SHORT TERM THINKING IS KILLING YOUR LONG TERM PLANS
It’s that time of the year when our feeds get filled with click bait headlines - 4 day detox, 7 day cleanse, 14 day challenge, 28 day kickstart, all of which play on the hardwiring of our minds that seeks short term solutions because they are easier, take less effort and for some reason people expect them to fix long term issues.
It’s at this stage that I would suggest those gyms or people referring to themselves as professionals out there selling these empty dreams, to take a hard look at themselves for playing on people’s weaknesses, for the sake of getting kick backs for products sold, or the churn and burn model commonly used by franchise gyms to get people in the door. You are not doing anyone including yourselves any favours offering shortcuts. In fact in a lot of cases you are putting people in a worse position, frustrated, disappointed and demotivated to the point where they quit because your bandaid fix didn’t work on their haemorrhaging problems.
Yes 2020 was a shit year health wise for a lot of people, for a lot of other people the entire 2010’s was shit decade health wise - for the beginning of it I was one of those people.
When I think about health, 4 key pillars come to mind: Training, Nutrition, Recovery/Stress Management and Daily Activity. There are a lot of subheading headings that come under those, but they are the keys.
When it comes to training, people expecting a 14 day challenge to fix a year of inconsistent training, or years going through the motions unaware of the execution, effort and intensity required to achieve results, is not just unrealistic, it’s bordering on ignorant.
People who expect a 4 day detox to fix 12 months of heavy drinking multiple times per week, thinking it’s going to fix their liver and their problems, again unrealistic. Does the detox ask them at any stage why do they drink so often to begin with?
People who expect a 28 day kickstart to fix 10 years of treating their body like shit with what they have chosen to put into it, and to lose the excess weight that has been gained over the period of time, again unrealistic. To put it into perspective, 10 years of treating my own body like rubbish has taken me 5 years to take control of, and I consider myself to be a very driven and discipline person.
The question I ask these people who continue to seek shortcuts, is has taking this approach worked for them previously? I think I am very safe to say that it hasn’t, and even though this is the case the easy option continues to be sought.
Until this mindset is changed, until the wiring in people’s mind is changed from seek the easy road, to I need to take the hard road, there will be improvement. Yes the hard road is going to be difficult, yes it’s going to mean getting out their comfort zone, yes it’s going to mean taking themselves down a pathway of struggling, but in the next 12 months, 3 years, and 5 years they will be better because of it.
The hundreds of people I have spoken to over the past 5 years, there is a common underlying motivation to their goals - I want to build a better life for myself, and I am going start by prioritising my health. They have bounced from challenge to challenge, kickstart to kickstart, detox to detox, still unhappy they eventually make their way through the door at GRIPT.
When I ask what has prevented them from achieving this before the response is generally - I have been inconsistent, I get lazy, I lose motivation, and if I dig deep enough the real reason is because they are not doing it for themselves. They’re doing it to look good to attract the opposite sex, to fit into social circles, because they’re concerned about what others think about them, because their favourite influencers looks that way. If people want to continue down a path of dissatisfaction and misery, they can continue to use external motivation which I can guarantee them will eventually dry up. Or they can take a hard look at themselves in the mirror and then dig deep into their soul and make the commitment to start improving their life for themselves.
To put it simply - fuck fitting in, fuck the opinions of others, fuck believing that you need to look or be the way social media tells you to be. If others don’t like you for who you are becoming, and where you want to be going, catch you fucking later!
Short Term Thinking is this:
People not getting out of bed when their alarm goes off because they want more sleep
People when they are training skipping reps and sets because they are in a rush
People not meal prepping and buying their meals instead because it’s more convenient
People staying up late and watching another episode of Queen’s Gambit
People sitting at their desk all day flicking between instagram, facebook, twitter, youtube, online shopping, and then telling themselves I don’t have time to go outside for a walk
People criticising those that are out doing what they want to be doing
People complaining that things aren’t going their way
People comparing themselves to their favourite fitspo and talking down to themselves and saying that they can’t look like that
What is underlying all of these points is people are subconsciously telling themselves with the short term decisions they are making, that me and my health are not important enough, and that remaining lazy, undisciplined, and soft is acceptable.
This mindset is like cancer, and it spreads not just through the mind and body, but into every aspect of someone’s life. What I want to bring to anyone who has this mindset attention is, does this mindset serve the person they want to become in the future? Does this mindset serve any dreams, goals and aspirations you have?
If you want to achieve anything worthwhile, the mindset needs to change to every daily habit, weekly routine, workout in the gym, meal prepared, good night sleep, one hour walk, one hour podcast, cutting out the criticism, comparisons and complaining, is getting me closer to who I want to become.
Long term thinking is this:
I’m getting out of bed when my alarm goes off because long term I will become more discipline
I’m going to do every rep, every set of the program I am following because long term it will make me more accountable
I’m preparing my meals every week because long term my physical and mental performance will improve
I’m going to bed at 10pm every night so that I get 8 hours of sleep which long term will allow me to get to the gym each day and improve my energy, mood and positivity
I’m going to allocate 1hr every day to go walking and listening to podcasts, which long term will lead to me having greater mental clarity, and I will be using the time for professional development listening to audiobooks
I refuse to succumb to cancers of the mind - criticism, complaining and comparisons because I am at my worst when I do so, which long term will lead to me becoming a more positive person to be around
What these points are telling people subconsciously is my health is important, that my future is important, and that I am going to prioritise it and become discipline around it, even if that means doing shit I don’t want to do, because I know it is good for me.
People need to reach the point where they accept the easy road is not going to get them to where they want to be going, and this will only happen through self awareness. The road may be shorter, but traffic is banked up because everyone else who is seeking the easy road is on there too.
The long road that creates the most resistance, which is going to be the most difficult, provide the most challenges, is what is going to get them to where they want to be. And guess what, there’s not a lot of traffic.
Next time you are reaching for the easy option, clicking through the 7 day cleanse or 28 day kickstarter, ask yourself is this what is going to get me to where I want to be going and who I want to become long term?
Drew