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It has been a long time since I posted here at Get Fit Slowly. Mac, my understanding friend and co-author, has been carrying the load for the past few weeks while I’ve been doing some soul-searching.
I have not given up on fitness. I haven’t even been gaining weight. I’m exercising (though not as much as I should), and I’m eating healthiesh food (though not as much as I should). It’s as if I’ve been paddling in circles while trying to decide what this is all about. And I think, at last, I have an answer — or part of one, anyhow.
The long view
At my personal finance blog, I often write about the importance of setting goals. All of our financial decisions are based on our long-term plans, whether we know it or not. If we don’t have long-term plans, then we have no reason to manage our money. This leads to spending and to debt.
I understand this for personal finance, but somewhere along the way, my long-term physical fitness plans vanished into memory. I had a physical fitness goal when I started writing for Get Fit Slowly last January, but I’d forgotten it.
I remember it now.
It’s been a strange week for me. Last Saturday, I gave a presentation to about 50 people at the local public library. All this week, a local news station is running a series of clips featuring personal finance tips from an interview I did in August. On Monday, another local station called to see if I could do a live interview that evening. (I couldn’t.) And Wednesday night, I appeared live on a third television station.
When I got home tonight, Kris said: “The camera really does make you look heavier, you know.”
Ouch!
And suddenly I remembered my long-term physical fitness goal. I want to become fit so that when I publish a book — I now have an agent! — I don’t feel self-conscious during public appearances. (I struggle with those enough as it is without having to worry about how I look.) I want to lose weight and become healthy so that I can appear on television, so that I can make presentations, so that I can meet people who can help my career as a writer, and not worry that I’m being judged for how I look.
Charting a course
I realize that this goal is a little superficial. I should be motivated by goals like:
- Wanting to live longer
- Wanting to be healthier
- Wanting to be more active
- Wanting to avoid future medical costs
And sure, all of those things are great. But my actual long-term goal when I started this process was to get fit so that I could be ready to promote my writing career. When I think of the work I’ll need to do in a year or two, I know how I want to look and how that compares with my current state. My desire for change is a powerful motivator.
Now that I’ve remembered my long-term goal, it’s time for me to change course. It’s time for me to take back my brain. Over the next few days and weeks, I’ll attempt to create systems that draw upon this long-term goal as a means of affecting my behavior today. Instead of paddling in circles, I’ll chart a course to the future, and I’ll begin moving in that direction.
Mac
8 responses so far ↓
1 Lauren Muney - fitness and wellness coach // Nov 21, 2008 at 3:37 pm
You can have any “value” you want for keeping motivated towards your goals. It doesn’t matter what you ‘SHOULD’ want: the fact is, a ‘value’ is personal and it keeps you focused.
A “goal”, on the other hand, can be better explained as stepping-stones towards the success of that value.
If you can envision yourself at a fit weight, let that be the mental view that keeps you on your positive steps. (I always tell people that if it works to envision the negative consequences of doing the poor choices, use that as ‘how to stay away’. It works for me - every time I see chocolate I envision my butt getting bigger).
If you want to see yourself giving presentations, speaking engagements, and interviews in a fit size, USE THIS VISION to keep yourself on track. Just don’t stop the quality lifestyle when you get fit: retain the great-feeling habits to keep fit for the rest of your life.
2 Mrs darling // Nov 21, 2008 at 6:06 pm
My friend said she saw you on TV. I havent yet. What channel are you on and what time; 5:00. 6:00 or 11:00 news?
3 Nat // Nov 22, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I find without concrete short-term and long term goals, it’s very hard to stay on track.
4 brad // Nov 23, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Digging deeper, I think you have to get to the point where you really, truly, honestly want to lose weight. Speaking for myself, I can talk forever about how I’d like to lose 20-30 pounds, but deep down it’s simply not all that important to me so I’m not disciplined about it…and therefore I don’t lose weight. It’s especially hard for me because I’m thin everywhere except my belly, and most of my friends laugh when I say I need to lose weight (although fewer of them do now, which means my extra weight is more noticeable). I’m 6′4 and less than 200 pounds, but for my frame my ideal weight is closer to 175. I could get there quickly if I wanted to, but so far I obviously haven’t wanted to badly enough. That’s all that’s stopping me.
I think you have to get to the same point that you got to when you started turning your finances around. Whether it’s self-disgust or a more positive motivation, whatever gets you to the point where losing weight suddenly becomes more important to you than eating that next cookie, that’s when things will start to turn around.
5 Lynn // Nov 24, 2008 at 2:18 pm
I think what commercial advertisers know, that the rest of us struggle to figure out in our own lives, is that it just works better to align your goal with where the juice is for you. I mean, who really cares what paper towels or detergent you use? So they associate them with something you do care about to get you to choose one brand over another. If the thing that has an emotional charge for you around losing weight is to look better in front of an audience then I suggest you go with that angle and amplify it shamelessly to your own advantage!
6 Sally Parrott Ashbrook // Nov 24, 2008 at 2:42 pm
It’s your goal, for you alone. If it keeps you motivated, it’s a fine goal. If it doesn’t keep you going, then it’s either not a great goal or it’s not important enough to you to make you stick at it.
For what it’s worth, I consider you a handsome guy. I think most of us are more critical of ourselves than others are. But unless they are distractingly ______ (huge, hairy, whatever), I don’t watch authors and others speak because of how they look or don’t look. I want to see the substance. I want them to keep me interested. I think you have all that down.
7 Cathy @ Chief Family Officer // Nov 24, 2008 at 9:40 pm
I just wanted to say that you’re not alone, J.D.! I know that I *should* be motivated by wanting to be healthy for my kids, to be able to run after my grandchildren in my old age, etc., but the truth is, I’m motivated by wanting to look good! But - whatever works. That’s what I keep telling myself (my Weight Watchers leader says that over and over again as well).
8 Andrew is getting fit // Dec 4, 2008 at 11:11 pm
I think being honest and working towards the goal that motivates you is more likely to let you succeed.
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