This is the 1st step in a mini-series of blogs on goal setting so you can get started on moving towards the things you want! If you apply these steps I promise you will not only be able to feel confident you can set powerful goals, but you will know how to go about it in a way that will help make them happen. This is focused on the fitness side of life, but the steps are applicable to ALL aspects of life.
It's official! Summer has started to poke it's head out, and the thoughts of skimping down to minimum clothing are starting to creep in. I've got to ask, are you ready? The reason I ask is I want to see how many of you are excited to bust out that bikini or rip your shirt off at the pool this year! On the other hand how many of you will be shying away from the water activities or your summer shorts and tanks? How many summers of holding back in a row will this make for you? Are you annoyed, ashamed, or frustrated enough to change it this year? If you're ready to to do it this is your first step in getting that confident, slimmer body you have been daydreaming about.
You see it on magazine covers, infomercials, and fitness ads all the time "build your best body now." I, like I'm sure many of you, just pass over that without giving it a thought. After a weekend in the sun, and basking my white body to the world it's got me thinking. The question that I'm pondering is, what is YOUR best body?
Guys do you think of your best body as a ripped up Arnold in his prime? Built like a Terminator barely containing your muscles with your puny clothing? Or do you think of it more like Ryan Reynolds in Blade: Trinity so lean he looks like an anatomy picture with skin pulled tight over it?
Ladies is yours a skinny mini, long and lanky build like Gisele Bundchen with her Victoria Secret body? Or is it a shredded out Demi Moore in G.I. Jane with her awesome shoulders and arms cut out? Rip out like that and women would worry if they should even glance at your man for fear what you might do to them.
What I'm posing today to all of you out there is for you to sit for a minute and actually think about what you feel YOUR best body could be. I mean get in front of the mirror strip down naked (even those of you that hate naked) and take 3,5,10 minutes and look over yourself. Don't be afraid to be critical, or even honest with yourself. If you're carrying more body fat right now try to visualize a scalpel cutting all that extra fat off to reveal what is hidden underneath. If you're thin image what you can do with your frame. Could you pack some muscle on and look solid? Or lean out to your smallest size since your first kid popped out? Men, what about eliminating the summer of the potbelly? Regardless of where you are at the biggest factor in this exercise is for you to think about YOUR body, and what it COULD be.
When people set goals they tend to look at other people for what they want to look like. The thing I try to suggest is look around to what you would want, then look at you and think what can I accomplish? Most of the people I deal with on a day-to-day basis have never been fit, or it has been so long since they were fit they don't remember that body. Take a second and think back to when you were at what you felt was your best to date. How did that body feel, move, look? Go ahead take a minute and reminisce. I know when I think back to my best body, I almost forget how great it felt. I look back now and think about how much I miss putting on any fitted clothes and not worrying if it looked like I was hiding a small inner tube under my shirt. I miss looking in the mirror and seeing my six pack smiling back at me (or maybe it was my smile for seeing my abs?)Regardless, it has been awhile since I could look at myself and say I like what I see. How about you? When was the last time you looked in the mirror and thought "hot damn! I look good!" Have you EVER been able to do that?
If you've never been able to say that then this is going to be a bit harder of an exercise for all of you that have NEVER really been fit. That doesn't mean there wasn't a time looking back that you didn't feel good about yourself and your body. This is why this step is about YOU and your ideas. When I sit down with a lot of people they immediately assume what I expect them to look like or what I'm going to do to their bodies. They come in with a preconceived notion of a cookie cutter fitness world that I'm going to try and cut them out of. I'm often met (by men and women alike) with "I don't want to add any muscle, or bulk up." Or "I'm not expecting to look like I did when I was young." When I hear people say these statements three things run through my head: 1) You have no clue what you're talking about. 2) How do you know what I'm going to do with you? 3) How do you know what you can achieve if you've never done it before?
First off, lifting weights is not limited to bodybuilders, models, athletes, men, or young people. It is beneficial for ALL people. Lifting weights does not equate to "bulking up". People often tell me they don't want to add any muscle they just want to "tone up". They don't realize that "toning up" and adding muscle are practically one in the same. Second of all, don't assume what is possible. Just because you've never been a size 6 doesn't mean it's an impossible goal. Here is a quote that I want you to not only read, but let it sink in and really think about how it could apply to you in the way of setting your goals.
"It's never too late to be what you might have been" George Eliot
Here is your homework for the weekend those of you that are ready to bust out the new you! Take the mirror test. Stand in front of that mirror and see the finished product! Step 2 will be posted Monday folks, and it won't be useful to you if you haven't done step 1. I tell my clients we can't plan anything if we don't know where we're starting from. So this weekend's assignment is just that, finding your starting place. Stay tuned for step 2. Now DANCE puppets DANCE!
Mr. J
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