Blog Archives
Failure Might Just Make You Mad Enough to Succeed
How do you handle failure? Do you fall apart? Do you quit? Or, do you get so mad you do something to change it – to change you?
I CAN Get Better
I can’t change my circumstance, but I sure as heck can change me. I CAN become better. I CAN learn from each and every mistake. I CAN continue pressing on no matter how much I’ve failed, no matter how others view me, and no matter what odds are against me.
I CAN Get One Step Closer
Will I become everything I want I hoped to? Will I achieve every goal or dream? I don’t know but, if I try, I can definitely become BETTER. I can get closer to my goals and dreams if I keep pressing on. But if I quit, I don’t just stay the same – I actually become worse, weaker, and further from my goal every single day I neglect to chase it.
I CAN Let Failure Fuel Me
One thing I know is I will use every ill word, every lame opinion, every frustrating obstacle and every negative comment to FUEL ME to become stronger and better. I will not let it destroy me, or my spirit.
I CAN Face Our Fears
I will not let my own doubt, insecurities, failures or fears paralyze me. I will face my fears head on and trust that God will give me the strength to handle everything that comes my way so that I can become everything He has designed me to be.
I CAN Press On
Today I decide, once again, to “keep showing up”.
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The Success in Failing
People often fear failure so much they don’t even try. Maybe it’s the fear of wasting time. Some people are afraid of wasting hard work and energy with no results. Others simply let pride get in the way and just avoid trying so they don’t have to publicly fail or be embarrassed. However, maybe you’d think differently if you were to focus on what trying does – even if you don’t succeed like you’d hoped.
1. It gives you experience. There are very few people I’ve met who lose weight the very first attempt. Probably because they don’t go about it the correct way at first, but it’s that experience that teaches them along the way. Sure, people can tell you what you should or shouldn’t do until their blue in the face, but many people won’t listen until they experience it for themselves. With each attempt, you learn what you like and don’t like. You learn what got you results and what set you back. You also learn patience, and that is definitely something someone has to have when it comes to working on the physique. Either way, all my valuable experience and knowledge has not come from success, it’s come from failures too.
2. It exposes your flaws. I’m not talking about physical flaws, I’m talking about personality flaws. When you attempt a challenge, you learn yourself. It doesn’t take long to discover the areas that need improvement in your life. Trying something new grows you, changes you, and improves you – if you let it.
3. It shows you your strengths. I can’t tell you how many people come to me and say “I never thought I could do this”. How could they if they never tried it before. Whether it’s doing a push-up or running a 5K, there are so many people who are blown away by their own strengths simply because they never even tried.
4. It teaches you. Once you’ve failed, you know what not to do – and honestly, that is a very valuable lesson. Like a scientist experiments with trial and error, you are your own scientist working to reinvent your body. Through various trial and errors, you learn what works and what doesn’t work. Just like Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Although teachers said Thomas Edison was not bright, frustrating them so much his mom took him out of school, he ended up holding the world record of 1093 US patents for inventions such as the 1st commercial light bulb, phonogragh and the motion picture camera (Hollywood thanks you!).
If you have been resisting exercise, diet or a fitness challenge, like doing a race, have no more fear. Instead, go for it – knowing no matter what, you will end up a better person with a lot of really cool lessons learned along the way.
Photo Credits:
Fear Pic: swimupstreamlife.com
Plank photo: AmmaTherapy
Girl Flexing: historicalstockphotos.com
Thomas Edison: CNN
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Big Fit Mistake: Over-Thinking & Under-Doing
Sometimes, while on your fitness journey, it’s easy to get discouraged. You begin to feel like your goal is too far away – and it’s tempting to give up or give in. Our mind goes crazy and we begin to over-think everything. Before long, we’ve spent more time thinking about fitness than doing anything about it. After spending so much time on thinking of what you could be doing differently, you can get completely discouraged. This is when I have to stop and remind myself I don’t have to “feel” like working out. I don’t have to be the fastest or the strongest. I don’t have to look the most fit or prove anything to anyone. All I really need to do is just show up.
No matter how sloppy your Burpees look, no matter how ugly your run feels, no matter what ridiculous face you make when you grunt the weight up and no matter how much you complain - none of it matters. The only thing that matters is that you Just Do It (thank you Nike).
Every champion has days they feel like a loser. Every olympic athlete has a day they don’t want to practice. Every weight loss success story is riddled with days of doubt and frustration. What makes each of them a success story is they keep going – whether they feel like it or not.
When you feel discouraged, just remember, fitness isn’t as complicated as you may think. You workout can be as simple as some pushups, sit ups, jumping jacks and squats. The only thing fitness requires, is that you show up – and you keep showing up day after day. If you show up, results will show up!
TEN FOUR WORKOUT
Here is a simple workout from our BCx Boot Camp program at FitStudio. You can do at home or the gym and it requires no equipment. 4 exercises, 10 rounds. Time yourself each time to increase intensity. Grab a towel and follow Steve through this awesomely intense and effective workout. Click HERE to try all the BCx workouts or join the program.
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Are You Taking Baby Steps Toward Your Goal?
When it comes to fitness, most of us do not have any patience for slow results. With that said, how come so many people choose to take baby steps to get to their goal? Don’t you want to sprint and LEAP your way to success?
Watching a person on a slow path to fitness success is as painful as waiting for Tim Conway’s old -man character to shuffle, inch by inch, across the Carol Burnette’s stage back in the day. Of course, we all got a kick out of watching everyone suffer through his slow-mo pace but there is nothing funny about watching someone shuffle through their weight loss or fitness journey – when I know good and well they can reach their goal a lot faster if they took bigger steps.
Listen, if you have talked yourself into taking the slow and easy path, think again. Although your plan has to be one you can live with, you also have to live with the pace in which you get results. If that pace is too slow for your personality type, you are likely to give up. Maybe, just MAYBE, you need to SUCK IT UP and RAMP THINGS UP so you get to your goal faster.
Honestly, what do you really have to lose? So what – you skip a few party favors, you back off on the burgers, you add a few more 30-minute cardios, you quit eating such big portions, you lay off the booze for a while. REALLY? Is it THAT hard? People do it every single day, so why not you too?
Ask yourself this: Is food really more important than how you look and feel? Is laziness what you want to define you? Don’t let lame excuses and lack of faith in what you can accomplish get in the way from taking that leap of faith in what fitness can do for you.
There is someone JUST like you, with all YOUR excuses, with all YOUR struggles, with YOUR workload, with YOUR past and with YOUR same resources (or lack of) reaching their goal quickly – all because they are taking LEAPS and BOUNDS, not baby steps.
Try one of our FREE programs & LEAP your way to success:
BCx Express™ (30-minute fat-melting body-toning workout)
BCx Boot Camp™ (1-hour body transformation workout)
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FIT TIP: The Secret Behind the Impossible
“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” St. Francis of Assis.
You surely can’t do the impossible, if you aren’t even doing what is possible now. Maybe you aren’t doing what’s possible because you are too busy attempting the impossible. This can be anything from trying to maintain a crazy workout schedule that would take an act of God to keep, or it could be your poor attempt to buy all that healthy food that is rotting in your refrigerator because you haven’t had time to cook it. Before you can do what’s possible, you need to know what you realistically can pull off right now.
Bridge the Gap
I believe people often set their sites too high. It may not be too high for someone else, but it could be too high for you – at this exact time in your life. If this is the case, what do you do when you can’t reach something? You bring a ladder out – and the same goes for your goals.
You must have something in place to bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, no matter how impossible it may seem. How steep the climb depends on how close you are to the goal. Another words, if you are far away from your destination, it will be a mild climb and may take a while. If you are wanting to reach your goal quicker, the climb will be more challenging. But remember, BOTH ways will get you to your goal. You just have to decide on what you can handle – both mentally and physically.
If you are impatient, you may require a steep hard climb so you can reach your goal quickly. Someone who is not ready for that big of a challenge may need to take the slower route. Unfortunately, many people feel like they are so far away from their goal, over time, they forget they are still actually moving in the right direction at all. Others never even really set a goal and find themselves climbing the wrong ladder altogether. Listen, in order to reach the right destination, you MUST know where you are heading and PURPOSEFULLY go there – every. single. day.
Don’t Look Down
You’ve heard the saying “no matter what you do, Don’t Look Down!” That saying is SO true with fitness. As soon as we look down, we get shaky. Looking down can refer to looking back, longing for some of the things we “enjoyed” that we may have left behind. Looking down can also refer to negative thoughts, allowing ourselves to get mentally down. No matter what the distraction is, as soon as we take our eyes off the goal, we set ourselves up for getting off course or doubting where we are and where we are heading.
Are You Willing to Climb?
- You CAN lose 50lbs IF you are willing to do the work consistently for 6 months.
- You CAN compete in a figure competition IF you train and diet hard for 90 days straight.
- You CAN build muscle IF you are willing to lift strong and get the protein you need for growth.
- You CAN lose that 10lbs IF you are willing to eat out less and cut back on the alcohol.
- You CAN have less back pain IF you are willing to stretch and strengthen tight muscles.
- You CAN have more energy IF you are willing to do more cardio and lose a few pounds.
- You CAN control your weight IF you start managing calories.
- You CAN completely change your life IF you are willing to invest in making the changes your body needs.
Everyone Begins at the Start Line
Remember, everyone who has reached their goal was once just like you. Sure, running a marathon may seem absolutely crazy right now. Losing 50lbs may feel like it’s too far out of reach from where you are now. Or, maybe living without back pain would almost seem more like a miracle from how you feel now. This is where the impossible becomes possible – by doing what is possible for you at this very moment, each and every day, until you get the results you want.
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Life’s “Falls” are Necessary to Grow Strong
A child can’t walk on their 1st try. Success comes with practice – and many falls.
I woke up this morning thinking about failure and how our “falls” in life are necessary to grow stronger. It made me think of a child. When trying to get a baby to walk, if he or she could speak, I am sure the words that would come out of his or her mouth would be “but mom, I can’t” – but they CAN and DO!
Of course they only start walking after about a million falls, wiggle/wobbles and tears, but they eventually walk – and before you know it, they are so good at it you have to hold their hand so they don’t run off.
You can – and WILL
Fitness is the same way. When we have a brand new boot camper, the words “I can’t” often come out of their mouths. “I can’t run”, “I can’t do push ups”, “I can’t lift that” – and you know what? They CAN and DO. Read the rest of this entry
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Sewing Fitness, Tips to Reap the Reward
In a recent Bible Study, Calvary Chapel Pastor Jim Gallagher was talking about the process of reaping what you sow, referencing Galatians 6:7. “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap”. This scripture encompasses everything we do – including fitness.
I was reminded we are a product of how we live each day. What really hit home for me was when Jim reminded us of the actual process of producing a harvest. This process would be very long and grueling.
Most of us are not farmers and haven’t even thought of the work that’s involved in producing a harvest, but I think if we reflect on what it takes to produce a crop we may look at fitness differently.
Prepare
Let’s start with preparing the soil. In the world of fitness, we could look at this step as preparing the mind. Before you can begin to tackle diet and fitness goals, you need to be mentally ready. It took my mom 3 months of journaling and soul-searching before she could fully commit to the changes she wanted to make in her life.
Plan
Once the soil is ready it’s time to sew the seed. Before you sew the seed, you must decide what you want to produce. Do you live in a climate to produce the crop of choice? All these things matter before you can even put one seed in the ground. Read the rest of this entry
What’s It Worth?
Steve Pfiester asks: “Is it worth it?”
I don’t know that anyone is inherently just drawn to enjoy dragging their “out of shape lazy butt” into a gym, or basement for that matter, and really enjoy the euphoria of that “warm and nauseous feeling”. What makes someone finally sell out to a fit lifestyle and not “restart” every Monday, or have 365 “do-overs” for their new years resolution to lose that 20-50 pounds that they have had since their 3rd child (yes, you guys too), but really, really do it.
After 25 years of trudging through the emotional and psychological trenches of this beautifully simple question, I have narrowed it down to 3 sobering and motivating life-changing reasons some people make permanent changes to our physique and physiology:
- We, or someone we care for, has been told they will die if we don’t make some very real dietary changes and increase our all over fitness.
- The realization that entropy (degrading energy) is a very real result of life. Every day we have less and less energy, yet we are eating more and more, finally becoming sick of being sick
- Aesthetics… there I said it. Many of us are tired of buying clothes that we don’t even like just because they are the best choice to hide 5 or more of our 2000 parts.
Many of us fall into a little of all three of these reasons, but others of us can definitely say, “I want to live longer, healthier or just look better.”
IT’S WORTH THE REWARD
I am the latter. I definitely want to live longer. Not only that, but I want to live longer AND healthier. I don’t care to live even another year if I was completely dependent on others and had a poor quality of life. Even knowing exercise can produce that type of amazing benefit, I am so vain that I still wouldn’t be completely sold out for a fit lifestyle if it did nothing for the way I look. I probably would still eat ‘ok’ and have an ‘ok’ workout.., but no freak’n way would I ever train this hard, or eat this clean, if it wasn’t gonna see abs or tone up my bottom.
SIDE NOTE –> YES, us 40 year old men still want our wives to think we have firm derrières’ also. Not an obsession but a definite concern. We just don’t sit around the office with each other and compare, “Hey Bob, what have you been doin, your ass looks really amazing lately”. Bob says, “Welp’ Stevo, I’ve been doing some lunges and eating steamers”. Nope, not a conversation we’re gonna have – but still concerned all the same.
IS IT WORTH IT to go to bed a little hungry?
What is it worth to not only work in your training 5 or 6 days a week but also, do that extra 5 or 6 reps? I’m here to tell you I’ve seen it happen to the most unexpected of people. You know, the ones who come back in the office after the summer, or the ones you haven’t seen in a while, drop lots of weight and toned up? You want SO bad to believe they got sick or had Lipo, but then the nasty truth is they just set their mind to what they wanted to do… (and listen).. AND DID IT!!!!! Read the rest of this entry
No More REGRET!
“Wisdom is doing NOW what you will be satisfied with LATER“, Joyce Meyer.
This statement rings true, especially in fitness. Think of all the times we say “I shouldn’t have eaten so much” or “I should have gone to the gym”. We all make bad decisions from time to time, but many people are rarely making good ones.
REGRET
So often people live in condemnation and regret because they continue to make decisions they regret later. Then they lay in bed at night thinking of all the things they did wrong, and the changes they need to make, only to wake up the next day to repeat the same self-destructive behavior.
A person who acts without thinking of the future often lives bogged down with regret, guilt, depression, discouragement and even hopelessness – and that’s no way to live!
CHANGE
If you want your life to change, you have to make changes. Although there’s nothing you can do to change your past, you can start taking steps to change your future.
By procrastinating, you are wasting precious time you’ll never get back, leaving you with less and less time you could be living thin, energetic, strong, confident and healthy lives. Sadly, some people wait for years.
- Mom & Dad
My parents waited until they were in their late 50s to get fit. Granted they love their new lives, but I’m sure they wish they would have gotten their act together earlier in life.
SLOW DOWN
We live at such a fast pace we practically don’t even allow time to make decisions. Instead, we do things without even thinking. Then we act surprised when those decisions lead us away from where we want to be.
If we were honest, this one simple question would prevent many poor choices: “will I regret this later?” Even simple tasks like skipping a workout or ordering French fries can cause regret.
It’s time to break the cycle. Someone once said, “The future has no room for the past”. It’s time to quit making the same mistakes and time to start living a healthy life you can be proud of.
My new motto: No more regrets.
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PITIFUL or POWERFUL?
While on my morning run yesterday, I was listening to Joyce Meyer speak on discipline, obedience and rebellion. It’s funny how rebellious we can be. Rebellious to our spouse, to rules, to our boss, to God and even to our own selves.
She went on to say “You can’t be pitiful AND powerful. You have to choose one or the other”. I loved what she was saying so much I repeated it ten times so I wouldn’t forget it. This statement is so true. How many times do we bounce back in forth, flip-flopping around from trying to take control of our body and completely losing control of our body. One minute we are getting fit and another minute we are getting fat. You can’t be whimpering about your weight, whining about where you wish you were, and actually powerfully making progress forward.
Every time we dive into self-pity we allow excuses to slow us down or bring us to a screeching halt. Pretending we are powerless is pitiful indeed, but it’s also a LIE! We DO have the power to change our bodies and to change many things in our lives. And even though there are some circumstances we CAN’T change – WE CAN CHANGE!
Youre the BOSS!
The fact is this: The only one thing we really have FULL control over is ourselves, so we are in power whether we use choose to the authority or not – and if we don’t, then that’s what makes us pitiful.
I admit, I have griped about my own body, grabbed my stomach fat and said “I’m fat” out loud enough times that it really got ridiculous. Sure, I workout and all that jazz, but I was eating like crap at night and on the weekends – and quite frankly, as miserable as I was, I wasn’t quite miserable enough to do something about it.
Granted, I was only a few pounds over where I wanted to be, but it was making me look and feel crappy. I was beginning to dress around my body. You know what I mean – when you where clothes that are lose where you want to hide fat (love handles) and tight where you are skinny (calves). haha Yep! That was me.
WAKE-UP CALL: THE BIKINI
Then summer rolled around and I had to get in a bikini. OUCH! Ok, maybe that was the one thing I needed to make myself just miserable enough to take more action. I finally had to come to that place where I faced myself with the truth. I know how to get in tip-top shape. I know what to do, what to eat and what NOT to do. I also know I can do it in 6 weeks. When I look at it like that, I had to admit, “what’s 6 weeks”. Once I reach my goal, I can go back to “maintenance” and pretty much eat and live very healthy with much more wiggle room to eat, etc. Duh!! What the heck Bon!?!
POWER, NOT PITY!
So, I’m claiming POWER not PITY! I don’t even have the right to be sorry for myself when I don’t take care of myself. Instead, I’m going to do what i know I NEED, not what I WANT – and be POWERFUL once again!!
…and YES, that’s MY face in the pic now cuz “I GOT THE POWER!!”
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