John Dryden famously said, “We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.” Confucius said, “Men’s natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them.” And Aristotle noticed that, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” It’s pretty clear that the habits you adopt will shape who you are.

When it comes to your body, the two habits that define your physique are your eating and exercise habits. In fact, everyone that you know who is in great shape has dialed in these two important habits. If you aren’t happy with your body, then simply adjust your eating and exercise habits. Here’s how to adopt a habit:

Use these seven steps to create a life-improving habit.

1) Decide on the ONE habit that you would like to develop. It’s tempting to pick up 3 or 4 healthy habits, but choosing just one new habit is realistic and doable. Here are some healthy habit ideas:

Do not eat after 9pm each night.

Bring your lunch to work instead of eating fast food.

Exercise 4 times a week after work for 45 minutes each time.

Only eat lean protein, fruits, and veggies as your afternoon snack.

Get up early and exercise for an hour each morning.

Work with a personal trainer 3 times a week.

2) Write your new habit down on paper. Also include your 3 main motivators for developing this new habit, the obstacles you’ll face, and your strategies for overcoming these obstacles. Here’s an example:

My new habit is to work with a personal trainer 3 times each week.

My 3 main motivators are:

1) to feel confident in my bathing suit this summer,

2) to have more energy, and

3) to fit into my skinny jeans.

The obstacles I will face are

1) not having the energy to go to my session after work, 2) not having enough money to pay for sessions, and 3) not having my spouse’s support.

I will overcome these obstacles by 1) doing my workouts before work instead of after work, so I have more energy, 2) cutting down on frivolous spending to ensure that I can afford it, and 3) asking my spouse to join me so we can get in shape together.

3)Commit fully to your new habit, in a public way. This could mean posting it on facebook, or simply announcing it at the dinner table. Put yourself in a position where you’ll be embarrassed to give up on your new habit.

4)Keep track of your progress. You could keep a detailed journal or simply make a check mark on each calendar day that you successfully exercise your new habit.

5) Keep yourself publicly accountable. This means either status updates on facebook or verbal status updates at the dinner table. Your friends and family are in a position to offer you support, so don’t shy away from those close to you.

6) When you fail, figure out what went wrong so that you can plan around it in the future.

7) Reward yourself for your success. Once your new habit becomes second nature, usually in about 30 days, feel free to add a second habit by going through the same 7 steps. I’d love for my fitness program to become your new healthy habit!

How can you beat the odds? Outlined below are 8 things that you can do to ensure your success when beginning an exercise program. I have studied the habits of the people who have succeeded with their weight loss goals and noticed they performed many of the same activities. All of them didn’t do everything on this list but did most of them. That’s the beauty of diet and exercise. It’s not what you do all of the time, it’s what you do most of the time. Here’s the list:

1. Begin with the end in mind- Stephen Covey popularized this saying with his landmark bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Beginning with the end in mind means knowing where you want to go in life and progressively taking steps towards that goal. Having a clearly defined vision of where you want to go is the key to any success. Nobody wakes up and accomplishes anything significant by accident. If you want to get in shape, figure out where you want be then focus on what you have to do to get there. Begin to draw up a blueprint of what you will have to do, what you will have to sacrifice, and why it is significant to you. He who has a strong enough why can bare any how. Also, figure out what is standing in between you and your goal. Knowing what obstacles or challenges you will have to overcome can help you adjust your plans accordingly.

2. Be Committed – After you have set your goal, be 100% committed to reaching it. I don’t care what life throws in your way keep your eyes on the prize. Be prepared to go over, under, around, or through any obstacle. When obstacles get in the way, change your route to reach your goal but not your resolve to reach your goal.

3. Keep a journal - You can’t manage what you can’t measure. How do you know if you’re doing the right things? Contrary to popular belief, the best way to tell doesn’t have to do with scales or measurements. Of course the results are a measure of the strength of the effort, but you must make sure you are on the right path. The best way to to know if you are on the right track is to focus on your activity. When you keep a journal for exercise/ nutrition you hold yourself accountable. That way you can always look back to see what you did to get in shape or what you didn’t do to get in shape. It’s easy to lose track of what you ate or how many times you workout during the week unless you write it down. I recommend you write in your journal daily. If you don’t think it is something you can do long term, try it for 30 days. I guarantee that you will find you’re more productive in those 30 days keeping track of what you do.

4. Prioritize your workouts – This ties in with being committed. At the beginning of each week, schedule your workouts. During those times, let everyone (including family) know that you are off limits. Anyone who cares about you should not complain about your unavailability for one hour a day four times per week. If they do, drop them! No, seriously though, I was once told that love is wanting the greatest good for someone else. Your family will be understanding and supportive of you in your fitness quest.

5. Find a workout partner – Finding a workout partner can be very beneficial to you. There is someone else to hold you accountable for showing up to the gym. Some days you may not want to go but will show up because you don’t want to let someone else down. They can help spot you on difficult exercises and give a much needed push when you are ready to quit. Personally, I am always in my best shape and at my strongest when I have a workout partner. There is one point to keep in mind about workout partners. You are at the gym to exercise not socialize! Spend a few minutes talking about your day, family, work, etc. before you start working out or save it for the cool down. You should keep small talk to a minimum between sets especially since you will be alternating equipment. While your partner works you rest and when you work your partner rests.

6. Train with the proper intensity level – This has to be the biggest mistake most people make when they are at the gym. They either workout with weights that are too much to handle or to little to make a difference. The former is typically committed by the males in the gym. We pride ourselves on our strength and athleticism but check your ego at the door of the weight room. Lifting too much weight than you are ready for will probably not benefit you. You will probably start to recruit other muscles to help lift the weight which can turn an isolation exercise into a full body workout. You will work up a sweat but won’t see any results. Even worse, you can possibly set yourself up for injury. I’ll tell you like my old high school coach told me; “Focus on weight and you’ll impress some guys in the gym, focus on technique and you’ll impress the girls on the beach”. That was enough for me, I’ve been refining my technique ever since! The best thing about lifting with proper form is that you will eventually become stronger than someone who just throws up weights recklessly. After a while, their progress will halt due to injury, muscle imbalances, and/or lack of stabilizer strength.

The latter mistake is done by everyone. Lifting a weight for 15 reps when you could have done 25 is a waste. Not only is that weight to light to trigger any significant adaption besides endurance, you didn’t fully challenge the muscle. Muscle growth occurs as a response to a stimulus, an overload. Many women lift very light weights because of a fear of bulking up like a man. In 99.2% of the women out there, this is not a valid concern. Women lack the amounts of testosterone needed to pack on as much muscle as the fellas. Even still most of the guys who they picture are professional bodybuilders who are using many “substances” to get that size. In my years, I have yet to meet an overdeveloped natural bodybuilder. Also, it is more than just training and rep ranges. You have to factor in your diet as well. Don’t eat like a horse if you don’t want to look like a pig.

7. Periodization – Periodization is the division of a training program into smaller, progressive stages. It sounds like an oxymoron but changing your routine up every few months prevents you from falling into a routine. Your body will keep adapting as long as you keep providing fresh stimulus. Have you seen people who go to the gym religiously and run an hour on the treadmill but can’t lose the pounds? It’s because their body has adapted to the workout. To keep seeing results and to stay motivated, change things up every 8-10 weeks at the max. Focus on endurance one month, strength the next, and so on.

8. Look forward to your workout – This is the final piece of advice. Don’t dread going to the gym like it is some type of chore. It is an active investment in your health and well being. Think about it like this, for every hour you spend in the gym, you are adding an extra day to your lifespan. Look at it in monetary terms, for every dollar you put in the bank you get twenty four back. That’s an awesome return you won’t find anywhere else. Factor in the magic of compound interest a.k.a working out continuously over the years and it gets even better. Start investing in your health today!

If this post has helped you in anyway, please feel free to make a donation to our “Lose Weight, Save A Child” fitness challenge. We are raising money to help those who need it the most. Thank you.

1. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
2. The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason
3. Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
4. As a Man Thinketh by James Allen
5. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
6. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
7. The Art of Worldy Wisdom by Baltasar Gracian
8. Acres of Diamonds by Russell Conwell
9. The Success System That Never Fails by W. Clement Stone
10. Maximum Achievement by Brian Tracy; The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles; A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard

There is a 3 way tie for the 10th spot. These are books that I think deserved to be on the list but I liked the other 9 better.

If this post has helped you in anyway, please feel free to make a donation to our “Lose Weight, Save A Child” fitness challenge. We are raising money to help those who need it the most. Thank you.

Whether you like it or not, the answer is you. At the end of the day we are all self-made but only the successful will admit it. Everyone else seems to find excuses why they can’t instead of reasons for why they should. We tend to find excuses like there is some type of reward for them. If there is, please let me know so I can collect! When I was younger I had so many but I stopped during my teenage years because I realized they didn’t do anything to change my situation.

William Jennings Bryan summed it up best when he said “Destiny is not a matter of chance, but a matter of choice”. Do not confuse your mental decision for not doing something with your physical capacity to do so. For example, don’t say you can’t quit your job when it really is that you won’t quit your job. Many people stay in an occupation they hate because they fear failing in something they would love to do. Nobody likes to admit they are scared so they come up with excuses such as I have a family to feed, I’m getting a little older, or a combination of both. On the surface those excuses seem like valid explanations, but when you get beneath the surface you find that they are still excuses. Read the biographies of some of the most successful people and you will find that most have come from humble beginnings like you and I or have had to overcome great obstacles. There is no difference between you and the person who lives the life you want to live unless you believe that there is.

Now that we have established that anyone can accomplish whatever they put their mind to, we’ll talk about creating your vision. When you are creating your vision do not focus on how just concentrate on where. Focus on where you want to go and not how you will get there. One of my favorite Walkerisms goes like this; “when a destination is chosen a path will be shown”. Too many people get caught up in the how to. It is impossible to learn every single detail and anticipate every problem. Sometimes you have to make your move before you are ready. The timing will never be just right and the initial plan will never be perfect. But be careful, failure to prepare is preparing to fail. It is very fine line you have to walk. On one hand, you need to have a well-thought out plan. On the flip-side, the most dangerous thing in life is taking too many precautions. That leads to analysis paralysis or paralysis analysis. I always get those mixed up. Analysis paralysis is when you think about every little thing and the sheer quantity of analysis overwhelms your decision making. Over time you will be able to make quicker decisions because you will have better judgment. Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment in the past.

The key is getting started, it doesn’t matter if you make mistakes. In fact, it’s only a mistake if you fail to learn from it. Don’t take it as a loss, take it as a lesson. Because once you’re out the there you can always adjust along the way if needed. It’s basically like a rocket going to the moon. Most rockets are off course ninety-seven percent of the time but they have built in a gyroscope to get them back on track. It makes the necessary adjustment to make sure it reaches its destination. Another good example would be a GPS. I have a Garmin Nuvi 660. My Garmin is a neat little invention and has definitely made my life a lot easier. I think I was one of the last people to get one. Anyway, when I want to go somewhere I put in my destination and get started. If I get off course somehow by missing a turn or unexpected detour, it automatically plots a new route to the same destination. That’s how you have to be when you plan your life. Just know where you want to go and be committed to getting there. There will be detours and some missed turns but you have the power to adjust and get back on track. How do you get back on track? You have to have concrete goals. Our next article will be about goal setting because any major accomplishment begins there.

If this post has helped you in anyway, please feel free to make a donation to our “Lose Weight, Save A Child” fitness challenge. We are raising money to help those who need it the most. Thank you.

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful”.
-Albert Schweitzer

“But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it’s better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you’re fighting for”. – Paulo Coelho

“If you are willing to do only what is easy life will be hard. But if you are willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy”. – T. Harv Eker

“You cannot change your destination overnight but you can change your direction”. – Jim Rohn

“Don’t become a victim of circumstance, become a victor of circumstance”. – Ryan Walker