Live As If You Want It

Whether or not you're a sports fan (I know that I'm not!), there is one thing you ought to notice about those who compete professionally: their bodies reflect the lifestyle they live.

I have yet to see an overweight cyclist, or a gymnast who has no muscular tone, or a soccer player who doesn't have strong-looking legs. Anybody who devotes his or her life to training for a competition would have the body of an athlete: lean, muscular, with barely an ounce of fat on them.

Not only do they train hard on a consistent basis, they also have to eat differently than everybody else. They can't just eat whatever they want and chug down a bottle of wine every night. They also can't just stay up as late as they want to. They have to alter their entire lifestyle just so that they could compete in sports. Even if they have regular, full-time jobs doing something completely different, they still need to alter their lives so that they could compete in sports.

Now, imagine a professional cyclist riding his bike only twice a week -- for just 20 minutes each time. For the rest of the week, he does nothing else, drinks beer every night, watches movies until 2 am most nights, and snack on gummy bears every day. What would his body look like? It would probably be overweight and look sickly -- and he could kiss his days of competition good-bye!

Whatever you want to achieve in your life, you have to LIVE as if you want to get it. This means that you need to alter your ENTIRE lifestyle so that you could achieve certain goals.

My daughter has recently taken an interest in starting a musical band with her friend at church. I asked her, "What instrument do you know how to play?" She says, "A keyboard!" I tell her, "You don't know how to play a keyboard." She says, "Yes I do!" Then I explained to her that people in musical bands practice their art all the time. You can't just dab on the keys a few times, make something that sounds like music, and then think you're ready for a band. 

Another time, we saw an expensive art set at B.J.s, and of course she wanted it. I told her, "You show me some serious art work, and I'll get you that." I don't want to see raggedy stick figures, sloppy coloring, and alien-looking humans. If my kids want something badly enough, they need to live as if they want it. Otherwise, I'm not going to waste money on something that they won't take seriously enough.

When I used to do online personal training, I've trained this one girl in Texas who was the sister of a college buddy. I didn't charge her anything as I wanted to test out my training method. I only asked her to do ten minutes of assigned exercises. She did MORE than I asked her to, and she even exercised when she was sick with strep -- which I didn't advise her to do. She LIVED as if she wanted to change her body, and soon enough, she dropped so much weight that even her ZUMBA instructor in Texas wanted to be a part of my training program!

When I saw her Facebook profile picture, man, did she change! She looked like she could be a personal trainer! People at her church noticed, her kids noticed, and her husband was talking about her progress at his job. All I did was give her guidance. Her dedication made things happen.

If you're struggling to achieve something, you have to ask yourself if you're LIVING as if you want something. If there is any secret to success, I'd say that it is to LIVE toward your goals, not just simply to WORK toward your goals.

What do I mean? Simply coming to my fitness class is WORK. You want to lose weight, so you come to my class, right? All you're doing is taking a particular action that would promote your goals. But here is when things go wrong: life gets busy, things come up, you get tired and forgetful, etc., etc. You would naturally put your health goals at second, third, fourth...seventh, and eighth place. Actions could be interrupted at any time. This is why you can't just simply work at something.

But when you are LIVING for a goal, then you won't just simply show up to class. You'd be reading books and magazines on nutrition, altering your meals to promote weight loss (or whatever health goal you have), and changing your schedule so that you could attend any fitness- or health-related events. This is when health becomes a LIFESTYLE, not just something that you do.

Don't just do it. LIVE it! The more you LIVE it, the closer you'd be to achieving what you want.

This applies to all areas of your life. Whether it's being a better parent, having better health, making more money, or getting better grades in school, you need to alter your lifestyle so that you could conquer your goals. Too many of us treat our goals like hobbies: we do them whenever it's convenient. Not many of us see our goals as urgent. We don't want to think that goals involve lifestyle changes. We have become so comfortable in the way that we're living that we get scared to make any changes to the way we live.

Here's a hard truth: if you're not willing to change your lifestyle, then don't expect to achieve what you want.

My daughter recently showed an example of living for a goal. I gave her a challenge to read 10 books within one week and she'll get a reward. These were good-sized books (for her age) she had to read. She had to sacrifice play time and T.V. time to get these books read. She was reading while in the bathroom at night, in the car, during the day, almost at any chance she got. She hit her goal early! She wasn't just reading whenever she remembered to. She was at it everyday. The reward was just too good to not go after it. She was living her life as a reader for that week.

So, what have you've been dreaming of accomplishing? Whatever it is, it's possible! The hard thing you have to do is to make lifestyle changes. If you could do that, then your goals are yours! If not, look for something else to accomplish.