Life itself is chaos. One could argue that the constant pursuit of organizing this chaos is what defines our general purpose for being “here”. It becomes a bit redundant that we explain to everyone around how crazy life is because at this point in my 32 years of life it seems that’s actually the norm. I mean how boring would our lives be if we had to seek the chaos?
Now I know what you’re thinking, “If I could, I would reduce chaos to the most minimum”. Which initially sounds like the best approach to get what you want done. However, the one fault in that plan, is YOU and what YOU want. Who says that’s the way it should be? Especially as track records would show we are good at being wrong, as much, if not more than being right.
Before we step off the edge into an existential crisis we will move on, but I want you to think about how common, or more so absolute, the chaos of life is before we venture into the topic of CHOICE.
The beautiful part of the pursuit of performance and a healthy body: it’s all trackable and traceable. So even the most daunting of changes can be broken down to the simplest of processes. Unfortunately, when any problem, obstacle or task is in front of us we do a good job of blowing it out of proportion. Especially with more time passed.What we have to understand is every change we want to make or need to make is based on previous choices. A set of certain circumstances rarely come without choices surrounded them. Especially revolving around out our health and wellness.
I’ve spoken on this before our lifestyles are directly related to our habits. Our habits directly relate to our choices because our decisions each day to do something is what builds a habit. So if we understand this then why can’t we just change it? Why can’t we just wake up and charge ahead everyday? An answer I’ve found lies in our perception of time. See once time is past it’s impossible to grasp how long it’s actually been. That’s why by the time you hit your 10 year high school reunion it feels like a life time has past. Seriously, spend 10 years doing anything and you will be convinced a life time HAS passed.
Additionally, anything in the future can feel FAR away even if it’s a week or a month, simply because it’s not here yet, it feels far away. A big reason why anxiety creeps up on us for anything coming our way. Think about a long work day and the anticipation of home. An even more clear understanding of time’s deceptiveness overall is our anticipation of vacations. It seems like time crawls before but then after it almost feels like you never left. Crazy how the works right?
Our perception of time is deceiving and this creates a daunting aura around change. It feels impassible, especially if it’s something we yearn to have. That’s why it feels so good when we actually start making steps towards progress. Surmounting obstacles or challenges brings a reward feeling for a reason, it’s how we’ve evolved to be so productive. It’s in our nature to be productive so naturally we receive a positive chemical response in our brain through dopamine. That is also why it is so equally strong when it comes to addiction, that dopamine hit is enticing whether the habit is good or bad. So lets at least AIM for the good!
Understanding this allows you to be realistic in your approach to any change. Understanding that what’s done is already DONE. So it’s about making decisions that effect the future. However the future is ever changing so the wind in our sails can’t die at the first sign of trouble. This is the foundation of adaptability. If you cannot adapt to the chaos of life you will be the anxious one. Your decision to change must come with this understanding. We must build resilience against our psychological tendencies to self sabotage (mind you this is usually a comfort/trauma response based on settling into a physical/mental equilibrium).
Your decision to not work out is solely dependent on you and the only reason you haven’t yet is because you don’t truly want to. To truly want something there must be a desire, an alluring property that can armor you on the days of chaos. It isn’t your schedule, it isn’t your lack of knowledge, it isn’t insecurity, although those can be excuses that contribute to your stalling, it is not the REASON. The reason is you just havent made the choice to SHOW UP!
This doesn’t mean you’ll leave a life of perfection. Actually hopefully the opposite, you’ll understand that we have the time, we actually have nothing but time to actualize our potential. There’s really not much more we could do productively then pursue our would be potential. So the days that everything is against you. Understanding that one more day, one more positive decision is progress and that consistency in that progress, even small, is what brings the change closer to permanence.
Remember the only reason you’re not working out is because of YOUR decision not to. So today let’s act despite of that and get one day closer to our potential.
