1. Gave up on the excuse that I don’t have time to live a healthy lifestyle.
Yes, I used to be that person who said they didn’t have time. No time to cook. No time to make it to the gym when I was working seven days a week. No time to meal prep or plan. I just went to the grocery store and picked whatever was microwaveable, quick, easy and didn’t require the stove or the oven. I skipped the gym when I worked late. I skipped the gym when I was tired. I skipped the gym on the weekends and binge watched Netflix.
I had to sacrifice my excuses and learn to budget my time to live a healthier lifestyle. Health is your number one priority always. I know you’re probably rolling your eyes, saying no money is. I get it. I’m still in debt, grinding hard to get ahead one day. But if you overwork yourself, like I have in the past, and end up at the hospital. You don’t work to make that money. So having a healthy diet and participating in daily physical activity has been EPIC for my lifestyle. Take it one day at a time and you’ll soon notice you have less stress, more time and less overwhelm.
2. Gave up on the instant gratification
This honestly, was in all aspects of my life. I used to be the type to try every fad diet, every pill, wrap or quick fix. I had to quick up the over-exercising, starvation nonsense an realize the results would come over time when I did it properly. There is no longer working out for a summer body.
This also pertains to my lifestyle and my business. Being a health and fitness coach is not overnight success, it takes time, consistency, determination and failure to eventually achieve your goals. Instead of setting monthly goals, I set yearly goals with three month progress plans. I broke the year down into four quarters and focused on the long term gains by establishing a no-excuse mindset.
3. Gave up by obsession with perfection
I’m a red. My personality color. It means I am a perfectionist in all aspects of life. If I see something is supposed to be done one way, I have to do it exactly that way. If someone tells me I should be successful in a certain amount of time, then I have to follow the plan. The reality, there is no possible level of perfection in all aspects of life. Truly, if you’re living a lifestyle path and not a short term gain path, you should always be growing from experience and failure. There were so many missed opportunities over my first year as a coach because I thought I had to have it all together. When in reality, all I had to do was start.
This obsession had to also resonate with my lifestyle. I had to learn to have compassion for myself like I do those in my life. There are days where I cannot push 110% and that’s okay. There are days where grief takes over my whole body and I have to rest. There are days where sometimes I just have to check off my own to do list boxes and say that’s enough. I had to respect myself and my body. I had to learn my worth and be okay with the fact that not everyone sticks around in your life and that’s okay.
4. Gave up trying to do it all at once
Prior to this year, I had an awful habit of doing a lot of multi-tasking thinking that people who are good at multi-tasking are successful people. But that’s a bold faced lie lol. If I was on a team call, I was doing something else. If I was talking to someone, I was texting a client. If I was home visiting, I was thinking about everything I should have been working on.
Slowwwww downnnn my friends. Be present in this moment, the moment you are given. Stop focusing on everything else and focus on the task at hand. How did I change this awful habit? I stopped. I spend 10 minutes every night before I go to bed planning out my day, one task at a time, not putting down multiple things to do and I set timers for tasks. As a result, when it was time for a team call, I was on the team call with a notepad in hand. If I was with family, my phone went down. If I was at a conference, I was listening and my phone was in my bag. Be present. Not perfect.
5. Gave up giving a crap what people thought of me
I am a chronic people pleaser. It sucks sometimes. I always do for others and thought they should do the same. What I had to learn was to only have expectations for myself, I know you are thinking that’s crap. But hear me out. I used to live my life one way and expected if I put in the effort others should to. The reality, that’s not the case. You don’t know what someone is thinking of, struggling with or going through. You cannot expect someone to do things like you. Instead, now, I embrace people for where they are and what they bring to the table.
This helped me to learn to stop giving a crap what other people think of me. My entire life I’ve been a free spirit in secret thinking I was weird for always wanting freedom to just be where I wanted to be. But honestly, when I stopped living my life by other people’s standards I started to excel in my business. Comparison truly is the thief of joy and I have my joy back now. Now, I embrace my compassionate heart, my sometimes foul mouth and my desire to be the positive change I wish to see in this world. Maybe, just maybe, I can inspire other people to be their true self along their way.
So…now what?
Be you my loves always. If you want to be successful in this world, eliminate the excuses, remove the people who don’t support those big scary goals and establish a flexible so that when life happens, because it always does, you have the ability to just roll with the punches. STOP worrying what others will think and just put yourself out there. You will find your tribe. They will love you hard. It will change your life, if you let it.
