Maintaining the Habit. Humans are creatures of habit. That is not a mystery. When it comes to developing good or positive habits often we allow the great to be the enemy of the good. My coach, Matt Reynolds, recently discussed Optimal versus Real life.
Regarding strength training, it is better to do something physical, rather than simply to do nothing at all because the conditions are not perfect. The important thing is to maintain the good habit.
Episode Transcription [INTRO]
? Trenches by Pop Evil ?
*Alex*
Welcome to Morning Mindset. A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television and Radio host, Paul G. Markel. Each episode will focus on positive and productive ways to strengthen your mindset, and help you improve your relationships, career goals, and overall well-being. Please welcome your host; Paul G. Markel.
*Professor Paul*
Alright, welcome back to Morning Mindset, I am your host Paul Markel and thank you, one more time. Can I thank you enough? I don’t think I could possibly thank you enough, but thank you for joining me today. I hope that you are ready to close your mouth, open up both of your ears, and listen just a little bit louder. Speaking of listening louder, about that intro music. In case you don’t know, that is the intro to a song by a band called Pop Evil, the bass player Matt DiRito is a friend of mine. You should check them out, if you’re a fan of Rock & Roll music, check them out. If you’re not, then don’t, I don’t know what to tell ya.
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Alright let’s talk about Maintaining the Habit, human beings are creatures of Habit. That’s not a mystery, that shouldn’t be a shock to you, you’ve probably heard that your entire life. People are creatures of Habit, and that can be a good thing and a bad thing. When it comes to good or positive Habits, we often allow the great to be the enemy of the good, and please allow me to explain. Recently my coach Matt Reynolds and I, we recently discussed Optimal vs. Real Life (x2). There are perfect situations, and then there are realistic situations. It’s better to do Something [physical] rather than Nothing because the conditions aren’t perfect.
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I’ll give you a good example from the Fitness/Strength Training world. How many of you have been at that point in your life where you’re like “Alright, I’m gonna lose weight” or get stronger, or learn a sport, what have you. It’s something you haven’t done, or it’s an area of your life you’ve neglected. So you say “Alright, I’m definitely gonna do it this year. I’m gonna lose weight, or get stronger, I’m gonna get more fit.” Okay great, so you make that commitment to yourself. But if you have not been doing that up to this point in time, you don’t have that habit developed yet, in fact you have the opposite.
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You have the habit of making excuses and sitting on the couch. That’s the habit you’ve developed and you need to break that habit. So you start going to the gym. You find a gym, or you buy stuff, how many of you have bought stuff? Right, you bought stuff and brought it home, you put it in your rec-room or your garage, and you’re in there like “I’m gonna do this.” and you do it and you’re excited about it. Then you come back a day or two later and you do it again, then you do it a 3rd or 4th time, and what happens?
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Excuses start creeping you, you start losing the habit. You’re like “Ah I was going to today, but this is going on, and the kids, or the husband/wife or whatever. But it’s okay, I promise myself I’ll do it tomorrow.” Okay then what happens? Yesterday was a hard day, “I know I was supposed to do it, but it’s not gonna kill me to miss a couple days.” How many times have you said that to yourself? “It’s not gonna kill me to miss a couple days”. One of the things that Matt & Scott were talking on their show, about Strength Training.
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Okay when you’re involved in Strength Training, especially barbell training, you need a few things, right? Like a genuine, no kidding barbell set, with accompanying free-weights. You need a rack of some sort, a squat rack, whatever it is as long as it’s some kind of rack system, so you can get under the weight to do squats. You have some minimum requirements, right? Now many people will travel, especially if you are a business person. Part of being a successful business is having to travel, you have to go on the road, and that’s fine.
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But you’ve been doing Strength Training religiously, let’s say Mon-Wed-Fri or Tues-Thurs-Sat, whatever your schedule is, you’re doing it. You’re really, genuinely doing it. Then it comes time for you to travel. Let’s say you find yourself in the Best Western resorts in Provo, UT or Burlington, IA, and there is no barbell gym there. You say “Ah, all I’ve got is this Hotel Fitness room”, and the hotel fitness rooms, what have an exercise bike, a treadmill, a generic Stairmaster (if they even gave that), and if you’re lucky they’ll have a little rack in the corner with some dumbells on it, maybe.
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Some of them may have one of those all-in-one machines, at one of the fancy hotels they maybe have one of those machines. Now from an Optimal vs. Real Life scenario, if you’re involved in serious barbell training, you walk in and say “None of the stuff I need is here. There’s no barbells or racks, there’s no point in me doing this because I can’t do it right. I can’t do what I’m supposed to do.” One of the things that Matt & Scott brought up is, “I would rather you do Something rather than Nothing. Do not allow the Great to be the enemy of the Good.” Is it great that the hotel exercise room only has a bike, a treadmill & a rack of dumbells?
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Is that a great, optimal situation? No it’s not, but it’s real life, and the most important thing Scott & Matt pointed out, when they said this I was like “Ah man, I have to share this with my audience”, so you’re welcome. They said “It’s more important for you to maintain the positive habit, than it is to be in an optimal or great or perfect situation.” No the situation isn’t great, but it’s important to do what you need to do, and when it comes to your personal development, if you’re trying to develop good habits. You’ve told yourself “I want to develop good habits” and you genuinely do.
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So rather than, let’s say the fitness thing or whatever it happens to be. You told yourself “I’m going to to Monday, Wednesday & Friday, I’m going to do it” and then Friday shows up and you’re like “Ah, I’m busy. Things and this and life and so forth. I just can’t do it, I promised myself I was gonna work out 3 times a day, an hour a day. That’s my goal.” You say to yourself, “It’s Friday, there’s no way I’m going to get a 1 hour training session in today. It’s just not gonna happen.” Okay, it would be better for you to take the time and do 15 minutes on Friday than it would for you to do nothing.
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You say “Yeah, but then I won’t be able to do this exercise and that one, and if I can’t do all that, then I’m missing out.” That would be great, that would be optimal, but it’s better to make yourself do it than it is to just do nothing. So when it comes to developing good habits, *Laughs* and working on those good habits. You’ve made the investment in yourself, you’ve made the commitment to yourself, right? Then instead of accepting the excuse because the situation is not perfect or optimal, just take the time and do it. You’re better off taking 15-20 minutes, than doing it not at all.
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Because what did we say before? Humans are creatures of habit and soon not doing the work will become a habit. Alright, that’s all I’ve got to say to you guys today. Let’s, let’s do a little gut-check. It’s March now, at least it’s March as I’m releasing this, I don’t know when you’re listening to it. But I released this in March, so we’re a full 2+ months into the new year. How many of you know friends, neighbors and so forth who, on January 1st said “Oh this year, this new year I’m gonna lose weight, get fit, get stronger. I used to be strong when I was young, I let myself get soft, I’m gonna do it.”
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Okay, how many of those people, in the middle of March, are Still doing it. How many of them worked on that habit, maintained that habit, and kept that habit? Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t. Alright, gut-check time. That’s all for me today, thank you for being with me once again. This show is brought to you by the book “Team Honey Badger; Raising Fearless Kids in a Cowardly World”. If you have kids, if you know people who have kids, Etc, pick up “Team Honey Badger; [Raising Fearless] Kids in a Cowardly World”, available on Amazon as a Paperback or a Kindle version. Alright folks I’m Paul Markel, and I’ll talk to you again real soon.
[OUTRO]
? Trenches by Pop Evil ?
*Alex*
Thank you for spending time with us today. To get show notes, submit a topic request, for more from your host Paul G. Markel, visit MorningMindsetPodcast.com. That’s MorningMindsetPodcast.com. Please leave a review of this podcast on your favorite podcast player, we appreciate your time & effort, and we look forward to reading your honest feedback.
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