Who does that?!

Yesterday I was blessed to spend a lovely afternoon with several friends. We went to a movie and then had dinner at Sweet Tomatoes (That rocked since I was in a total veggie mood this weekend!).

As things do around me, the conversation turned to health/fitness/weight loss... one friend asked me how my certification was going and what my plan was. After a while we were talking about general eating habits and one friend chimed in, "Does anyone /actually/ follow those silly guidelines like 'drink 8-8 oz glasses of water' and 'eat 5-8 servings of fruits/veggies a day'?"

Silence... you could almost hear crickets chirping... till I blurted out, "Ummm... I do. Every day."

"Really?! That's got to be like a full time job!"

"Not really. It's all in the planning and habit building. I don't even think about it any more."

It took me back to this entry by Kim - SparkPerson, figure competitor, and fellow ISSA Trainer - about what's "normal".

Tied together, it touches on what's at the heart of the struggle most "normal" people face when implementing, well, any change in their life.

It starts with discomfort from whatever the current situation - let's say their current weight is a lot higher than what they want.

Then all the Things You Know You Should Do come into play... this is where it gets sticky. There's a perception that all those Things You Know You Should Do have to come into play RIGHT NOW... as a "normal" person who's used to doing things on auto pilot - doing whatever, whenever - it takes a LOT of energy to make a massive course correction.

You have to LEARN your current patterns and motivations, you have to PAY ATTENTION to what you're doing, you have UNLEARN some habits, and BUILD new habits that are in line with what you want.

For the "normal" person, that's a really daunting task. When you look at someone who's already DOING all that, it can be overwhelming to think that YOU could do the same thing.

Here's the thing: If you're seeing someone who is where you want to be, take the time to find out how they got there. Chances are that they spent a good deal of time (as in 1-3 years) building a strong foundation, breaking down their goal into achievable baby steps, making the mistakes and learning from them, doing all the background work that allows them to do the focused, dedicated, daily action steps that makes it look effortless to the casual observer.

In essence, it's the 2-5 year process that creates an "overnight success"

_That_ is the kind of person who "does that."

With that, I leave you with this happy little video: What is success?