Steve hasn’t cheated once. He doesn’t call it a diet. He calls it his eating plan. Since he started on January 1, 2018 Steve has lost almost 200 pounds. There have been no cheat days, cheat meals, or even cheat bites. I’m inspired by Steve’s discipline.
A few years ago my wife, Ava, suffered a knee injury that required she not put any weight on that leg for six weeks. Ava is a runner and there was the possibility she might not be able to run again if her knee didn’t heal properly. So, for six weeks her left foot NEVER touched the ground.
Five months after I got my first Fitbit I decided to challenge myself with a daily step goal for 31 days. I was loving how the Fitbit was transforming my fitness journey and I thought it would be fun to push myself with a higher goal every day for an entire months. On Day 17 I failed. I simply didn’t feel like doing it…so I didn’t.
Steve and Ava have a common denominator that I was missing.
Fear.
For Steve, the fear of gaining back his weight is always lurking in the shadows. He’s highly motivated to keep moving forward and not take a break from his eating plan. Ava was afraid she might never be able to run again and that motivated her to find ways to not put any weight on her recovering knee.
My goal was different. Nothing bad was going to happen if I didn’t reach my step goal. And, when I failed nothing bad did happen.
I think this is a big reason 92% of all goals fail. A lot of goals…even good goals…are along the lines of, “Wouldn’t it be nice?”
Wouldn’t it be nice to write a book? Wouldn’t it be nice to travel across the country? Wouldn’t it be nice to start a business?
If they fail, so what?
But, there was a consequence to my failed goal. It became one more failure added to a growing list. My health didn’t suddenly decline when I failed to reach my step goal on May 17, 2013, but the case for “I don’t have what it takes to reach a goal” got a little stronger.
Sure, reaching a daily step goal isn’t a big deal. But, what happens when the goal IS a big deal and there are REAL consequences to failure? I needed to know I could set a goal and see it through to the finish line. I used my Fitbit to start changing my internal narrative.
I was determined to not fail again. Eventually my successes overrode my failures.
Most were four to six week goals. Some were personal challenges. Some were group challenges using StepBet. When I decided to do my public 20k One Year Step Challenge my inner voice had completely flipped.
Instead of “Wouldn’t it be nice to reach this goal” my attitude was “I’m going to nail this.” In fact, I never had a moment of doubt the entire year. Even on those days when I didn’t feel like it or the schedule was conspiring against me, I knew I would reach 20,000 steps that day.
If you started The 30 Day New Fitness Challenge on January 1, you are three days from reaching a goal and changing your internal narrative, Congratulations!
If, however, you missed a day or didn’t even take the Challenge, it’s never too late. This 30 Day Challenge is not limited to January. Download the 30 Day New Year Fitness Challenge Guide and get started!
It could change your life in more ways than one.
If this is the first you’re hearing about the Challenge, it’s really quite simple. You set a modest daily step goal and make a commitment to reach that goal every day for 30 days. Every day you hit your goal is a win to be celebrated!
Download this free 30 Day New Year Fitness Challenge Guide to get started. It will help you set the right goal for you. The guide also includes a contract that you can make with yourself. That may sound cheesy, but it’s the commitments we make to ourselves that sometimes are the easiest to break.
Every day you reach your goal is a WIN and this free guide includes a 30 Day Win Tracker to help you celebrate your fitness victories!