Monday Motivation: Seek and You Will Find

One of the biggest obstacles I come across most is people not being honest with themselves. Cients often try to convince me of how healthy they eat and how they are doing everything right but they just can’t lose weight. They think they are just an exception to the rule.

In all my years in the fitness business, I actually have never come across one person (who was honest) who didn’t find the problem when they actually searched for it – and started looking inward first. When people REALLY want to figure out what they are doing wrong, they find it. Sadly, many people waste SO much time believing their own lies (that they are doing everything right) they never look that hard for things to change.

Listen, it is very unlikely you are doing everything right and still getting a wrong result. I’m not saying you aren’t trying. I’m just suggesting there is something new to learn or something you are doing wrong you need to discover – and you will only make these discoveries if you do a little digging. And by digging, I mean digging deep within yourself.

It’s no one else’s responsibility to figure it out for you, and we can’t blame everything and everyone around us. We have to get to the place where we are ready to search inward and accept that we may indeed may be messing up.

We can’t fix a problem we don’t even know we have.

Reasons We Lie to Ourselves

How often do we lie to ourself (and others) to avoid REALLY having to make a change. We point the finger, we make excuses, we pretend we are doing all the right things – when we know we are still cheating, still making poor choices and still not giving it 100%. 

Or, maybe it’s not so much that we know we are doing stuff we shouldn’t be doing, but we just choose to focus on all we are doing RIGHT and ignore all the things we are still doing WRONG. As if, all that we are doing right cancels out all we are doing wrong. Sadly, the opposite is more true.

We can do a LOT right and still do enough wrong that we never get the benefits of what we are doing right.

It’s completely natural to want people to think we are doing our best. We want people to be proud of us, to admire us for trying. We don’t want anyone to know our real struggle with laziness or our lack of discipline in the kitchen, so we pretend to do all the right things while sneaking food, slacking on our workout and taking shortcuts.

We Can’t Fake It and Make It

We all enjoy posting our healthy meals on facebook, while we carefully cheat in private, hiding our “sins” so no one sees. We are quick to post our run, but maybe not our pace. We love to “check-in” to the gym, but we don’t “check-in” to the ice cream parlor.

If people really knew, would they figure out your secret? Would someone be bold enough to hold you accountable and encourage you to take your fitness to the next level? Oh my! Change may be required then! “No one can know” you think. “No one can find out!”.

Even if we say we want something SOOO bad, your results and your actions may beg to differ. They tell on you. Even if we are dishonest to ourself and everyone else, the facts are there. What we eat in private shows up in public. What we refuse to admit is still there. It’s still a problem – and WILL be a problem forever until we can be strong enough to admit it and face it. THEN, and only then, will we be set free. Denying our struggle imprisons us.

The truth really can set you free.