They always make golf look so easy. Dirty liars.
I heard a sermon a few weeks ago at my church on how to shoot free throws in basketball. You have to know my church to know that this is not all that unusual.
The pastor said the two main things you need to have to make a free throw are focus and follow through. I would say that is true with reaching your health and fitness goals.
How many times have you said "That is it, I am going to (insert life changing behavior here), starting today!" You were absolutely convinced you were about to make that change. That day any way. Then as the days wore on, you slowly but surely slipped back into bad habits.
What happened? You definitely had the focus, but the follow through fell through. It's ok, it happens to the best of us. I saw the movie Bagger Vance a few years ago and I was bound and determined I was going to become an awesome golfer. Yeah that lasted about 4 weeks. I just couldn't follow through.
The main things that held me back from following through were: not having a coach, not having a compelling reason, and not enough time. Think about what held you back from reaching your fitness goal? It was probably something similar to my list wasn't it?
Most people that play golf will tell you that the first thing you need to do is hire someone to teach you how to swing the golf club. This way you don't have to unlearn a bunch of bad habits when you learn to do it the right way the first time. You will get much quicker results and avoid frustration. I would recommend you get a trainer for the same reason.
You know what my "compelling" reason was to become a golfer? I thought it would be cool. Boom, that will get you jumping out of the bed ready to take on the day won't it! Not so much. My reason did not mean that much to me, so neither did my commitment to the goal.
"It would be nice to run a 5K"
"I would like to lose 5 pounds"
Those goals are ok, but will they get you through the hard, frustrating times that are sure to come? Will it make you go for a run, when you have absolutely no energy and it's the last thing you want to do? Will it motivate you to change the way you eat, even when others around you are eating junk? Find that compelling reason and it will drag you kicking and screaming towards your goal.
I'm busy man I don't have to time to do this! That was my perception anyway. Here is a little fun fact for you that backs me up. If you are a terrible golfer, 18 holes of golf takes a looong time. But you don't have to play 18 holes of golf every day to get better. I could have been working on my swing in the backyard, going to the driving range for an hour, even playing putt putt would have helped!
I wasn't willing to get up any earlier, stay up any later, or do all the little things that would have made me better. Many people do the same thing when they have a long way to go to reach their goal. Just because you don't have 2 hours a day to exercise and prepare healthy food, does not mean you can't do something! Don't be paralyzed by what you can't do, dominate what you can do. Chip away (no pun intended) at your goal and hang in there, you will be successful.