What game are you playing?

Some conversations the past few weeks have led me to writing on this topic. This mornings email is intended to help you win in your fitness journey.

When it comes to life often times you find yourself playing a game. But the tricky part of it is you may not even know which game you are playing.

For example, millions of people start working out everyday but for various reasons. To help with the illustration lets agree that they are starting to play the game of exercise.

Some workout to lose weight which means they are playing the exercise to lose weight game. If they lose weight they feel like they are winning the game and if they gain weight they feel like they are losing the game.

Other people are playing the exercise to feel good game. If they workout and they feel good about the workout then they are winning. But if they either do not workout or did not feel like they got a good workout then they feel like they lost.

My last example is people who play the exercise to make progress game. This individual wins if they make progress but they lose if they slip back and lose progress. For example they may be trying to hit a specific strength goal or run a specific distance in a specific time. They measure winning and losing based on personal progress and achievement.

There are many other examples but hopefully these three have got you thinking about which game you are playing. Do you know? More importantly can you win that game?

The decision to exercise and eat healthy is more driven by your mind than you body. The longer I do this for a living the more I realize that our training needs to be more psychological than physical. We must recognize the power your mind and thoughts play into your consistency in the gym.

Can you win the game you are playing?

Losing is no fun. It can hurt self esteem and cause us to not want to play that game anymore. Remember that you are choosing the game you play. My advice would be to think about the game you are playing and how you are scoring it.

Are you even playing the game you want to play?

Or have you been influenced by others to play a game that is not really the game you want to play. This happens all the time in life. Media influences us so much. Next thing you know you feel like you have to look a certain way based on things you see and hear. So you enter the exercise to look a certain way game only to feel unsuccessful and quit all together.

I get it. I deal with it all the time. I meet with people everyday who are playing that game. My goal is to help people see clearly and set them up for success. And we make progress. More importantly we play the game that matters to them.

I believe that you being healthy is life changing. It will make you a better version of yourself. If you are in a slump and need support please reach out for help. Don’t try this alone.