Harnessing Fitness Goals

Observe a dream...have a goal....commitment to the building of that plan.

Evenly distribute your energy across the entire landscape of your goal....and attack each piece, one at at a time.
I see many people struggling, or doing nothing, in the gym. I hear the cries of the uninspired, the lackluster, the motivationally challenged. I understand that getting to live with and love your fitness goals could not be the easiest thing to balance with career and family, school, study and sleep. But somehow, if this goal could literally improve the very quality of your life and keep you out of the doctor's office, couldn't it possibly be worth it to find a way to invest in your health to this degree?

Yes. Yes!!! Yes!!! Yes! Yes...now...how do we get to this?

I was blessed with an early introduction to health and fitness from an early age. I realize that I owe whatever fitness discipline I have to my parents. I'll even give credit to my siblings. My father was a black belt in Karate and lifted weights in the backyard. As we watched "Wide World of Sports" (the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat) and the Olympics, he seemed to have unrequited dreams I wasn't aware of. My mother danced and did yoga. She taught me to eat right, based on nutritional ideas of that era. My brother trained and wrestled in the 1984 Olympic trials. My brother and sisters were all belted in Karate and Judo, competed and trained. My sister who belted in Judo, also had an affinity for salsa dancing. She and I even taught a class together at a certain point! It seems as if we had a pretty athletically inclined family.Yes, my family has much to do with the continuing acquisition of my fitness quest.

Thing is, the rest of my life up to this point has been up to me. Of course, teaching dance, yoga, cycling, kickboxing, weightlifting and personal training had kept me going, and I threw in marathon training to the mix. But did I do too much? Or not enough, in the long run...

This is where technically, you could have stopped reading at that second line: Evenly distribute your energy across the entire landscape of your goal....and attack each piece, one at at a time. If it's not something you can sustain for an extended period of days per week and months, it may not be an overall attainable goal...not that goals aren't challenging, but that they should, to reiterate, be attainable.

So maybe this is a common, standard belief. Maybe even that common standard is also to keep your fitness balanced over a variety of disciplines and an overage of fruit and vegetables. Maybe we've all heard ad nauseum, to get a fitness buddy. But has that gotten you into your goal and attacking each piece? What rock bottom moment do you need to rock you and shake you into action?

One thing that motivates me is to dare myself to live my life without my fitness. I have imagined what others have gone through, be it pulled muscles, torn ligaments, illness, disease or an affliction, a physical handicap. I walk into a club and see a man in a wheelchair, clearly unable to ever stand, enjoying the music. It reminded me of wearing braces on my feet until I was 3 and being told I would never walk. It was the memory of being so sick through most of my elementary school life that I missed many days of school. It was the suffering of flat feet, scoliosis and hypoglycemia. At that moment I realize that life is meant to be lived and each moment is clearly representative of that. And for that, I am so grateful.

Does that mean the harnessing of that goal can take less time to accomplish? Honestly, I don't even think you would want the acquiring of that goal to be manifested so quickly. If you could truly snap your fingers and manifest weight loss for example, would you appreciate it and hold the energy of that appreciation across future outcomes? There are many lessons that would never be cemented without the struggle and the reach-up. Many world-class athletes have experienced depression after having shown their superiority, but not without years of blood, sweat, tears and probably a few primal screams of frustration. Either way, many will say they worked their whole life for that one goal. That's a lot of training sessions.

Ultimately I can hand you a plan, a goal and pick you up and go with you to the gym, but you have to find that reason, that overpowers all your other senses. It's the one that gets you to stop waiting to enjoy the health everyone deserves.