When you are saving money for a big purchase, say…. a vacation, do you complain about saving money every day?
Are you like, “This BLOWS!”
“Saving money sucks!”
“I hate to save money!”
Or do you realize that while you aren’t spending that money on something that might bring you short term pleasure, you are doing something that is really going to bring you joy at some point down the road?
When we are saving money for a big investment, we realize we are doing something that is going to give us a return on our investment.
But when it’s other stuff we are doing that isn’t fun but will also give us a big return on our investment we complain and whine and moan and focus not on what the goal is, not on how we will get a return on our investment, but on how fucking miserable we are in the moment.
The biggest things we do this with?
Food and exercise.
When we decide to change the way we eat in order to change our overall health, we very often focus on how the process sucks, and we totally forget what the goal is.
The benefits of not filling your body with garbage in the moment are almost endless!
Your clothes fit, you don’t feel sick, your reduce blood pressure, you can easily bend over because your stomach isn’t in your way, your skin might be clearer, you might have more energy, you might stop the need for medication…
The list of final destinations is long!
But we don’t focus on that.
We focus on how hard it is in the moment.
We do the same thing with exercise.
If we aren’t regularly exercising, we are most likely focusing on how much we hate it.
We focus on the short term, in the moment stuff.
The process.
We don’t think about down the line at all.
We forget all about the metaphorical vacation.
We don’t think about how regular exercise will allow us to live a higher quality of life than when we don’t.
This reminds me of my favorite picture when talking about exercise.
I share this picture all the time.
There is a good chance the woman on the left focused on how much she hated the process of taking care of herself.
There is a good chance the woman on the right was focused instead on the vacation.
She knew that saving money every day would put her in a great position months — and years — down the line.
Most people don’t love to exercise when they start.
In the moment it’s not all that fun.
It’s hard and it’s tiring and it’s exhausting.
But when you do it (mostly) every day, it also seriously increases your chances that you’ll be living a life more like the woman on the right ten or twenty or thirty years from now.
If you aren’t taking care of yourself and it’s largely because you are focusing on how much you hate the process, it’s time for a mindset shift.
Think about where you are going.
Think about future you.
Stop focusing on your discomfort and instead focus on where you want to be a decade from now.
Start “saving money!”
Ten days, ten months, and ten years from now, you’ll be really glad you did.
Need more help making exercise a habit?
Join my free challenge!!!
It starts Monday, June 15th. The challenge is in showing up. It’s not a boot camp and I’m not giving out any workouts. I’m teaching you what you need to do to get past whatever is holding you back from taking care of yourself.
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