?
Will walking 3 times per week for 40 minutes have them achieve their goal? And in light of their goal are they being unreasonable?
HELL NO! Not even close.
You all know that walking 3 times a week will improve their heart health and their fitness a little bit. But the impact on their fat loss efforts is laughable. You know that it takes frequent exercise, good nutrition and hard, hard work.
So guys, here’s what I want you to do. Take a look at yourself and ask yourself these 3 questions.
- Are you happy with the way you look and feel?
If you are that’s great, keep doing what you’re doing because that works for you! If not, then read question 2: - Are you moving closer to your goals every week?
If you are that’s great, keep doing what you’re doing because that works for you! If not, then read question 3: - If you’re not satisfied with the way you look and you’re not moving closer to your goals, are you being unreasonable relative to your goals?
If you had to ask yourself the third question then the answer is without a doubt NO! You’re TOO DAMN REASONABLE!
You may work hard and train heaps. And you’re nutrition may be really good compared to the other guy, but who cares?
- You’re not satisfied with where you are and
- You’re not getting any closer to YOUR goals and
- You’re not being unreasonable ENOUGH!
Now don’t freak out, anyone can make really great progress if they are open and willing to become mentally tough. Here are some examples to illustrate my point.
When you’re weight lifting are you the sort of person who lifts the same weight you always do and go through the motions? Or do you nervously and tentatively eye ball the really heavy weights relative to you, the type of weights that have you shaking your head and questioning your sanity, but you lift them anyway and have an epic performance?
Are you the type of person whose alarm goes off at 6am, you open your eyes and it’s cold and wet outside so you shut it off and tell yourself that “I’ll go for a run later” and later never comes? Or do you get up anyway, brave the weather and push it hard?
Are you the type of person who feels embarrassed about ordering a fat loss friendly meal in a restaurant because it’s not on the menu or do you tell the waiter exactly what you want because you’re committed to achieving your goals?
If you can relate to the first examples in any of the above scenarios then there’s a pretty good chance that you do not have the body you want and you live life reasonably.
For a crash course in becoming unreasonable come and train with Kirk or I and tell us how much weight you want to lose and set a deadline. We get the job done all the time and we do it with your typical everyday kiwi’s – mums, dads, business people, young and old. And they all share one thing in common- a willingness to develop mental toughness and a commitment to being unreasonable.
