I don’t know if you know this, but Summer is basically here.  Have you been outside today?  It’s like 92° out there!  And you know what this means—vacations, pool parties, family gatherings, river trips, and other outdoor fun is right around the corner.

I know what you’re telling yourself.

“Here goes another summer of not being in the shape I want to be.  Too late now, I guess there’s always next year.”

But is that true?  Is it too late?  Will you do it next year?

Why haven’t you made the daily steps towards becoming the person you know that you truly are, yet?

The way that you’re feeling, the things that you’ve done, are completely and utterly normal.  We all do them.

The reality is, you can be in better shape by summer, and substantially so.  All you have to do is try less than you have in the past.

Kill the all or nothing mindset

You believe you need to be training ___ days per week, eating really well, getting ___ hours of sleep—and if you can’t, why even try?

“I’ll do it all, or I won’t do it, at all.”

It’s one of the most common mindsets we see derail great efforts.

So what’s the solution?

Under commit.

A tale of two friends

Meet Julie.

Julie joined a gym in the Fall to get in shape for her Spring break trip.  Based on her available time, she jumped into four days per week of semi-private personal training—no small commitment.  As she explored her options she was fairly sure she could squeeze the training into her already busy schedule.  The way she saw it, there are twenty four hours in a day, seven days in a week, and she only needed to find four out of the available 168.

“I’ll make it work,” she said.

And she did—at first.  But after a few weeks of starting strong, and with three sessions down in the next, work held Julie later than usual one night.  By the time she left the office, she just wanted to unplug, enjoy some food, and curl up to the latest Netflix hit.

“It’s all good, I’ll start again next week,” she thought.

And she did.  But, as you probably guessed, something came up again a few sessions later.

Julie committed to four sessions, but started only making three.   Before she knew it, Julie felt like she was failing.  This shift in mindset caused her to eventually give up, fully ignoring the fact that she was crushing three days per week.

Now, meet Emma.

Emma joined the gym the same time as Julie, with one slight difference.  Emma, like Julie, felt that she could squeeze in four days of training each week, but she was really comfortable with committing to three.  So that’s what she did.

Emma under committed.

She showed up week after week, crushing three days per, and by the time Spring break rolled around, she was ecstatic with the progress she’d made.

Julie and Emma both made it to the gym three days each week—plenty of time, as Emma found out, to make serious progress.

But Julie fell into the all or nothing trap.  Instead of adjusting course and recommitting to a more sustainable membership, she decided that if she couldn’t do it all, she wouldn’t do it, at all.

Be Emma, not Julie

Know that you can make serious progress towards whatever your goals are.

• Figure out what, in an ideal world, you CAN do.  List it all out.
• Under commit and choose only 1 of the items on the list, making sure it’s EASY to fit in the schedule.
• Crush it for at least 6 weeks, making sure it’s easily sustainable, before adding/moving on to anything else.

Your goals are more easily attainable than you can ever imagine, and they start with killing the all or nothing mindset.