Brace yourself, New Year New Me week is approaching…….
I make no secret of the fact I fucking hate New Years resolutions. To me, it creates the perfect excuse for the majority of people to put things off for the half of year leading up to New Year.
Half a fuckin year, I ain’t even kidding! You don’t believe me? I’ll let you slide into my email inbox for a little walk through the graveyard of broken dreams.
‘I’ll start in the New Year’, said no successful person EVER!!!!
That said, if you’ve fucked it and left it until this week, don’t fret, we’ll make a start now shall we?
First - a map is only any good if you know where the fuck you are!
Macros, meal plans, training programs…..they’re all well and good but if you’ve not taken stock of where you CURRENTLY reside in terms of habits and ability, they may prove too daunting off the bat and set you up for burnout and overwhelm.
When people ask me for a diet plan, I always refuse and first request that they provide me with a food diary for a few days. Of the very few people that actually commit to this, only a few of those will actually have discernible meals as part of their daily routine. Most skip breakfast, grab a croissant or something, neck a load of snacks throughout the day, and then throw together some frozen pizza or the like for dinner.
If this is our start point, a complicated meal plan is 99% certain to fail. We first need to establish a routine of eating 3 proper meals a day, containing actual food.
Likewise with training. Grabbing a strength program off the internet and doing 20 sets of legs so that you can’t walk for a week is not a good start point if the only activity you’ve done this year is a strenuous poo and a vigorous wank each day.
We need to take stock of:
Who we are?
Who we want to become?
What THAT person does on a daily basis that causes them to BE that person?
What steps we need to take to establish that persons daily routine?
This becomes our map.
Now, most people, if you give them a map, they’ll follow it for a bit, and then start to veer off and do their own shit, thinking they’ve found a shortcut.
There’s also a load of c**ts along the path who will assure you THEY have the shortcut and will show it to you.
Ignore those people, for they are indeed c**ts.
There are no shortcuts.
There is no quicker route.
There is the right way, and there is the wrong way.
A good coach has walked that path themselves. They have also gone back multiple times to lead other people along that same path. It is very well trodden, safe, and guaranteed to get you to your destination. If you don’t want to fall off the mountain into a pile of shit, follow that established path.
Or, you can ignore your coaches advice and do it your own way. Why you would pay someone for advice only to then ignore that advice is beyond me though, but it’s more common than not.
If you’ve had the patience to put off your progress until the New Year, you should also have the patience to be in this for the long haul, because it is probably gonna take a while. Don’t expect to be magazine cover ready in 4 weeks, this does not happen without a hell of a lot of drugs and a lifestyle you don’t want, trust me.
Remember that person we want to become?
They didn’t get there overnight.
It was the result of years of consistent and steady effort. Nothing crazy.
They got there because they were willing to be the tortoise.
They got there because they are patient and persistent.
They got there because they didn’t listen to impulse or mood.
They got there because they didn’t keep putting shit off for another day.
Follow their example and execute.
GmfL