A: Big thank you to Leigh Peele for granting me the opprotunity to be heard. You can catch the interview by going to her blog. If you don’t know where that is, look at the lower left hand side to my blog roll and you’ll find a link.
B: Request Page – I added a page specifically for reader requests. If you’ve got a product or bloggy topic that you’d like addressed then drop me a note and I’ll check it out.
C: Motivation- Let’s break down one area motivation into two simple categories goals and tasks. A goal orientated motivation would be to complete something. It doesn’t matter how you do it, only that the end result is X (A new PR, or a sexy 6-pack). A task orientated motivation is that there is a measure of improvement in a given area but not necessarily a hard one. In this case you might be mastering a skill…how to improve your bench press or how YOU can lose fat.Both sources of motivation are important and it’s important in either case that you create a method of measuring success.
One commonality that I see is people that do something and become discouraged when they don’t meet their goals, but they haven’t created a system in which they know if they’re progressing or not. This is especially deadly in the goal orientated person. They want X result, and after X time they don’t see it and BLAM…they give up. More often than not that person either had an unrealistic goal to begin with (either it was flat out unrealistic, or it was unrealistic at their level), OR they weren’t creating a system to see if they were actually moving towards it. A task oriented person has a little more wiggle room since it’s the act of improvement against their own standard that they’re seeking. Assuming that they’re improving then…they’re improving. Ideally you’re going to have a goal AND a task motivation. You want to get better at “something” and the end result will be “something”. You measure your success by improvement towards that goal and when your goal is completed then you create a new goal set (or build on your current set).
So look where you are today. Ask yourself what you truly desire and are willing to put the time and effort to achieve. Create a realistic goal post of the final result and master the task at hand by using data. If you want to lose fat then set a mark that you want to achieve. Take measurements (scale\calipers\tape\clothes) and periodically reassess your success. If you’re improving then congratulations! You’re a stud(ette). Don’t go for a month with no way of knowing if you’re moving closer to your end goal and become discouraged that you’re not making progress when in actuality you truly are.
