Four days ago my guy Jon over at Chasing The Top (site no longer exists) made a post about how he was upset with himself. Before I get into the details of this let me tell you a little something about this guy. Jon brings it, and brings it hard! This guys works his tail off day in and day out and has a diet that’s completely locked in. I mean I really believe I work hard, but in comparison to what he does it almost seems like child’s play. He’s always keeping a positive attitude, working hard, and being supportive of others. He’s just a good dude who is very inspirational.
Well on this day he was bumming from a recent bout of binge eating that had taken place after a series of unfortunate events that left him in a foul mood. After 8 weeks of sticking completely to his strict diet he went way off course. Was this something that was going to derail him? Of course not, with someone who has as good of habits as him he’s going to keep moving forward.
That said I get it. Those of us who are very passionate about what we do in fitness can be pretty extreme sometimes. When you work that hard to be as close to perfect as possible, it’s disheartening to go that far off path even if only for a day or two. We hold ourselves to very high standards and demand the best from ourselves so when you don’t do your best it’s disappointing. After all the sacrifices we make we expect a lot from ourselves.
So why am I sharing this with you guys? It really goes to show that we are ALL human. I think it’s nice for people who do struggle with this stuff to see that even elite fitness buffs struggle from time to time too. That expecting perfection is unrealistic and everyone out there has their own battles. You don’t have to be perfect to get results, it’s not an all or nothing game. Just because you have one bad meal or one bad day doesn’t mean it’s all for nothing and there is no point.
It’s just a mistake that we have the opportunity to learn from. Learning from our mistakes and when have a failure is what helps us grow as individuals. How you react when you have a failure is critical. Do you get tough and work on making sure you don’t do it again or do you focus on the negatives and let it destroy you and tear you down? Failure is not falling down, failure is falling down and not getting back up again. If you focus on the negatives it’s time to turn that around. Start focusing on the positives. The fact that you care so much that it gets you down when you do make mistakes is a GOOD thing, it means that you care. You just have to learn how to deal with them and make improvements.
You won’t go from someone who struggles frequently to perfect, but you can make slow continuous improvements. As long as you are doing better than you used to do you are improving. Slow progress is still progress. Stop demanding so much from yourself. Stop comparing yourself to others. You shouldn’t be trying to do better than anyone else other than yourself. That’s your only competition.
This is a lifestyle and you have to be in it for the long haul if you want lasting results. So there is no time limit to get where you want to be, just keep moving forward. When you do get there, keep moving forward! Leave your mistakes in the past and work on the present and the future. You can never undo what’s done but you sure as hell can do something about the future. That’s all any of us can do.
As for Jon he of course got back on track and is once again killing it and doing incredible things. Most recently performing the human flag, nuts!
