It's A Mindset

Seth Godin recently had a post with this as the title. He referenced an emergency room surgeon – it’s not just their job, it’s their mentality. You don’t need to waste time explaining to them they should improve their bedside manner, because it’s irrelevant to them – they are essentially a last resort. As usual, I was thinking about how it relates to fitness and life in general. So often we hear people say “I want to be thin,” or “healthy,” or whatever adjective they choose to use to describe their ideal. However, what they don’t realize is that, to make that last, it must be a mindset. Many people look at it in terms of 4 or 6 weeks here or there, or a part-time thing. The problem is, it has to be an all the time thing, particularly if you want it to define you.

As an aside - “Healthy” is a catch-all term that is going to mean entirely different things to different people. The problem is, “healthy” is not merely a disease-free state. It has much more to do with the interplay between the organs and various systems of the body. However, food companies know that people really have no clue what the term means, and will therefore promote anything and everything as “healthy” – yep, even that sugar-laden ice cream you’re so fond of. Because it’s fat free! But I digress.

We’ve become conditioned to think that buying that one magic pill or device, or doing that 6 week program will deliver us the body and life we want. The advertising tells us that by buying that magic supplement, we will get the body of our dreams, which will get us the job of our dreams, which will get us the life of our dreams. However, as all who get suckered in can attest, it doesn’t work that way. Health and fitness (and any aspect of your life, really) are multi-factorial. That is, there are many aspects that impact them. It’s not as simple as just going to the gym 3 days per week. Or every day for that matter. If your diet still sucks, you won’t lose weight. If you don’t teach yourself what decent food choices are, you’ll still eat like shit. If you don’t sleep enough or reduce stress, you’ll be compelled to eat tons of sugary shit. If you don’t plan and possibly prepare some of your meals ahead of time, you’ll be left with few choices (and almost no good ones) once it comes time to eat. And these are just a few of the obstacles. But by changing your mindset from “I need to start working out” to realizing that it isn’t as simple as changing one habit will do wonders. You must realize that it will be a constant grind to change your life and mindset to what it needs to be. No one is perfect. Everyone has things they want to change. But once you embrace that, and face that grind on a daily basis, it is very freeing. You can attack your weaknesses and get better. You realize that you have the power, if you’re willing to do the work. I know of no better feeling (OK, a few, but not many).