How many times have you said you wanted to do something and never followed through? Probably more times than you can count, right? We don’t have a shortage of wants, needs, goals, and aspirations. The issue comes down to when the reality of the amount of work punches you in the mouth, do you man up and execute or do you bow out and tell yourself “maybe next time?” When it comes to building quality muscle or dropping body fat, you need to be able to look in the mirror and decide what the end goal means to you.
“Thoughts become things”
The great IFBB Pro Bodybuilder, Kai Greene, uses this quote frequently and has it plastered on his apparel line. And for good reason, it holds true in life. When you have thoughts and ideas and are able to work hard and turn them into attainable and achievable things, it’s empowering. There’s no greater example than the TV show Shark Tank. Entrepreneurs visit the tank in hopes of scoring a deal with one of the sharks and through their money and expertise, growing and scaling their entrepreneurial start-up. But that business started somewhere. It started with an idea and through hard work and determination it became a real thing. You need to apply this mentality with your own personal health and fitness.
Application for success
We all weren’t born with a silver spoon or amazing genetics that allow us to have a speedy metabolism while easily putting on lean muscle. If this was the norm, we’d all look the same and our obesity epidemic wouldn’t exist. But, we as a society have become lazy. Partly because of technology, and partly because people simply aren’t willing to put in the work. When you have a goal to lose weight, what do most people do? Try and eat less, right? Where most people fail is by not recording the foods they eat. When you have a goal or idea, you need to set yourself up for success and the best way to do that is to write everything down, and have a way of measuring your progress towards your end goal.
In the case of the weight loss example, an easy way to ensure you are progressing is to first figure out how many calories you need to be taking in, write down your calories (either on paper or in a smartphone app such as MyFitnessPal), record a weekly weigh-in, and check your progress. If you aren’t losing weight in spite of hitting your macro goals each day, then you need to either drop your calories a little lower or up the amount of cardio you are doing to compensate. Keep your goals near you so you can read them every day. If your end goal is to lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks, that gives you a weekly weight loss goal of one pound which is very attainable. How do you lose one pound? Easy, you need to take in less calories than your body needs. If your body needs 2,500 calories every day to maintain your current weight, in order to lose weight based off of your diet, you would need to consume 2,000 calories each day instead of 2,500. The difference of 500 daily calories when added up over the course of one week is equal to 3,500 calories (7 days x 500 calories). 3,500 calories are equal to one pound. Therefore, cutting out 500 calories would yield you a net weekly weight loss of one pound. Put the plan in place, and execute—that’s all there is to it. If you aren’t willing to put in the work, you’ll never get to where you want to be.
Most of the failures arise when willpower fails and you find it difficult to stick to the diet because you are tempted to cheat on a regular basis. You can’t seem to walk past the fridge without your mouth watering. It’s not easy, and if it were, no one would be overweight. Maybe you need to drink more water during the day to feel satiated? Again, finding ways to WIN is how you achieve success. Overcoming obstacles and breaking barriers and plateaus is the only way to get there. You’re not going to step up to the plate and hit a homerun every time you swing the bat. Maybe you strike out a few times, maybe you hit a couple singles that drive in runs, and then maybe finally you keep your eye on the ball (prize) and hit it out of the park. The timing will never be perfect. You need to go out and put forth the effort to achieve everything you want and dream in life. No one is going to do it for you and it certainly isn’t going to magically happen while you sleep one night.
Execute. Execute. Execute. Everything is about execution. Weight won’t come off on its own. Businesses will not grow and scale on their own. Everything involves taking ideas and thoughts and executing on them. Thoughts become things. Don’t allow others to influence your hopes and dreams. Most times the people who try to tear you down and make it feel like you’ll never achieve your goals are the people who never felt success or never won at life and want to tear you down with them. Don’t fall into their trap. Stay focused on the end goal so you have something daily to work towards. Life is a game of small wins that add up to something big. You don’t run up the score all at once. It takes several smaller victories to win a championship. Apply all of this to your life, and when you do, the sky is the limit in everything you do.
by Matt Weik
“Thoughts become things”
The great IFBB Pro Bodybuilder, Kai Greene, uses this quote frequently and has it plastered on his apparel line. And for good reason, it holds true in life. When you have thoughts and ideas and are able to work hard and turn them into attainable and achievable things, it’s empowering. There’s no greater example than the TV show Shark Tank. Entrepreneurs visit the tank in hopes of scoring a deal with one of the sharks and through their money and expertise, growing and scaling their entrepreneurial start-up. But that business started somewhere. It started with an idea and through hard work and determination it became a real thing. You need to apply this mentality with your own personal health and fitness.
Application for success
We all weren’t born with a silver spoon or amazing genetics that allow us to have a speedy metabolism while easily putting on lean muscle. If this was the norm, we’d all look the same and our obesity epidemic wouldn’t exist. But, we as a society have become lazy. Partly because of technology, and partly because people simply aren’t willing to put in the work. When you have a goal to lose weight, what do most people do? Try and eat less, right? Where most people fail is by not recording the foods they eat. When you have a goal or idea, you need to set yourself up for success and the best way to do that is to write everything down, and have a way of measuring your progress towards your end goal.
In the case of the weight loss example, an easy way to ensure you are progressing is to first figure out how many calories you need to be taking in, write down your calories (either on paper or in a smartphone app such as MyFitnessPal), record a weekly weigh-in, and check your progress. If you aren’t losing weight in spite of hitting your macro goals each day, then you need to either drop your calories a little lower or up the amount of cardio you are doing to compensate. Keep your goals near you so you can read them every day. If your end goal is to lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks, that gives you a weekly weight loss goal of one pound which is very attainable. How do you lose one pound? Easy, you need to take in less calories than your body needs. If your body needs 2,500 calories every day to maintain your current weight, in order to lose weight based off of your diet, you would need to consume 2,000 calories each day instead of 2,500. The difference of 500 daily calories when added up over the course of one week is equal to 3,500 calories (7 days x 500 calories). 3,500 calories are equal to one pound. Therefore, cutting out 500 calories would yield you a net weekly weight loss of one pound. Put the plan in place, and execute—that’s all there is to it. If you aren’t willing to put in the work, you’ll never get to where you want to be.
Most of the failures arise when willpower fails and you find it difficult to stick to the diet because you are tempted to cheat on a regular basis. You can’t seem to walk past the fridge without your mouth watering. It’s not easy, and if it were, no one would be overweight. Maybe you need to drink more water during the day to feel satiated? Again, finding ways to WIN is how you achieve success. Overcoming obstacles and breaking barriers and plateaus is the only way to get there. You’re not going to step up to the plate and hit a homerun every time you swing the bat. Maybe you strike out a few times, maybe you hit a couple singles that drive in runs, and then maybe finally you keep your eye on the ball (prize) and hit it out of the park. The timing will never be perfect. You need to go out and put forth the effort to achieve everything you want and dream in life. No one is going to do it for you and it certainly isn’t going to magically happen while you sleep one night.
Execute. Execute. Execute. Everything is about execution. Weight won’t come off on its own. Businesses will not grow and scale on their own. Everything involves taking ideas and thoughts and executing on them. Thoughts become things. Don’t allow others to influence your hopes and dreams. Most times the people who try to tear you down and make it feel like you’ll never achieve your goals are the people who never felt success or never won at life and want to tear you down with them. Don’t fall into their trap. Stay focused on the end goal so you have something daily to work towards. Life is a game of small wins that add up to something big. You don’t run up the score all at once. It takes several smaller victories to win a championship. Apply all of this to your life, and when you do, the sky is the limit in everything you do.
by Matt Weik
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