Keeping It up:
If there was one thing I could ask you to read that I have ever written, it is this post. (so far)
This post Is Dedicated to Ian Smith, a man who doesn't even let the the most powerful government stop him from inspiring others
The First Step Is Always The Hardest:
This is ALWAYS the case. Be it actually making the decision to get into shape, or to make yourself get off your computer and walk to the gym. That is why if you find yourself to be easily manipulated by your lazy personality you need to adopt this rule:
Don't think, act.
See related article by Hector
The longer you think or the longer you debate and weigh the options the sooner you will get in your own head and find excuses. Be honest how many times have you LOOKED (in life or in your head) for excuses, and when you thought of one you agreed to it even though you knew deep down it was wrong.
That is why it is so important to control, because as soon as you start getting complacent, you start to snow ball.
I can tell you now from experience that keeping yourself in shape is a mental battle. The gym the diet that is easy to set up and follow but if you don't have the right attitude you will trip yourself up. And be prepared its a long haul game not some trend or whim.
The good news is you only really have to battle this for about a week to a month depending on you. Because soon after that you (as in your mind and body) will start to accept this as a regular part of your lifestyle. This rule follows for anything in life that is difficult initially or scary. That is why I believe it is so important to use this rule on aspects of your life that will benefit you in the long run, best.
For example doing something like mustering up the self discipline to change your eating habits is a journey
OUT of your comfort zone. But if you have the courage your comfort zone will expand to encompass that first fear and now your comfortable eating healthily and its natural and easy. That there is growing. And you want to be best at growing after all improvement is always positive by definition (unless misguided). So what better to get comfortable with doing than leaving your comfort zone?
Make sure you push out of your comfort zone on a regular basis (daily).
If you do this regularly, it wont matter if its approaching that celebrity you saw at your modeling job (I so did, to no avail though) or finally doing that run you said you would do.
If you leave your comfort zone regularly you get comfortable with the act of leaving your comfort zone. Which is a skill transferable across all aspects of life. A skill that is a secret to success in anything. And it is easy to forget that!
I see it in me and in others ALL the time. Some friends and members on this very forum do this, push out, and master their fear of approaching women, but use it as an excuse to be complacent with other things.
If you can master and control your own mind with one fear, you can with any. Sometimes I even need to remind myself this, actually not sometimes but regularly. Here I am smashing my body up everyday and fighting food cravings with success, but I have fears of putting myself out there on video like Daniels Youtube videos. I tell myself I'm too busy, or that I'm focusing on my body right now etc.. but its all an excuse! It's O.K. to have these thoughts as long as you can overcome them and catch yourself! So I tell myself that If I can walk past a Pizza place, a Coffee shop, another Pizza place, a Bar and a Chinese fast food restaurant all on the way to the gym everyday, when all I have eaten are protein shakes and some oats that day. And Do it EVERY TIME without stopping (even though It smells so good) and caving in, I can post a silly video. (Which is why you can expect a series coming from me soon in the next week!)
So next time you think that something is too hard or you cave to laziness, remind yourself you are capable of conquering [X] and put [X] in perspective to what you are contemplating not doing! If I can walk in front of 10,000 people in underwear then I can video myself. (That sounds very inappropriate)
This is why I LOVE working out, because it is almost an easy way to practice this. Because it is physical the results are much more obvious. Say I want to do 100 consecutive sit-ups. Maybe the 1st 75 are in my comfort zone after that every single sit up I do HURTS and sometimes a lot. I know this to be an opportunity to keep going and pushing out of my comfort zone till I reach my goal (100). Then I reward myself with rest. It because of this that I believe working out not only develops a good body but more importantly a strong mental health.
Soon you become a discomfort junkie with all aspects of your life. "It makes me uncomfortable? Lets jump right in!!!" soon you hunger for mammoth tasks and pressured situations where it really tests your character. It is what my attitude is now, I almost 100% sure Ian has this attitude, Daniel too. Sure it is VERY uncomfortable but the reward is 10 fold. The beauty is it never stops and it is not detrimental to you! The worst that can happen to you (see my latest adventure) is that you end up in a situation you don't enjoy but are glad you have experienced! Nothing is negative! But even then you need to be careful and watch out, be on guard. Because sometimes you exclude things from this and try to convince yourself that it doesn't fit into the growth category when you know deep down it does. So be on guard!!
Your Worst enemy is your mind. Master it and soon you will Master life. Because no matter what your situation is (See Ian) you have the ability to change your mind set, to find the positive. People can only affect this if you let them. It juts takes some good old BALLS.
But even this is not enough. Now comes the reality check for a few people in the round table and hopefully you. One thing I noticed since starting the whole process of self-improvement while being in this community, Is that members go through stages. You can see a trend in it.
Initially you see members who are new to the forum and are still learning and reading, (this is a very exciting time if your open to it!). A select group, which I wish was a lot higher take action and start building on themselves, consequently their participation increases and so does their excitement. These are usually people who desire a change, or wake up to the fact that maybe their life could be a lot better. Many struggle with admitting what they have been doing up to now might not be the best way to do it. Especially older guys but a good amount start to realize they have nothing to be ashamed of as we were all like that. So they carry on and start getting excited.
Soon though the persevering starts to get tough, maybe things are happening in their life that is distracting them. Few of these who are strong enough keep trudging on and the honeymoon is over, now its the grime. But these guys know that its not whether or not the hand they have been dealt is good (their situation) but what they do with it. Do they suck lemons or make lemonade? This is where I start to get excited about members because this is the moment when the changes stop becoming a fun thing they found on the internet and start becoming a lifestyle.
Now comes the stagnant stage when for a few months things seem to be going good but nothing more is happening. This is because they have achieved some drastic improvement. Hence they stick with what is comfortable what they are doing at that moment. Things are good but improvement has slowed. Then one day they have a change of mindset (maybe totally by chance who knows). Some realize exactly that they have stopped pushing out of their comfort zone because their comfort zone has now expanded to encompass what they do on a regular basis. So they set harder goals and go through the same feelings of getting the momentum going, taking the first step which is hard. It feels like they are starting all over again.
Then suddenly things 'click' and explode for them. They get girls left and right, jobs start getting offered to them, they are completely blissful and love the beauty of the world. People compliment them on their body's improvement. Everyone responds nicely to them and people start looking up to them in big ways. Its been describe as like an aura people just respond and seem to get drawn off you. I love it when this happens (and when It happened to me) it was like it was right there and all you had to do was muster the courage to reach out and take it. But life wouldn't be fun if you didn't have to change the way you think first!
But soon you may fall into a trap. I know (without mentioning names) a few have. And the same thing happens and your back to the same attitude of the new member but with some improvement behind you. But this time you are up in the hierarchy so your ego will have trouble accepting that maybe you are complacent and not growing. After all you are not doing anything negative and your life is good?! It is here that a majority have sat at this plateau. I mean why not? You have achieved a huge improvement and life is going great. But deep down they know they have reverted back to a stagnant state. And again they start falling pray to laziness and fears. And they know they are capable of so much more...
This is where you see excellence emerge, this is where it begins
A few start to realize that they are capable of SO MUCH MORE. They start to realize that wealth, peak health, general awesomeness (and a strange recurring theme of fame :S)is within reach and that it isn't really that hard at all, now it only takes time.
I hope I maintain the last attitude and NEVER let my comfort zone catch up to me. So that every time I notice that my comfort zone is nipping at my heels I increase my intensity and push away from it. Living in a constant state of discomfort that really isn't that bad at all. In fact there is a lot of inner peace when you adopt this attitude since you are always improving and you never feel bad or guilty about anything you let yourself make excuses for. Now truly the world is yours for the taking.
This might not be true for everyone, but I have seen it in a few people (less as you get higher up) so that has given me enough evidence that this is a possible time line of development.
When I first realized this whole process I thought that maybe I should not share it with everyone. I am 100% sure Ian went through this whole process at double time because of the accident he never stopped and everything he experience and wrote about a few months ago I can see happening in my life as well now (things he started noticing and how other people reacted around him. I have no problem admitting that Ian is a huge inspiration and role model of mine. The fact he did this all on his own (since he was the first and always ahead with this process) makes me humble. He discovered this path and walked it first. But now we have a rough idea we can start to optimize the journey and it is very simple.
Adopt and internalize the last attitude of NEVER letting your comfort zone catch up with you and you will rocket straight through all the stages without a single problem. It might seem difficult and very hard and I'm not sure I would have been able to invest that much into it and had the balls to do that way back a year ago. But who knows I was just a normal kid back then maybe you can prove to me it is possible to take that huge leap all in one mouthful.
I thought that maybe life and this lifestyle NEEDS you to go through all these realizations on your own and hence why I have not wrote about this for a while since I first thought of it. I haven't even shared it with anyone. I know though with a lot of members the process of attitude changes and life changes are so similar to mine I couldn't not notice the pattern. I gets quite weird when you think of something and write something and someone else writes the same things just in a slightly different perspective. Who knows other members have probably noticed this whole trend as well but maybe not the way I mapped it out.
Either way so far from who I have spoken to and read from I can only truly identify 4 people who are where I am, well 3 because I am sure Ian is far ahead as well. And that is not enough. It really isn't that difficult all you have to do is discipline your mind and control your negative thoughts and be humble enough to accept it. But so far the only people who have gone through this have done it on their own, although they shared their experiences they were not told what to do, they discovered it on their journey. I also thought that maybe it was purely by chance, that something in each of these 5 people lives had hit them at just the right velocity to make them resonate just enough to shatter the illusion they lived in. If that is the case then I am here to smash that so you can break through.
It is likely the people who this post should resonate most with wont accept it or wont humble themselves enough to realize their shortcomings. I mean no offense and I am not better than any of you, I simply started walking down a road earlier. And now I want to do what it takes to get you to follow even if that may offend or make you embarrassed. And I humbly ask you now to think hard of where you lie, honestly. And rejoice because this is when life gets truly interesting.
And this is by no way the end of the road! Who knows what is coming next, it is fascinating and exciting!
Please spread the word on this,
And I hope you found some part of this post that you can identify with, and I hope it helps you push through that plateau.
Feedback would be hugely appreciated on this as it was quite a big brain squeeze! I basically relived my whole year in my head to map it out, what a journey!! I felt all the emotions of it! Woa!
Live love and live more my friends,
and remember to push daily!
Jamie.
P.s. How hot is that chick at the start! haha!
The Journey Away From The Comfort Zone: An EPIC Journey...
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