Sunday Story…Excuses, excuses

Lead, follow or get out of the way.
There are 3 kinds of people…those who watch what happened, those that make things happen and those who wonder what happened.
Excuses or results you can’t have both.

Platitudes abound around this subject but the bottom line is simple: you must decide what person you are going to be. You must sit down and look in the mirror and honestly assess which you are…a leader or a follower…a results person or an excuse maker.

The fact is pretty simple…if you aren’t where you want to be you have probably been manufacturing excuses. Maybe you have a quiver full of excuses for every occasion…went off your food plan? Business dinner…Kids birthday…Team on TV or team losing or team winning. Lots of excuses, every one of them good.

Excuses get in the way of your results. Excuses are you watching what happened. Results are you making things happen. Results happen when consistency, motivation, and a solid plan come together. Results happen when you ditch your excuses. There is not room for both. Ditch the excuses, make room for results!

Find a quiet place and do some soul searching. Maybe you are an action figure in most of your life but in one or two places you are just window dressing. A figure sitting in the window watching thing happen making excuses why you can’t quite grab the brass ring in that part of your life…maybe relationships or finance or food. Be brutally honest and start getting the results you want…if you really want them.

Results matter.

Namaste

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
Follow me on FaceBook

Sunday Story…The Missing Link

You’ve done it all…set your goals…made them S.M.A.R.T…got started and got consistent. You are showing up when you say you are going to show up. But something is missing. Maybe your weight isn’t dropping or your body composition isn’t going the right direction. Maybe your strength performance isn’t improving. Something is just missing.

What are you going to do now? You seem to have done it all right. You are poised for success. And you have stalled out. You can feel your motivation draining away. The fix is simple; really…it’s in your accountability.

You need to find a friend or two to help. People who won’t let you slide. People who won’t tolerate your excuses for poor performance or poor eating. People who love and care about you and want to see you succeed. People who are willing to call you out when you falter or waver on your path. Your accountability partner is critical to your success especially when the going gets tough. That’s when you want to quit, when you want to ease off and give yourself an excuse to relax and let go a little bit. The problem is that little bit turns into a big bit. And then it is even harder to get back on rails.

You are going to have to ask for help. You are going to have to admit you can’t go it alone. You are not invincible alone but with help? You may be unconquerable. Your partner is there to check in with you, to remind you of your goals, to help keep your eyes on the prize. This function is part cheerleader, part coach, part torturer, and part hand holder.

Someone needs to hold your feet to the fire of the goals you set and the goals you want. Someone needs to celebrate your success. Someone needs to be disappointed when you bail on a workout or a food choice. Someone needs to push you and sometimes pull up.

Accountability may be your missing link. Call me and ask for more help. I am here for you.
Now get off the couch and get moving!

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
Follow me on Facebook

Sunday Story…Don’t bite off

More than you can chew. This aphorism is especially apt when it comes to making changes in your personal life. I know there is a school of thought out there that says you should make all the changes all at once. Clean out the pantry, chuck all the bad out and buy new, make a 180 degree turn and do it all at once.

Often this is a recipe for disaster. You get overwhelmed. The task is monumental. And you start to back slide and miss your targets. Then you feel bad, like a failure (again). And getting back on the horse is just too daunting. So you quit. Does this sound familiar?

Here’s the answer to this dilemma. Do one thing. One small thing. An easy thing. Do it for 21 days. Then pick another thing. Do that thing for 21 days. Replace habits with different, healthier habits. It takes 21 days to create a new habit (so say the experts!).

So if you are still drinking soda…rather than quitting cold turkey…replace 1 soda with a bottle of water for 21 days. Then repeat another 21 days replacing the soda until you are no longer drinking soda. Voila! No more soda.

Rather than cutting all flour out of your diet try cutting just bread for 21 days. Don’t stop drinking alcohol forever just do it for 21 days. Or replace an everyday habit with an every other day habit. And then make it a once a week habit. Small changes create big results over time.

You can do this with almost anything. Learn a new language by spending just 5 minutes a day and increasing that time every 21 days. Write that novel that has been brewing your whole life the same way. Just 5 minutes a day until that becomes a habit. If you think about moving the steering wheel on your car just 1 degree, it won’t be long before you are traveling in a whole new direction!
This plan is exactly the same way. Make a small subtle shift. One that you can stick with and feel successful with. You have to crawl before you can walk, walk before you run, and run before you are ready to really soar.
You can do this. You eat an elephant one bite at a time. The task is too daunting otherwise. Grab your fork and dig in!

Bon Appétit!

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
Follow me on Facebook!

Sunday Story…There is

No magic pill. I have said this time and time again. But I was lying. There is a magic pill.

We all want a magic pill. We want that one thing that will make our life look the way we want it to look. A pill to lose weight, to get fit, to subdue our demons. And our modern life is rife with things designed to do just that. We have seen pills to lose weight, curb appetite, or make it so eating fat passes through your system. We have steroids to get bigger muscles, hormone therapies to help your fitness and plastic surgery to get the appearance we want. They invented Prozac and Xanax and others so we can feel better or feel less or feel more of something. There are lots of magic pills out there. They all work to some degree. They all get some result that may or may not be the one you are looking for.

I will be honest with you…if there was a pill that would have me lay down 100 double unders, run a 1:00 400, and get a bodyweight snatch I would be all over it. That pill doesn’t exist in the form we all think of when we think of a magic pill. We want that thing we can take without effort or real motivation and get the results we want. We want simple and easy.

Here is your magic pill: Consistency.

Want to lose weight? You must consistently feed your body good healthy natural food in quantities that will provide fuel for activity but not store fat EVERY DAY. Want to be more fit? Don’t miss any workouts. Want to get stronger, faster, and more flexible? Select a program designed to do that and then don’t miss any workouts. Want to get another college degree? Go to class. Want to earn a black belt? Go to class. A lot.

Daily application of focused consistent effort is the magic pill. It isn’t a once in a while thing, or a when you get around to it thing it is THE THING. THE THING you do every day, rain or shine, sick or well, whether you want to or not. Consistency coupled with hard work, focused effort, and a goal oriented plan will get you where you want to go.

So, the magic pill is now yours to take. So get consistent. Bring a friend and help them with a magic pill as well. You will be glad you did.

And by the way…if you haven’t read this blog by my partner, Ellie McKenzie:
https://thejourneytoextraordinary.wordpress.com/2015/01/11/kindness/

I strongly suggest you do. You have someone in your life that needs you to be a stand for them. Be a stand, be the person that won’t say no and insists on your friend getting up and out.

Be the change!

Namaste

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
Follow me on FaceBook

Sunday Story…Game Day

Today is game day. Well it is watch the game day. We get together socialize, eat, and drink. It’s an excuse we give ourselves to let our hair down and relax the rules we live by.

That is all well and good. We need days like this to let our hair down and blow some steam off. But we can’t let ourselves get sidetracked from the long term picture.

Our modern lives have too many “treats”, too many excuses, too many places to lose focus and get off the path. We see this with diet issues in general. It used to be that we had sweets once in a while and then only a little bit. It wasn’t at every meal and it wasn’t in copious amounts.

The same thing applies here. Take a day, a few hours and relax the rules. Enjoy and indulge in a few things that are worth the extra whatever for you. Make it worthwhile though…Fritos? I think not. Frozen chicken wings? Really? A great gorgonzola on a rosemary crostini? Maybe but just 1 or 2. You don’t need to go crazy but you can treat yourself to enough to satisfy that little itch.

Willpower is a muscle. It needs a little rest and recovery too. It is hard to be 100% on track 100% of the time. Give yourself permission to let go a bit. Tomorrow you can get up and get back on the horse.

Enjoy the game. See you in the box tomorrow!

Go ___________ (fill in the blank)!

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday–stories.blogspot.com
Follow me on FaceBook!