Traits of People who Make Successful Change

I love to see people make a positive change in their life. It could be in their health and fitness or maybe someone took the leap of faith to pursue the career they always wanted and had success or maybe they just kicked a bad habit that was wrecking their life. This always reminds me of the saying that it only takes several years of work behind the scenes to become an overnight success. The idea of overnight success isn’t much more than an idea and the reason we can’t remember those people is because they went away as fast as they came to light. The truth is real change is a longer process than we think that is dependent on the foundation we build to support the change. When the Atkins diet was all the craze, people were dropping 40lbs only to add 45lbs back and then repeat this viscous cycle. Their foundation didn’t have any principles and sadly you come to realize that all happiness doesn’t come from bacon. At Showtime, we’ve worked with athletes and adults who have made significant life changes to achieve their goals and there are common trends regardless of background or goals. If you’re deciding to make a change in your life, don’t feel the need to reinvent the wheel or go against the grain because you feel different than the normal person. Use the experience of others to buy yourself success at a faster rate. 

Positive Mindset

While this seems easy, it’s important to remember that most people want a change because something isn’t good. People want to lose 100lbs because they often feel terrible and are sad about the events they’re missing out on. People make career changes when they feel a sense of emptiness at their current job. When we begin a new task, it’s easy to become discouraged by how far we have to go. When starting something new, I always remind myself of the of what Lao Tzu said “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. A tool that really helps us shift into a positive mindset are counting our small daily wins. This was tough for me at first because it sounds like a cheerleader fake motivation tactic, but it can help us build significant pride on what we’ve done. Some examples of small wins that help us see positives each day or week:

• I made all of my scheduled workouts
• I ate all home cooked meals
• I saved $25 this week by making coffee at home instead of the coffee shop

Our small wins are often not celebrated because they don’t make a good social media post like saying you’ve lost 100lbs. Stack your small wins and you’ll start to feel a sense of accomplishment. You can count your small wins each day or weekly, whatever feels more helpful for you. 

Stop Comparing

“Comparison is the thief of Joy” - Theodore Roosevelt. I remember a competition where I was one of five people in my weight class. I ended bench pressing 600lbs for the first time and improved my deadlift and my overall total. It was a great day for me. I didn’t place at the competition because three of the people in my class were in the top 10 of all time in my division, the best of the best (including the best lifter to ever compete). One of my best competitions and I walked away empty handed. Their accomplishments didn’t take away my accomplishments on the day. There will always be people that might be stronger than you or leaner than you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t work hard to make personal progress every single day. 

They Enjoy It

This might seem obvious, but people stick with things that they enjoy more than things they despise. I always remind people that there are certain styles of training that I would never be able to stick with because I simply don’t enjoy it. This process takes time, but you learn what you like and keep that in your plan and discard what you don’t enjoy. If eating healthy isn’t enjoyable for you, try exploring how to cook different food options so that you make it a learning experience and in the process enjoy the food you eat more. Make your change an enjoyable journey and not a deprivation nightmare and you’ll have a higher rate of success. 

Long View

What if you lost 1lb each week for two years straight? This isn’t exciting at all, but if you add that up it’s 104lbs lost which means you’re a different person than when you began. It comes down to the fact that every single person wishes they had a little better body composition and a little more wealth. We also want these things a long time ago. There are advantages of giving yourself a longer time frame. It removes the stress of feeling like you’re not achieving fast enough. It also allows us to have periods with a slightly different focus. Something I enjoy is breaking down my training and nutrition into phases based on the weather outside and my hobbies. This leads me to doing more endurance based training in warmer months and more strength or hypertrophy focused training in the winter months when I can’t do as much outside. This creates micro phases that play into the big picture of your ultimate goal. Something I like to remind myself is “what’s the rush?”. This always brings me back to the reality that I’m training and making nutrition changes for the rest of my life. 

Adapt

The ability to adapt is the key to making progress. Nothing is linear. Something that we don’t realize until we look back is that each new level requires a new skill set to make progress. In lifting, many men can bench press 200lbs by simply performing the exercise and building some efficiency in the movement. When you try to bench press 400,500lbs, and beyond you realize that there are muscle groups that hold back the lift. For some it might be strength in the upper back while for others it might be strength in their triceps. At each new level you need to adapt your approach to overcome the new obstacle. This takes humility to be honest with yourself when it’s much easier to stay stuck in your ways. 

Making change is difficult but making sustainable change is even more difficult for people. When we look at people who win the lottery, it’s almost a sentence for misery because people don’t have the foundation to handle that influx of money so they spend it as fast as it came to them. Your nutrition and training are the same way. Periods of intensity will never compare to long term consistency. Learn this and in time you’ll be a different person for the rest of your life. 

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