Have you had the same goal, year after year, every year, since time began?
I need to lose weight.
I need to spend more time with my family.
I need to stop… smoking, drinking, some other addiction…
These are all good goals, there is surely no fault in the goal. But how is the success? Have you succeeded? If you have, then you have embraced a critical piece of the puzzle that has to be navigated to achieve so many components of life. Embrace the need, for a “SUPERIOR PLAN”.
That is the key, to have a superior plan. Dr. Ben Lerner, co-founder of Maximized Living, and author of Body By God, the first book from the Chiropractor who has started a movement to change the world; wrote about the superior plan in Body By God, and he has used it in discussion many times over. It is important to possess that most awesome superior plan, that will allow you to achieve the results you yearn for.
Over the years I have taken care of some amazing people. I have had relationships with or taken care of those who have truly mastered superior health. Not fitness, but health… all components. Clean diet, peaceful living, great fitness. All five pillars of health. I have taken care of highly successful individuals, pastors who have led thousands of people if not tens of thousands to faith, business owners who have taken their companies public and made millions in a day.
I have seen mothers, who have built the most successful homes, with children who make decisions that seem infallible because of the wisdom these kids employ. The type of home that obviously is following a superior plan, a plan designed to build resilient kids.
However, the one thing that I have not seen on a very regular basis, is any one individual who has accomplished all of these things. Indeed they exist, but it is hard to find, and the reason is because it requires sacrifice in one area, to improve another. And though it is possible to be amazing at all of things listed above, most do not have the discipline to do so, which gives us an opportunity to focus in on a narrow list, and to do those things well.
A good question for you is simply this – If you have to make choices, and can only focus on a few things with great diligence. Should your health not be at the top of the list?
But what if all that was needed was a superior plan, and the discipline to commit? I have to say, after dozens of 40 and now 60 day challenges. The greatest problem that exists, when we present a superior plan, is simply discipline. Decision. It is a hard place to be, with all of the tools that you could ever need to succeed, and nothing left to stand in the way. That makes it awfully hard to blame failure on anything but yourself, and that is a rough place to be. Guilt and remorse tend to rule the day when we are in that bubble.
So. Here we are, the New Year is upon us. Now what to do? Well, the key to finding greater health on the cusp of a new year, is to make commitments, but small ones. If you drink soda, choose to drink NONE the entire year. But if that seems impossible, none til April… or July perhaps. Now, do I never drink soda? I think I had one about 8 months ago (I do drink the Virgils ZERO root beer), but when I first gave them up, I gave them up completely for over a year. Then it was over…. done!
So what kind of goal do you see for yourself? It is weight loss, then it needs to start with diet. I have been a partner in crossfit gyms for almost 6 years. Been running lifestyle classes for a dozen. We don’t exactly how to quantify the percentages, but we would say that success in weight loss is 70-90% diet, and 10-30% exercise. Which brings us right back to making decisions, and sticking with them.
The next 60 Day Turnaround is coming. The focus is mostly diet, because it is so important, but in the end it is always about discipline. Focusing in on the important decisions, and staying with them. So what about this new year thing, and using the new year? It all comes down to a feeling of renewal! Of revitalization… re-birth!
Even though it is only another day, God put something so huge in it, that we have a chance to start over. To be NEW in this week, and to see ourselves differently, as capable and accomplished beyond ourselves. To have a new ability to commit to the hard choices/decisions. To be able to make wiser choices and to stick with them. This is the blessing of the new year… and your time is right now!
I recommend you get committed now. Sign up for the 60 days that will start the rest of your life. End of January we will begin your journey.
Be well and be blessed! Dr. E