Overcoming Obstacles To your Fitness Goals
Everyone has life goal and If you are on my channel you probably want to, lose weight, tone up or build muscle. It’s easy to start working towards your goal but then the moment you run into an obstacle, you give up. You simply stop trying.You convince yourself that life is too hard and that you simply can’t do it. But what if we looked at those obstacles differently, what if those obstacle as the path to achieving our goals?
According to Ryan Holiday author of the Obstacle is the way, you can turn any obstacle upside down and use it to your advantage.Ryan Holiday outlines three stoic disciplines that can help you conquer your goals. They are as follows Perception, Action and the Will. Let’s take a closer look at each of these Disciplines.
Perception
Is How we understand what occurs around us. Perception is how we look at the obstacles we face. We can either look at our obstacle as crippling or as empowering. Perception might look like this. (Watch the video to watch the actual Skit)
Perception is how we look at the world and the obstacle that we face on a daily basis. Proper perception can help us get started on our goals. Ryan Holiday describes 8 Different aspects of good Perception.
- “To Be Objective
- To control Emotion and keep and even keel
- To choose to see the good in a situation
- To steady our nerves
- To ignore what disturbs or limits others
- To place things in perspective
- To revert to the present movement
- To focus on what can be controlled” – Ryan Holiday
Action
Next Up Action, action, follows perception. And once we recognize our obstacle we must take the right actions to overcoming our obstacles. Holidays explains that good action requires “Persistence and an flexibility. Courage and not brashness -Creative Application and not brute Force. ” – Ryan Holiday Action could look something like this. ( WATCH VIDEO FOR THE SKIT)
Taking action means getting shit done and getting it done in the right way. Its means mean putting in your best effort. Holiday describes 8 ways to “greet our obstacles”
- “With energy
- With Persistence
- With a coherent and deliberate process
- With iteration and resilience, a
- With pragmatism
- With strategic vision
- With craftiness and savvy
- And an eye for opportunity and pivotal moments.” – Ryan Holiday
Will
Finally, The Will. The Will is our ability to accept that we will face adversity. And that we cant control everything that happens to us. We will encounter hard times and many of those hard times will be out of our control. The Will is learning to except the hard times. We can learn and humbled by our hard times but only if we chose to. The Will looks like this. (Watch The Skit)
The Will is all about how we except and learn from our adversities. Ryan Holiday gives 8 ways to greet adversity, We can
- “Always prepare ourselves for more difficult times.
- Always accept what we’re unable to change.
- Always manage our expectations.
- Always persevere.
- Always learn to love our fate and what happens to us.
- Always protect our inner self, retreat into ourselves
- Always submit to a greater, larger cause
- Always remind ourselves of our own mortality. ” – Ryan Holiday
This is some cool information because now any time that you run into any obstacle to your fitness goal you can over come them, but I can already hear what you are thinking. You are probably thinking, ” I am a busy person. I’m a parent and im a beginner. I’m not the workout kind of person… blah Blah Blah. You’ve brought up a great point. But Let’s apply the Three Disciplines to your fitness goals. Let’s say you are trying to lose weight. You perception is going to have to change. Instead of thinking that you don’t have the time to workout, you should make the time to workout. Maybe you can get up a little bit earlier or leave work a little bit earlier.
Instead of thinking of yourself as “not the workout kind of person”. You can think, I am a beginners and this is tough but eventually I will learn to like it because I have to for my health!
You see changing your perception can make a huge difference.
As for Action, Well you need to take the steps to making sure you actually get in the gym and start working out so you an lose weight. So, get a trainer or perhaps an accountability buddy. And just make it happen. Go slow and steady and with time you will begin to see chance.
As for the Will. You should be willing to accept that life sometimes throws you challenges that are out of your control. Perhaps your get sick and can’t workout. SO WHAT?!?!? If you have been doing your best to train and you have been dedicated then you shouldn’t lose faith in the process. You can use this sick time to start planning what you’ll do in the gym next. Maybe sign up for a 5k or weightlifting meet. The will is about accepting the things you can’t control and learning from them.
The Will is all about how we except and learn from our adversities. Ryan Holiday gives 8 ways to greet adversity, We can
- ” Always prepare ourselves for more difficult times.
- Always accept what we’re unable to change.
- Always manage our expectations.
- Always persevere.
- Always learn to love our fate and what happens to us.
- Always protect our inner self, retreat into ourselves
- Always submit to a greater, larger cause
- Always remind ourselves of our own mortality.” Ryan Holiday
All right people. I hope you found this information helpful. If you did, please read Ryan Holidays book “The obstacle is the Way” The book has drastically helped me in my own personal life. I will admit that the book isn’t about weight loss but it is about self growth. Ultimately, losing weight and getting in shape is a matter of growing and developing as a person. You need to grow as a person in order to get in shape.
Final Note: IF you like this information you should come to my studio Total Body Training. We are located in San Antonio, Texas. We host Group Fitness Classes for strength and conditioning. I love teaching group fitness. It’s awesome for me to help people change and lose weight. I hope to see you soon!
Resources:
The Obstacle is The Way – Ryan Holiday
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