Most efforts in life seem to go through cycles that coincide with how we feel and our commitment to whatever we are doing. Our business, our fitness, our diet, our relationships, and so on. We get excited and and make goals, then put forth a big effort using that initial enthusiasm as our motivation. Things start going well and we build on the momentum reaching new milestones. Then we get a little comfortable in our successes and start to coast or something interferes with the routine we established causing us to not accomplish quite as much as we were doing. Results start to plateau and even fall back, leaving us demotivated and disappointed. Eventually we get off track and fall back into old habits and eventually give up on what we started.
Sounds familiar?
I know it sure has been something I’ve done many times over through life. Doesn’t really matter where in life we’re talking about, it’s a cycle that is all too familiar to all of us because it’s human nature in many ways to stick to what’s comfortable or easier, requiring extra effort, focus, and motivation to go just a little further to reach those higher goals. That’s why we always hear it said if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.
So how do we break the cycle? How do we accomplish more where others fail? Often the answer to that is very personal, finding out whatever it is that will be what keeps you motivated to keep on track and do a little more. What is your WHY for wanting to do more than what the next person will do? What can you fall back on to motivate you to stay on track or to make those corrections and reset your effort? What will keep you doing just a little more each day to continue to improve even a fraction above what you did before?
Go Beyond. It’s a powerful concept that you can apply in all aspects of your life. For me it’s about my health, fitness and overall well being in the last year. My journey has been focused on resetting how I felt not only physically but mentally, emotionally, and in my entire outlook in life. It started with a compelling desire to get my fitness back in track, and turned into a fight for my health in even more ways than I originally realized. Through it all I found my WHY, and then focused on doing a little more in each effort. In my dietary choices, in my fitness and even in my daily outlook I try to do a little more.
Today as I went out for a morning ride on my bike with a friend, we hit our normal route and enjoyed some beautiful terrain and effort. I decided I had some time and needed to go just a little further. I peeled off to add a few miles to the route with the “Go Beyond” on my mind. Just one more little addition to the ride would do it. So I rode around a park, up a hill and around back to the original point where I altered the route for a few additional miles.
That was good and I was feeling great. I went beyond. Then it crossed my mind that I could do even a little more. Ok I thought, one more circle around that loop. This time for cancer. I’m kicking it right in the gut with a little go beyond. So I went around again and dug in hard. The uphill I kept up my pace breathing hard with legs knotting up with effort and putting out max energy. It was hard and it was excellent.
Finishing the loop breathing hard and exhausted I sat down by the lake for a quick break and to just take it all in. The morning beautiful and enjoying every minute of being outside. Spent and ready to pack it in, time to go home. But as I took that minute to recuperate, the thought crossed my mind, one more time. Do you want to see better results? Then Go Beyond. One more time, this time for me.
So I did. One more loop. One more push through the hills. One more time enjoying the payoff of the downhill after the push. And it was most excellent.
Now I sit down to write my thoughts, trembling a little from the extra effort but feeling good for having pushed a little more. Digging deeper hoping to reset from a few weeks of fatigue and frustrating lack of results. Knowing that if I want to see a better outcome I have to do my part. Every day having to reach a little further inside and put forth that effort to achieve my goals.
Do you want more out of life? Then figure out what you want to achieve, why you want to get there, and be willing to do what it takes each day to move a little closer to that goal. You really can do so much more than the next person if you are willing to go beyond to get there.
Let me ask you a question, today you can take a first step and apply it just to the physical fitness efforts in your life. When was the last time you did something for the very first time or even do something a little more than what is comfortable? Then answer that question every day or once a week and you will reach new achievements you previously only dreamed out. And most of all, HAVE FUN doing it!
-Jeremy Hall
Learn more about OGX Brand Ambassador Jeremy Hall and be inspired by his hard work and commitment that changed his life into an #X4ever lifestyle.