Lessons from FAT CAMP

Above is a pic taken of me on the last day of a 2 week stint at “fat camp”. That journey has yielded some fruit that I think is worthy of sharing.

I don’t normally do all this self-promotion of my body, but I have a point I want to make. In fact, those who are constantly taking selfies and posting on Facebook generally turn me off. But for just a moment, I will become one of those people – at least for this newsletter.

First, I lost 20 pounds in 12 days of very hard work. That in itself makes me feel good, and makes the pain I endured for much of this time worth it.

Second, it brings to life something very real that is often talked about in generalities and motivational seminars, but is rarely ever acted upon. It’s along the lines of “if you want to make a change, then go out and bust your ass and make the change”. And “Nothing really worthwhile is easy”. There are all sorts of variations on that theme, but you get the gist.

What I did here is an example of actually taking action to change your life – no matter how hard that action is.

I am not trying to brag or pat myself on the back. But when I saw this picture of myself, I felt good about what I saw. I also felt good about the many hours of exhausting exercise that it took to make it happen. Exhaustion worse than I have ever experienced in my life – and I have done some tough things. I even got sick with walking pneumonia about halfway through and powered through 10 days of it anyway with no missed workouts.

No, I am not lean and buff, and I still need to lose another 25 pounds. But what I see is a guy who took on a challenge, and no matter how hard it was, he met that challenge. While I was making the most of my time at camp, many others in the group were just coasting – and their poor results show it.

How did I do this? I did it one workout at a time. I didn’t get ahead of myself. Even though I may be exhausted, I recovered and got ready for the next 60-90 minute workout and gave each one my all. I trusted the science of diet and ate exactly what they gave me and no more. I didn’t try to reinvent something that had been proven to work. I just put in the time, did the work, and BOOM, saw the results.

Every one of you has this type of thing in you if you will just get out of your comfort zone and go for it. It might not be losing weight, but reaching a sales or business goal, whatever goal in life that seems impossible.

Make a plan and go for it. Do the little daily things that are the key building blocks to the best of your ability, and you will be amazed at how the total can add up to an extraordinary thing.

It really is that simple. The road may be hard. But the more challenging the road, the better it feels at the end.