The Power of Never Giving Up

Lessons learned from 2021

I started 2021 in a new home in a new part of the country. As a result, my whole structure and routines were thrown out of sync, and it wasn’t easy to get back into the routine of getting my work done.

However, the thing I struggled most with was my exercise routine. Now, I usually exercise six to seven times a week. I use exercise to break from staring at a screen; it gets me up and gets the blood flowing. But, for some reason, this year, things didn’t go according to plan. I began on 1 January with a gentle jog around a local lake, only to have to stop after a couple of miles because of a calf strain. That stopped me from running for two weeks.

Not a problem; I also do circuit training (the old-fashioned word for Cross Fit) but found all the gyms in my new locale were closed because of COVID-19 restrictions. That meant I was left with setting up a home gym. Not ideal, but achievable.

Now, for some reason, I couldn’t get into a rhythm. I would exercise for a few days, then find an excuse to stop. At the same time, my eating habits disintegrated, and my weight went north on the scales.

Like most people, I know what to do. I’ve done it hundreds of times before. I know what I should be eating each day; I know exercise is fantastic — it leaves you zinging with energy and keeps you feeling healthy. Yet, for some reason, I could not get myself motivated. Every session I did felt like a burden. I was not enjoying it, and the intensity was very low. Meanwhile, my weight kept going up.

Now to give you some figures. My ideal ‘fighting’ weight is 80kgs (About 176 pounds / 12.5 stone), but over the first four months of this year, my weight went up to 86.5kgs (190 pounds / 13.5 stone)

Almost every day, in those first four months, I would write in my journal about how I needed to get back into my exercise routine, start enjoying it again and get back to eating healthily to stop my ever-increasing waistline.

By the end of May, something clicked. I’d had enough of finding excuses. I knew I could not accept being over 85kgs. That’s not who I am. I identify myself as an energetic force weighing 80 kgs who does not make excuses, yet I was moving further away from that identity. Something had to change.

So, in June, I set myself a 30-day challenge. I was going to exercise every day for a minimum of thirty minutes. I was also going to go back to my tried and tested diet of chicken salad for dinner.

Well, in June, I managed eighteen days straight and then something stopped me. However, this time it was different; even though I broke the chain after eighteen days, I got myself back into it the next day.

July, saw me go twenty-two days before breaking the chain; again, I picked myself back up and restarted the next day. This time I went twenty-three days before I finally had a valid excuse. I had my first COVID-19 shot, and the doctor told me not to exercise the next day. So, I took the day’s rest (I felt exhausted all day anyway) but got back into it the very next day. I then managed to complete my first thirty days without a break. My second COVID-19 shot, causing me to stop again.

And now, we are well into October, and my weight’s back down to 80 kgs, and I’m feeling myself again.

I’ve learned from this experience that you don’t fail whenever you think you failed unless you quit and give up. When I learned to ride a horse, Harvey Smith, a well-known British showjumper, always said that the first thing you must do is get back on whenever you fall off a horse. Falling off is part of the process, and so is getting back on and continuing. The same with anything you are trying to achieve. It’s never a straight line to success; it’s up and down, it’s forward and backward. It’s messy. But with resilience, a little determination and a clear focus on what you are trying to accomplish, you can achieve it.

But it also comes back to who you see yourself as: I see myself as a fit, healthy, energetic person, and the person I was for the first half of this year was not the person I identified myself as. So it was uncomfortable, and it didn’t leave me in a great state of mind.

Before you set yourself any goal, you do need to measure that goal against the identity you have for yourself or the identity you want to have. Of course, you can make that change at any time, but a goal is only the surface. The depth comes from the identity you want and whether achieving that goal will align with your new identity.

This means, if you want to set yourself goals that inspire, you need to start from a higher level. What will achieving that goal do for you? Will it move you towards the person you want to become?

I want outstanding levels of fitness and health, and I never want to retire. People like HRH, The Duke of Edinburgh, who passed away last April at the age of 99, retired when he was 97, inspire me. If I am to achieve such longevity, then taking care of my health and fitness now is vital. It is part of my identity.

So, as we go through the annual planning cycle, ask yourself: who do you want to become? Then work out what goals you can achieve to accomplish that identity.

Thank you for reading my stories! 😊

My purpose is to help as many people as I can live the lives they desire. To help people find happiness and become better organised and more productive so they can do more of the important things in life.

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