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I’ve been fortunate enough to oversee my fair share of people absolutely transform their health, fitness and body. And it’s become clear that there are number of pieces to the transformation puzzle.
In today’s post I want to share one of the key pieces that’s often missing. A piece that when neglected leaves you feeling frustrated by a lack of progress. Or caught in a constant battle of yo-yoing up and down.
Couple of weeks ago I was out solo on the standard Sunday hike. It was wet, cloudy and I had a feeling as I got higher up visibility would be poor. I started following my directions, regularly checking the map and following the planned route.
As the day went on I got more confident, stopped checking my map and just followed my instincts. After about an hour of my freestyle route-finding the path started to narrow, and eventually fizzled out to nothing.
Now, on a clear day this isn’t a problem. But when visibility is down to being able to see only 10 ft in front it’s an issue. I had no sense of direction and nothing around me to get my bearings and navigate back in the right direction.
Turns out I should have referenced the map a while back, where I’d taken a wrong turn. I should have checked in to make sure I was still headed in the right direction. Instead I was confronted with a vertical drop off a cliff face with no clear sign of a way back to the path. I’d officially gone off piste. And on this occasion it wasn’t on purpose.
As usual I managed to find my way out of it. It took an extra hour to get back on track. And then I still had the whole route I’d planned to complete. All in, the journey took twice as long as it needed to.
Losing direction when you’re out walking on a Sunday afternoon is one thing. A little inconvenient perhaps. Spending weeks or months ‘off piste’ when you’re working towards your health and fitness goals is enough to stop you seeing progress, forget why you started and ultimately lose hope and give up.
So when trying to get fitter, leaner and healthier we recommended referring back to the map on a regular basis.
You’ve got the destination your headed for (see better goal setting if you haven’t identified what you want to achieve). And you’ve started out on the journey. Now I’d recommend avoiding the mistake I made… Check in regularly and make sure you’re on course.
If you feel like you’re not on course with your body change goals the last thing you want to do is have it rubbed in your face. If you haven’t done your homework then you probably aren’t keen to meet with teacher, right?
But I want to suggest an alternative way of seeing this. If you’ve gone a little (or a lot) off course the sooner we reference the map, review where we’re headed, see where we’re at, the sooner we can steer back on course towards our destination.
You don’t need to be perfect. You don’t have to be on-course 100% of the time to achieve the body you want.
Someone once explained how an aeroplane flight path works. When you’re travelling towards your holiday destination the plane is rarely headed directly to it’s destination.
Instead the pilot and flight team are continually checking in seeing where the plane is headed relative to its destination. Avoiding hazards and making small adjustments to keep nudging the flight back in the right direction.
When you’re working towards a specific goal checking in with your progress each month is one of the best things you can do to stay on track. (That’s why we’re so keen on doing DF monthly progress reviews with everyone in our programme).
It’s not a time to beat yourself up about what you haven’t achieved yet. It’s a chance to reflect, see where you’re at. To see what’s going well and where you’re struggling.
Taking time each month to revisit why you’re doing this will re-ignitie your motivation and refocus your efforts.
If things aren’t happening as quickly as you’d like (or have gotten a little off track) you can identify where things slipped, and how to steer them back.
And perhaps one fo the most valuable things of all; establish what you can do to prevent the same setback happening again.
There’s always deviations from the ‘direct route’. And that’s totally normal and part of the process. The people who go on to transform their body are those that check in with their map regularly. Spot when they’re slightly off course and make corrections to get back on the right path.
So you know the destination you want to get to and what specific actions you’re going to take (like working out 3 times per week). Next, we need to ‘check the map’ on a monthly basis to see how things are going.
So if you’re up for the challenge open your calendar put in a 30 minute appointment one month from today. Commit to checking in with your goals, seeing where you’re at and evaluating if anything needs adjusting.
If you’re making progress, great! Give yourself a pat on the back and keep doing what you’re doing.
If you’re not making progress, what will you commit to doing to accelerate your results in time for your next check in?
For some reason when it’s only you it’s easy to let this slide. In the same way booking weekly training sessions at DF keeps you coming week after week, booking a monthly progress review will keep you committed to working on the big picture goals you’re looking to achieve.
There’s nothing like the accountability of knowing you’re meeting up with someone to discuss your progress. And it’s one of the fundamentals for anyone looking to transform their body.
Ready to start your body transformation? Apply for a complimentary fitness consultation and take the first step to achieving the fit, lean and toned body you can feel proud of.
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