It’s time to quit that fatal habit…or else!
We do a lot of dangerous and unhealthy things on a daily basis.
- We drive our cars too fast.
- We cross busy streets.
- Our diets aren’t always right.
- We use 10 different things that are known to cause cancer…before 9 am…
But these things aren’t the most fatal habits we slip into.
The most potentially fatal habit is…complacency.
Complacency…
Basically here is how life goes for a lot of us:
- Start a workout program, feeling good (100% Effort)
- Get busy with work and life, working out slacks a little
- You realize you are slacking, get back into it (90% effort)
- Get busy with work and life, working out slacks a little
- You realize you are slacking, get back into it (80% effort)
- Get busy with work and life, working out slacks a little
- You realize you are slacking, get back into it (70% effort)
- Get busy with work and life, working out slacks a little
- You realize you are slacking, get back into it (60% effort)
Then you are left at about a 60% effort, meaning you still workout occasionally, but not as hard or as much as you would like, or as much as you were doing once. Or worse, you continue this pattern of gradual decline and acceptance and end up at a 0% effort which means fitness is just about nonexistent in your life…I hope this hasn’t happened to you!
Where does this acceptance come from??
Seriously, why is it that we will add 100 different things to our lives at the cost of cutting fitness out of our lives? When did fitness become optional?
I’m busy. You’re busy. We’re all busy. But that can’t be your excuse anymore.
Why fatal? What happens?
This gradual decline and eventual acceptance is the most fatal habit we slip into. We, over the course of time, let our fitness go. We gain weight, lose muscle and strength…We get angry, but don’t really do anything about it. Then we set the new normal. We gain a little more weight and get even weaker…we get angry, but don’t really do anything about it….
- We get slower
- Our hearts get weaker
- Our lungs must work harder
- Our circulation gets worse
- Our blood pressure soars
- We start to take pills with terrible side-effects
- Our digestive systems decline
- Our risk for many life-threatening diseases increases exponentially.
BUT, you don’t see these thing right away, so you probably don’t care…right now.
Let this go any further and you may find yourself scared and intimidated. Scared to see how your body would react if you tried high-intensity exercise. Frightened of a 100m sprint, because you’re not sure if you can run 100m.
Break free! Quit the fatal habit!
Complacency is killing us…
Never Settle
- If you think something is not good enough for you, it’s not!! So don’t accept it!
Comfort in Discomfort
- If your life is a little to cushy, time to make some changes. Keeping fitness in you life, at the level you want, is not easy…you will be uncomfortable, you will be challenged, it will not be easy.
Fight For Yourself
- If you leave things up to other people, things will never get done. Remember why you want fitness in your life. Having a six pack, or losing 10 pounds are short-term goals that keep no one motivated. You are fit for your family, your kids, your wife, or just for life. Fight for it!
And something I say all the time…
Don’t be like everyone else
- I was once told “If you are doing things unlike everyone else, you are probably doing pretty well”. I live by that. If you start to wake up early to workout, or bring in multiple healthy meals and snacks to work or even try working out more than once in a day, you will make others around you feel uncomfortable. When others get uncomfortable, they will most likely make fun of you or try to discourage you, in a playful way, of course. You have to have it in you to say, “Screw you!”, I am doing this for me. Let them be uncomfortable, let them be normal, average and mediocre. That is no longer you! You are going to be you.
Never Be Complacent Again, in fitness or life
So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.
― Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild
My Battle with Complacency
I strive daily to never be normal, but normalcy is a tough battle.
I have made fitness a golf ball in my life (you’ll have to read here to understand that one), but pretty much I have made it a top priority in my day to day life.
Just to clarify for those who do not know…I don’t do this full-time. My day is not wake up, write for End of Three Fitness, work out, eat, sleep, repeat…NOPE.
I have a full-time job, generally 10-hour days. I have a wife and a son who mean everything to me, and spending time with them goes beyond my fitness priority. Then I have fitness. Then somewhere in there I have End of Three Fitness, programming for athletes, reading and research, and all of the other normal life obligations, events, etc.
I am not telling you this to play the “busy game” where we compare schedules to see who is busier. Believe me, I know some of you are WAY busier than me.
Im telling you this because even though I am extremely passionate about fitness, fitting it in is not always easy. But since I decided it is a top priority, I’ll do whatever I have to, to keep it in my life. What do I mean…
- TV, rarely happens
- I have one hobby (fitness)
- I wake up extremely early (weekends too)
- And also, unfortunately, go to bed pretty late sometimes…
- I know little about pop culture (sad, but true)
- The list goes on…
So even while living a pretty “normal” life, I try not to be normal.
I challenge you to change one thing in your life today that will make you less complacent, and a little less normal.
-Jerred
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