“I’m going to get ripped! I’m going to get jacked! I’m going to be huge….
The most important question I have is WHERE DO I BEGIN!?” –beginner
“Have you tried intermittent fasting? What about dropping your carbs? How about doing a low-fat diet?” -random gym bro
“No, no! Don’t listen to those suggestions!! Just drop your calories to get ripped or raise them to gain muscles!” –a different person who works out that has different advice..
HOLD UP!!
There’s a HUGE problem with the conversation I just made above.
FIRST OF ALL, when you begin working out you are going to have a lot of questions. However, you need to slow down for just a moment. You need to slow down so you can congratulate yourself. You may have a high body fat percentage or you may be extremely skinny, but you’ve made the conscious decision to better yourself.
..and that’s very admirable.
Now, I hope you’re feeling good about yourself. You should. Exercising and working out should be fun; after all, it’s about self-improvement and that’s something that should be congratulated.
And now it’s time to dissect this hypothetical conversation I made up at the begging of this post:
If you’re asking any of the questions I posted above, then you definitely have goals. You have goals and you set the bar high for yourself, and that’s awesome. If you’re like me and you asked all of these questions at once, then I’d say great but make sure you also have one other very important thing….direction.
It’s great to have an idea of what your “dream body destination” is, and it’s great to have these goals for yourself but without direction…well, without direction you’re not going to reach your destination. So, you’re starting to think about these two words that I’m bringing up a lot in this post: Goals(you could say drive?) and direction.
Your goals are what drive you. Your goal of getting a ripped six pack or 18 inch biceps is what is driving you to do something about it.
Your direction(s) are the planned steps you’ll take to reach your destination of the above mentioned six pack or 18 inch arms.
Now you see what was wrong with the conversation at the beginning of this post? The beginner had a lot of great goals for his or herself but had no idea what to do about it. They had no idea what steps to take to get there, and would take advice from just about anyone. That’s not something to be ashamed of, because I’m sure we’ve all been there.
But if I could go back four months to when I started, I’d do this: I’d write out my goals, my dreams, and what I want from the hard work I am willing to put in. I’d think long and hard about what my objective is in going to the gym. I’d spend a long time thinking about these objectives and then I’d think “Well, how am I going to do it?”
Once I have my goals in mind, I’d pick just one. I’d pick just one goal to start with and put everything I had into succeeding at that one objective. I could do some small work with other activities, but there would be one goal that I would give my everything!
Let’s step back for a second and see what was said:
“I’m going to get ripped! I’m going to get jacked! I’m going to be huge….
The most important question I have is WHERE DO I BEGIN!?” –beginner
Now, we know that the beginner has three different goals that are actually conflicting goals. It will take time to achieve all three. The people that this beginner was asking probably didn’t know this person very well, and they told him or her what worked for them personally. That’s not bad, and there was good intention from them in doing so, but what the beginner needs is not actual advice in nutrition or exercise to start things out.
This beginner needs some help building character.
The diet is extremely important! The exercise and lifting is important, but what this person needs the most starting out is character. This person needs to not only have the passion and drive to achieve these goals, but he/she also needs a plan.
So as I said earlier, I’d pick one. I’d pick one of those objectives and focus on one wholeheartedly. Let’s say this person takes that into consideration and decides to go for that ripped, 8% body fat look.
..and so it begins! This person has not only found the passion and the drive to achieve this goal, but also has a plan and will follow it step-by-step until they succeed. This person will probably study work-outs and nutrition intensely. They’ll learn a lot of things they didn’t know in the beginning. They will find what works for them and then one day…
One day, this person will look in the mirror. This person will look in the mirror and see cuts and striations that they didn’t have months before. They will see that six pack abs that they were aiming for in the beginning. They won! That wasn’t dramatic enough…
They….WON! THEY WON!
And it’s not like they just won in one area of their life! Sure, it was one victory…but what about all the small victories it took to achieve that dream? What about all the days they succeeded in building good study habits for learning about how to do it? What about all the days they wanted to eat something that was bad for them but didn’t? What about all the days they didn’t want to weight train but went to the gym anyways?
All of these small victories made this person more familiar with victory. They learned discipline, study habits, and victory.
Congratulations to this person who started with nothing but a dream. This person became a warrior who charged towards anything they wanted with the heart of a lion and took what they deserved! They took what they wanted because they could earn it through hard work.
Also, the character values they gained from succeeding they can now take over to their next endeavor. When this lean person decides they want to gain a substantial amount of muscle it will be a lot easier than the journey to becoming lean.
Why? Because they now have study habits and discipline. If they have the same passion and drive that they had to get lean, they will take that over to their next goal and succeed.
Through having that same goal-minded mentality and a clear path they will succeed, and so will I.
and so can you!
