Build Up, Not Blast Off

Ever crammed for an exam before? Ever spent all night studying for a test that you have to take the very next day? You probably passed that exam with a score of 100. But should you have to take that test again at a later date WITHOUT studying for it, then you'd most likely fail. We tend to lose information as quickly as we gain it.

But let's say that you've studied for that exam little by little over a lengthy period. When the time comes to take that test, you wouldn't even have to cram. The information is already established in your head. All you really have to do is walk into the exam room, take the exam, and walk out with confidence.

One time while training to be an EMT-Intermediate, I had a teacher who was an anatomy nerd like me. The information she presented to us concerning the body was nothing new to me, because I've spent years learning this material on my own at my own pace. She presented a challenge to the class to see who could give a detailed path of the circulatory system. That is, she wanted to know the entire travel path of blood starting from the heart and ending at the heart. You needed to know about veins, arteries, venules, arterioles, capillaries, aorta, vena cavas, different chambers of the heart, the lungs, alveoli, etc. There were about 15 to 20 things you had to list IN ORDER. I was the only person who was able to give the entire, detailed description of how blood traveled through our 100,000-plus miles of blood vessels. Was it because I was smart? No, it's because I've spent a little bit of time over a period of years learning about the human body. So when I took this challenge, I didn't see it as a problem. I built up, not blast off. That is, I took my time learning something complex instead of cramming for it.

In life, we always want something to happen NOW, to happen fast. We get attracted by titles such as "Learn [.....] In 7 Days!!!" or "Lose [....] Pounds in 2 Weeks!!!" or "Make [$$$] Dollars in 30 Days!!!" But we don't realize that anything we get quickly would last about as long as a morning mist. It's here today, and gone today. Whatever you get through haste would be gone just as quickly. This is why we need to focus on building up our way to success at a slow, yet steady rate than to blast off and fail.

My daughter is an aspiring artist. Since I'm also an artist, I was hard on her work. I got on her about drawing outside the lines, about how to color so the colors won't look scratchy, and I told her that she could have her own YouTube channel ONLY if her work was worthy. She spends every day doing some kind of drawing, and it's amazing how much she progressed. She went from drawing these childish doodles with big heads, big smiles, and pencil-dot eyes to drawing Japanese anime figures. If she continues at her rate, she would be able to sell her work. But she didn't try to go hard everyday. She didn't try to "blast off." She just spent a little time everyday doing some art.

In my Body Sculpt Challenge program, I have a woman who dropped 30 pounds over a period of eight months. Why is it that it took her so long to drop 30 pounds when other people could easily drop that amount in less than 2  months? Well, that doesn't really matter. The more important question is who is more likely to keep the weight off: the person who dropped 30 lbs in almost a year or the person who dropped the weight in 30 days?The one who took time losing weight have built up healthy habits that are ingrained in him or her so that this person won't be likely to fall back to bad habits. The one who dropped all that weight in a month probably went on a crash diet or took some fat-burning supplements.

Don't be tempted to "go hard or go home." One of the main reasons we fail at anything is because we tend to go hard. We want to do as much of something as possible, but then we burn out. Once we burn out, it would take forever for us to charge our batteries so that we could go hard again -- just to burn out again.

Think about the person who always have a clean house. Every time you go in the house, it's spotless! I'd guarantee that person doesn't spend hours everyday cleaning that house. That person spends a few minutes tidying up the house: putting away the dishes, sweeping the crumbs on the floor, wiping off the pee around the toilet bowl. This person built up a habit that would make it hard for him or her to have a messy house. For the rest of us, we wait until our houses fall apart before we decide to clean it up. Then we spend HOURS detailing our homes just to enjoy a sparkling house for a few days. Then the house falls apart again in no time and we just don't have the energy to clean it. We haven't developed the habit of keeping a clean house. Instead of building up, we just blasted off.

Think about the person who speaks several languages fluently. I'd guarantee you that this person didn't learn these languages in three weeks. They not only grew up learning these languages, but they've spent years using all of them. But what we do is envy people like that and we want to be fluent in 7 languages in one year. We try to go hard, but then we burn out and tell everybody that learning languages is hard.

Think about a person who has mastered something or accomplished something great. Once you have that person in mind, I want you to remember this: his or her accomplishments did not happen overnight. It took a long time to accomplish it and that person is using his or her accomplishments. This person built up success, not blasted off. This person didn't go hard. He or she just kept using it and using it and using it until it became a part of the person.
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• If health and fitness is not a part of you, then don't expect to stay in it.
• If education is not a part of you, then always expect learning new things to be hard.
• If being ambitious is not a part of you, then don't expect your life to go anywhere soon -- or at all.

If you want it to be a part of you, then build up to it. Don't go hard with it. You only go hard when you're trying to win a game. But if you want something to be a part of you, you need to go easy on it. Let it slowly fill your life until it becomes one with you. Then you could be that person who dropped 100 lbs and kept it off for years. You could be that person who quit smoking 18 years ago. You could be that person who built a thriving business that could be passed down for generations.