Happy Monday morning.
I hope your weekend went better than planned. It was my first full weekend off in a while so I feel extra refreshed on this beautiful Monday morning.
I want to start off the week with a very simple rule of longterm health that gets lost on the majority of people.
Many people have said it, but here’s the Legendary Bruce Lee’s version.
“Long term consistency trumps short term intensity.”
Bruce Lee
When it come living a healthier, fitter, and therefore, more rewarding lifestyle, there’s absolutely zero benefit in giving it everything you’ve got for a few weeks, and then going back to your old habits.
Yet this is the exact approach that so many people opt for when they decide to do something about their health and fitness.
They’ve been in a rut of inactivity and poor eating habits for a while, decide to do something about it, and then try to change everything within a few days.
The problem with this approach is that it’s relatively easy to do for a few days, but completely unsustainable over the longterm for the huge majority of normal people. They just can’t juggle all the changes that they’ve taken on once the initial novelty wears off and lifes’ demands starts to kick in- kids, works, social events, etc.
I’ve been coaching for 15+ years, and one of the things that I can say with certainty is that every time somebody who is starting from a very low base starts talking about how intense and focused they are going to get in order to achieve their goals, they always end up doing absolutely nothing meaningful at all.
They have fallen into the trap of aiming for short term intensity instead of longterm consistency.
They:
- are going to go from zero days of activity to 5 days, starting tomorrow
- are going to stop eating any type ‘bad food’- this isn’t even a requirement to be healthy
- say things like ‘I’m an all or nothing person’, ‘I want to hit it hard’, ‘You don’t know me’
- constantly want to talk about advanced training and nutrition strategies even though they are nowhere near ready for them or even need them
Unfortunately, people with this mindset never last, and end up in stuck in the rut they were trying to get out of, because they were unwilling to focus on longterm health, fitness and fat loss sustainability.
Intensity is great once you can handle it and have a solid foundation to fall back on once it’s no longer sustainable.
A fit, strong and healthy person who ramps up their training program and takes on a more demanding nutrition plan, is completely different from someone who has been inactive for years, is overweight, has poor nutrition habits, and is physically reconditioned.
One has built a foundation of sustainable health and fitness habits that they can step up a level from and handle the demands of more intense programs.
The other person unfortunately hasn’t, and is easily burnt out and demotivated to continue. And while they may announce that they are going to do everything, most unfortunately fail to anything meaningful for very long.
Fit and healthy people do things differently. They understand the importance of staying consistent above all else, and have no problem reducing the intensity of their fitness routines in order to support this.
They understand that full on intensity delivers nothing of value in the longterm if it’s the only gear you know.
Fit and healthy people don’t announce to the world what they are going to do and how hard they are going to do it (a sad trend on social media) because they know the world doesn’t care.
They do it for themselves because they know it improves the quality of their life and allows them to have better life experiences with the people that mean the most to them.
Summary
You can achieve any goal you want if you are patient and consistent in your efforts. Once you can do this, the intensity that most people associate with fitness programs just becomes another tool in your tool box.
Consistency in your efforts when paired with he right intensity will transform your quality of life and give you better results than you’ve ever seen.
Intensity on it\s own, without the foundation of a consistent exercise routine, healthy eating habits, quality sleep, etc. will give you short-lived results that don’t add to your long term quality of life.
It all comes down to which one you want.
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