Take It One Step Further

If you've been exercising for a while, you would have probably heard of the term "plateau." Whenever you've "hit a plateau," it means that you no longer get any results. The weight-loss slows down or completely stops. You get no more muscle gain. You've entered the zone where nothing happens anymore, and this is usually when we get discouraged and turn back.

But instead of quitting your journey, what if you took things just one step further? To break a plateau, you generally have to make things a little harder.

Whenever people attend my ZUMBA fitness classes or join my Body Challenge program (soon to be called the Holistic Health Challenge), they would report breaking a plateau. They have been so used to doing the same exercises at the same intensity so that they no longer got results from their efforts. Once they join my classes, the weight-loss starts happening again. I have two particular individuals who were already eating healthy and exercising, but they hit that plateau stage. Once they've joined my Body Challenge program, they started losing weight and toning up. Why does this happen? Because the program forces them to take things one step further.

No matter what you do in your life, if you ALWAYS want to experience results, you need to go one step further. You need to walk the extra step, walk the extra mile, walk the extra hour. As long as you keep "upping your game," you will see better results.

If you usually start something new, get to a certain level, and then stop, it's because you're not willing to take another step further. You have gotten to the point where you're comfortable, and even bored, and decided to do something else with your life. If you have lots of unfinished projects in your life, then you know that it's because you've hit a plateau, the point where you stop trying hard and start losing interest.

Start asking yourself, "What if I took things a little further? What would happen if I decided to be a little more serious about this?"

Back in 2015, I started a job with a company called Plant Partners, which serves as a vendor for different garden centers such as Walmart, Lowe's, and Home Depot. I was at Lowe's. Plant Partners provide people like me called merchandisers to unload plant carts and put the plants in their proper places and remove distressed plants from the display tables. Merchandisers were not required NOR expected to know anything about plants -- even though having some plant knowledge would be useful. I was even told to not spend time answering a customer's plant question, but to refer that customer to a Lowe's employee.

Not surprisingly, I've found that Lowe's employees in the garden center barely knew anything about plants. In fact, if customers went to them for plant questions, the Lowe's employees would look for the Plant Partners merchandisers. But since I enjoyed working with plants, I decided to do some research about the plants that Lowe's sold. It didn't take long for me to become an "expert," and pretty soon, I was "the plant guy." Other Plant Partners merchandisers did not know much about plants, so they would refer customers to ME.

But I still took things one step further. I started experimenting with different plants, doing more research on how to regenerate plants, how fertilizers work, how to harvest seeds, and learned the biology of plants. I continued to take things one step further so that now I am working on starting my own plant nursery business. I went from knowing very little about plants to building a plant nursery business. And I'm still taking things "one step further."

All you need to do is to take one extra step if you want to accomplish more. It could be waking up just ONE hour earlier or going to bed ONE hour earlier, or lifting ONE extra pound of weight, or finishing your jog just ONE minute earlier, or getting to work ONE minute earlier, or eliminating ONE cigarette a day. Just take ONE extra step, not fifteen extra steps.

It's very tempting to live life with the "enough" mentality: I've worked enough, I've exercised enough, I said "thank you" enough, I've spent enough time with the kids, I've studied enough for my class. We work until we FEEL that nothing more could be done, so we would say that we've done "enough." But instead of asking, "Did I do enough," ask, "Could I have done more?" or, "What would happen if I did a little extra work?"

Can't lose weight? Don't ask, "Am I doing enough," but ask, "What else could I do?"

Not making the amount of money that you want? Don't ask, "Am I working enough," but ask, "What else could I do?"

Working on a project that's not going according to plan? Don't ask, "Am I doing enough," but ask, "What else could I do?"

If you really open your eyes, you will ALWAYS see that something needs to be done. If anybody claims, "I've done EVERYTHING to lose weight," I'll be thinking, "No you haven't -- you haven't tried fasting for forty days and forty nights." There is no such thing as a person who can't lose weight, but there is a such thing as someone who stops short of their goal. There IS a such thing as someone who hasn't stepped up his or her game. There IS a such thing as someone who gives up when he or she was extremely close to the prize.

If all you do is microwave your meals, take it a step further and start using the stove. Who knows, taking that extra step might lead you to running a restaurant business.

If all you do is check the air pressure in your tires, take it a step further and start changing your tires. Who knows, taking that extra step might prevent you from ever having to go to a car mechanic again.

If the only French that you know is "Bonjour" and "Oui," take it a step further and start learning your French alphabets. Who knows, taking that extra step might lead you to starting your own French immersion school.

Before you move on to something else, ask what would happen if you take another step. If you want to climb a mountain and see the horizon of the world, you need to keep taking those extra steps. While each step seems to get harder and harder, just imagine the view that you'll see on the top.