Failure is a surprisingly attractive road to take in the journey of life. Sure, you may not be living the life you wish to lead, but at least you can avoid hard work, persistence, and dealing with set backs. But come on, you may be able to avoid hard ships, but do you really want to look back at your life and see that you’ve remained the only constant in an ever-changing world?
The problem most people face is that they have options. Options lead to confusion, self-doubt, and a reliance on will power (the one thing you should never rely on). Heck, people even praise the notion of options, and I guess in a few areas of life it’s nice to have a bit of choice, but beyond a certain point having freedom to make decisions will only hurt you.
Let’s dig into my life for example. Through school I was a fairly decent student – in the top classes, scoring 80-90% on most of my exams and assessments. But as I became increasingly interested in working for myself, my marks dipped dramatically and although we don’t use the A-F scale of marking down here in Australia, I essentially failed my senior year of school.
I still technically passed (because to fail you really have to just not show up), but my marks were low enough that I was in the minority of low scores (the average score for the state was a good 20+ percent higher than mine) and getting into university would be virtually impossible.
I’m not proud of my marks – I certainly don’t wear it as a badge – but it did have a huge advantage: I couldn’t back out. I’d killed my options. University was out of the question, and in my areas of expertise there’s not really any jobs that want a seemingly uneducated individual (even though I’d find the jobs fairly effortless). I’d forced myself into a corner: I either make this “build a business” thing work, or I don’t survive. It’s an occasionally stressful place to be but does wonders for my work ethic, persistence, and focus.
Why not apply this to your strength training, or your diet, or your sleep?
Instead of relying on will power or minute-to-minute decisions, why not just make it so you don’t have a choice, so that some higher power or particular system forces you to do what needs to be done? I get that this can be scary (it is quite a big commitment after all), but if you’re finding yourself not moving forward, then it might be the kick-in-the-butt that you need.
Here are a few simple ways to adopt this philosophy:
- Dedicate a room solely to strength training if possible and eliminate all other distractions. Set yourself a time on when you must enter this room, and only commit to that. Just go into the room, close the door, and stand there. Boredom will kick in with seconds and the only saviour will be your weights.
- Only store food in your house that is wholesome, preferably packed with calories and protein, and requires preparation, giving yourself the chance to mix and match ingredients and maximum effectiveness. Bad eating habits are mostly dependent on proximity, not genuine desire for a particular taste.
- Throw out your television and lock away your computer at night (preferably with a combination lock so it requires effort to retrieve) to allow yourself to be free from technology for a few hours before you sleep. If you’re a TV buff consider purchasing shows through iTunes (it’s seriously worth it based on the time you’ll save).
- Start shopping for food online. This way you won’t be tempted by the candy isles or any other crap that most supermarkets are peddling. Alternatively, visit farmers markets that are brimming with healthy foods and support your local farmer.
- Announce to the world your intentions. Every weekday is another proclamation that I’m working on building strength and improving my diet. That’s a huge bridge burner. Even though I don’t know you folks personally, I still feel compelled to not let you down and stick with my word.
Burning relational bridges is a misguided habit. Burning life’s bridges on the other hand, and making it impossible to back away from your dreams is both scary but hugely beneficial when trying to get from A to B. Pick 2-3 things you can do to make it impossible to go back on your commitment, and go do them.
