Sunday Story…Act Your Age

Not really. At least not the age the world thinks of at a certain age. Let’ be honest, you and I know that when we think of someone 70 or 80 years old we don’t picture health and vitality. We picture decrepitude and dotage. We picture someone in the twilight of their days, one foot in the grave and the other foot dragging along.

This isn’t you. At least it doesn’t have to be you. But you better do something about it and you better do something about it now. This is one of those things that pays an compounding dividend over time. The rewards are not linear but progressive. Just imagine if you had been in serious pursuit of your health and fitness from age 20. You could have years of health and fitness under your belt. But when you start is not as important as starting. If you start now in 10 years you will have 10 years of chasing health and fitness. But if you wait until you are a certain age, you will have lost all of those years from now until then.

Don’t act your age. Act the age you want to be. This doesn’t mean you have to repeat all the mistakes and angst you had at 25 or 35 or whatever. This means when you get up in the morning you take all the wisdom of your years and apply them to creating the life you want. When I look around at the average almost 59 year old I do not see myself. When I look in the mirror I see an example of shining health and fitness.

Show up today. Tomorrow you can look in the mirror and see more vitality, more health, and more fitness. 10 years from now the rest of the world will see someone 10 years younger than you are instead of the opposite. When you hit 60 it really will be the new 30 for you because you spent decades optimizing your health and fitness.

Stop acting your age. It was good advice when you were 8. It isn’t so good when you are 38 or 48. Start acting like you are in the peak of health, like you are at the pinnacle of fitness. There is only way to get there. Show up. Do work. Repeat.

See you tomorrow!

Are you ready to start YOUR Journey to Extraordinary?

Click Here to craft your personal journey!
Click Here for a FREE Fitness Consultation
Click Here to try 3 FREE Classes

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

Sunday Story…What you Want

There are 3 things that are going to get you where you want to be:
1. Know what you want.
2. Know that it is possible to get what you want
3. Know you deserve what you want.

Let’s talk about that first one. The first one, knowing what you want, will stifle everything else. Do you really believe you know what you want? Do you know what you want like you know the sun is coming up tomorrow, like you know you are going to take your next breath?

Too many of us are conditioned to want certain things or to want them in a certain way. Just like every kid wants the same toy at Christmas, we, as adults, are conditioned by marketing, peer pressure, and the media to want certain things.

But being told what to want is not the same as really wanting. We are told we need to look a certain way…our bodies need to conform to certain ideal. Our faces need to be characterless caricatures of real life. My face tells a story. My body carries all the starts and stops of my life, all the chapters of the book my life is writing. It is mine.

So how do I sift through all the messages and decide what it is I really want. Not what my family thinks I should want. Not what the collective wisdom forces upon me. Not some idealized version of me and my life (Ken & Barbie, Ozzie and Harriet, etc.) But what I really want.

It’s simple, really. When you write that thing down your heart sings. When you imagine yourself as that person you smile and nod with satisfaction. When you see the work involved, the sacrifices to be made, and the effort to be expended you roll up your sleeves and say “bring it on!”

Quit being a slave to other people’s expectations for you. They aren’t you. They aren’t living in your body. They haven’t had your experiences, your depth of life. You and only you can decide what you really really want.

When what you really want is something you want like you want to breathe…then you will get what you want. There won’t be room for any excuses. There won’t be any vacillation or whining or cutting corners. Your goal will loom in front of you like a rising full moon and you will drive yourself to hang that moon yourself.

Figure out what you want…we will work on the rest later.

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

Sunday Story…Commitment vs. Motivation

I often hear people say they need to get motivated. But I suspect that isn’t what they really mean. Motivation is easy. Motivation just means you decided to do something.

You are motivated to work out. You are motivated to eat healthy food. You are motivated to get more education. You are motivated to be a better spouse. You are motivated to do lots of things. Motivation comes easy.

All you need for motivation is a decision. I need to work out or whatever you decision is. Maybe you finally got the message that healthy food is better for you. You decide to eat better. Making that decision, getting that motivation is, for the most part, simple. Motivation often arises from an external source. I read about the benefits of exercise and get motivated to do some. External sources and rewards are excellent choices for finding motivation.

Where the rubber meet the road is around Commitment. Motivation is like taking a shower; most of us need to do it every day. Commitment is part of your being. When you commit to a course of action you are going to get that action done no matter what. Nothing is going to stand in your way once you are committed. If the water is cold I may lose my motivation to take a shower but if I am committed? Cold water showers are my friend. If there is no shower? A garden hose will work. I am committed. Motivation comes and goes but commitment is here to stay.

You say you want to be healthy. You do the research. You see the Doctor, the trainer, the therapist. You are motivated to get healthy. But somewhere deep down you aren’t really committed. Deep down you don’t believe in your soul that health is yours for the taking. You need to take that first step…Get Committed. Decide to listen to the Doctor and DO what he says. Decide to listen to the Trainer and DO what she says.

We all know how smart you are, already. But if you were so smart why haven’t you already done this? Get out of your own way and get committed to a course of Action. Action is the visible result of commitment. You can say you know what to do all day long but if you don’t do it, you don’t really know.

Lose your motivation, Find your commitment.

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sundaystories.blogspot.com
Follow me on Facebook and Instagram