Just Do One Thing

          Welcome to afitnewyou!  Today I would like to help motivate you to reach your goals, by taking some of the pressure you might feel off when thinking about all of the things you need to do along the way towards achieving them.  Quite often, when we start to think about something, such as our fitness goals, we tend to start to over think the situation.  Our thoughts can then spiral away while we worry about everything involved.  It is at times like these when we need to think about the K.I.S.S. acronym..."Keep It Simple Stupid."  Rather than thinking about everything that needs to be done and becoming overwhelmed by it all, keep it simple and focus on just one aspect of what you need to do.  This is particularly effective and important when you are focusing on the one thing that you can actually do.  Focusing on something that you can do is crucial to you achieving your goals, because even if you can do one thousand things, spending your time and thoughts worrying about the only one that you cannot accomplish can derail you just as fast as focusing on too many things.  The easiest and simplest way to both start, and advance further down the road towards achieving your fitness goals is to start with the one thing that you can do.  Doing so will not only actually get you started, but it will also give you a sense of accomplishment, which will give you the drive to continue forward!   

          Being a teacher, during this time of year I start to plan ahead for the upcoming school year and set a list of goals that I would like to achieve by the end of that school year.  For a teacher, this is very similar to what many of us do at New Year's with goals for our health and fitness.  And goals are great when they are set up properly, as they lead us to somewhere that we want to eventually be.  But no matter what time of year it is when we set them up, one surefire way to never meet them is to become overwhelmed by them.  Sometimes people become so consumed with what they need to get done that they teeter out before ever getting on their way.  Have you ever gone on a vacation and tried to stick to an overly detailed and ambitious itinerary only to find that at the end of the trip you have become more tired than when you arrived?  If you were the one who made the list of all the "To do's" maybe the most important part of the vacation like "Relax" and / or "Have fun" was forgotten from the list.  With teaching, I know I have had project goals that I was so focused on achieving that I didn't get to enjoy my students' development as much as I should have during the process. Be careful with your fitness goals because the same can be very true.  Whether you are just trying to start out, or you are trying to get to the next level, there may be in fact a good number of things that you need to do, to ultimately achieve the goal.  But don't become so focused on EVERYTHING that has to be done when you can start better by starting with just one thing.

          Even on a day to day basis, in the gym, focusing on getting just one thing done will be helpful.  You most likely go into the gym with a plan for what you want to accomplish for that particular session.  Maybe your goal is to do an entire leg routine, or you are going to do Bi's Tri's and Abs.  That one exercise can become more complicated by pairing it with another exercise in a super set, or you plan on doing a number of sets.  And of course don't forget how many repetitions for any one set.  However you have to start with just one, and you will get the most out of any exercise simply by focusing on each individual repetition as it comes.  For example , this past summer I was training a college student who was home in between semesters.  While performing a set, he would ask me if we were going to be making a drop set, as I would incorporate them frequently into his work outs.  I asked him if it made a difference and he said it did as he wanted to "save some in the tank" for the drop portion of the set.  I tried explaining to him that he wasn't working to his full potential if he was trying to hold back for something later.  He would have been best off if he put 100% effort into the one thing he was doing right there.

         Another time focusing on doing just one thing is efficacious at the gym is when you are either trying something completely new, and / or you are coming back from an injury.  The fear of failure, whether you think you will not be able to do something because you have never done it before, and the fright you have when thinking that you might re-injure yourself often holds many people back from doing their best.  In fact, many people who have a relatively minor ache or pain, and not a significant injury, often don't go through with a workout because they are afraid of failing.  The classic joke "Patient: Doctor it hurts when I do this. Doctor: Then don't do that." rings in my head when I hear and / or see someone in the gym who is hesitant to train because of something ailing them.  Here is a perfect time when simply doing just one thing would be better than doing nothing.  If your back hurts when you dead lift or squat, then do a leg extension instead.  You feel a shoulder strain when doing an over head press?  Doing a lateral raise instead for your shoulders.  The body is very resilient!  I'm sure you can find just one thing to do while at the gym that is comfortable enough.

          I hope that everyone who reads this one day sets the World on fire by reaching their own unique fitness goals.  No matter what your goals are, there will be some sort of plan to get you there.  And whether you're required to do a lot or a little, everyone has to start somewhere.  Make your starting point simple; just do one thing.  Make that one thing the thing you enjoy most.  Make that one thing the thing you CAN do if you are just starting out and / or are limited in some way.  Start small.  The cliche goes, a journey of one thousand miles starts with one step.  Doing just one thing is the simple, yet effective way, you reach a fit new you!