There is a saying I love from a mentor of mine – “If you are only willing to do what is easy, life is hard. If you are willing to do what is hard, life is easy.” T. Harv Eker.
It’s true, and I worry about people today because a lot of folks just want to do what is easy. They want the reward, but don’t want to do the work. There is a great post going around facebook with the picture of a ballerina on it, and one foot has a slipper on, looks all pretty, the other foot is bare and all bandaged, beat up, damaged, etc. The caption says, “Everyone wants to be successful, until they see what it actually takes.”
People want to be fit and healthy. I believe that.
I know with absolute clarity what that takes and yet I see the world following TV ‘doctors’ that are selling ‘snake oil’ every week. Every week it is some new quick fix, some faster way, some gimmicky fitness product that will not get you more fit in any way; it will just make someone else rich. Honestly, the super fit people using the latest exercise toy did not get fit using that toy. It’s not that some of them aren’t actually useful, but most of them are not.
The thing is – even if the toy is great, you have to use it. You have to eat right and exercise every day, all the time for a long time. That is how the human body was designed – to move, to work, to lift and bend and jump and play and run. Billions of dollars of home fitness equipment ends up in a garage sale or hanging laundry because too many people want that quick fix, with no work.
People call me and leave a message saying they want to get fit, they want me to help, but they don’t want to come to my gym and they don’t want to spend money on coaching. To be honest, I’m not calling you back. Sorry. You are not ready.
Fitness takes work ethic. It takes determination and commitment. You have to be persistent, consistent and be prepared that some things might not work, and you will have to try something else. It does not come easy. It does not stay. Fitness is not permanent, you work at it every day.
Last year I rode my bike in a fundraiser – 400kms in one day. It was really tough!
Today I rode my bike in training for an Ironman in four weeks and went
200kms and it was so hard I wanted to quit. So just because I rode 400kms last year does not mean anything, this year. I have to re-earn my long riding fitness all over again or maintain it enough that it doesn’t go away.
Your body becomes good at what you teach it to do most. If that is sitting and eating, it will get very good at sitting and eating. You will have back problems and a belly, and that isn’t genetics, or your parents or anything else, that’s on you.
Your body is your greatest gift, and I hope that you will treat it with respect.
Like we say at our boot camp, “Dropping body fat is hard, maintaining fitness is hard, being overweight is hard – choose your hard.”
Scott McDermott is a personal trainer and the owner of Best Body Fitness in Sylvan Lake.
