If you don’t have the option to watch the video because you’re at work or can’t listen to the audio at the moment, below is, essentially, the script for the video.

If you’d like to watch the video on YouTube or engage in the comments, you can watch the video through this link.

---

Most of us are in pursuit of some sort of transformation. Some are looking for better health and physique. Some want more money and stable finances. Some want a life with more autonomy and freedom, more adventure or travel.

Whatever the transformation is that we are seeking, it usually isn’t something that happens overnight. These transformations take time – enough time that we need to change what we consistently do. We need to change our habits!

The challenge is that our brains and our environment are designed to operate in a certain way, and changing that encounters resistance. The bigger the shift we seek to make, the more resistance we’ll encounter.

If transformation were as simple as wanting something and it just happening, we’d all be and have exactly what we want! But it’s not that simple. So, how do we start and continue the transformation process?

Transformation occurs as we move along a path. The further we go, the greater the transformation. Unfortunately, we don’t always think about the direction each path in life takes us, and it’s not until we look up and see where we are that we choose to change things. 

Intentional transformation requires 2 things, prioritizing a direction and a taking one step after another.

This is why I coach people with 4 things in mind…

1^st, Prioritization and Personalization. The most important component of progress, is understanding the most important thing – your priorities. Without actively choosing the direction of your life, the world will choose it for you. So, you have to decide what’s most important to you. You need it to be personal. It needs to resonate with you… because when you encounter resistance, when doubt creeps in, your belief in this path is what will give you the strength to press on toward your goal.

2^nd, we look to Overcome Obstacles. I already mentioned that change will encounter resistance. Well, there will be obstacles. These can be things like distractions from doing the work you need to do, friends asking you to do things that you don’t want to do anymore, or temptations in your environment to indulge in things that pull you away from your new goals and back toward your old habits. It’s important to acknowledge that these obstacles exist so that you can set up plans for how to avoid them whenever possible and for how to deal with them when they can’t be avoided. 

3rd, as you make progress toward your goal, you want to set Meaningful Milestones. These checkpoints help you identify when you’re really progressing toward your goal. They also serve as points to level up your habits. Usually, to shift our habits, we start with tiny changes and gradually build them up. These points of leveling up are significant milestones, encourage us to keep going, and show that we are capable of living the new life we dreamt of. 

4th and finally, we look at a long life of leveling-up. We consider all the changes you made, how you picked a path, made micro changes, overcame obstacles,  leveled-up and made bigger changes. We look back at how you did this, learn from the successes and failures, so you can plan to keep moving forward, living your new life, doing the things you want to do!

It’s a simple process, and when your habits and goals are approached properly, they become clearly achievable! It still takes some work – don’t assume that it’s always fun and easy – but it’s doable…for anyone! Especially you.

Before you take the next step toward this new life, I want to remind you that every journey is easier and more likely to succeed when you have support, when you have friends taking the journey with you. So, if there’s anyone that you’d like to bring along with you, consider sharing this video with them and tell them you’d like them to join you. You might be pleasantly surprised by their response!

So, if you’d like to get started with your transformation, check out the Healthy Habits page!

It might not be what you think!

Too often, we think that image is everything! Especially on social media, we see people who are “in-shape” without having any idea about what they are actually physically capable of, what’s going on underneath, their quality of life, etc.

Let’s focus less on image and more on functionality!

As always, I hope you find this video useful and am looking for more ways to add value to your life!

If you have questions about health, fitness, strength and conditioning, mobility, nutrition, or anything related, feel free to ask me!

How to Proceed Wisely

While this is actually the 3rd video I’ve put on Youtube (and the 1st I’ve put on the site), I wanted to share here for those of you who may not yet subscribe to my channel there. (Wink wink)

This video is for you if you’re considering…

• Going down a new path in life
• Starting a new job or career
• Starting a business
• Moving to a new place
• Starting a new relationship
• Trying something risky
• How to get back on track in life, health, business, mentally, financially, etc.

In the video, I’ll talk about…

• How to prepare for a new path wisely
• How to look out for and support someone trying something new
• The realities of getting back on track when you find yourself in a less than desirable place

Many of us grew up hearing, “Look both ways before crossing the street!” Mid-run, as we barreled toward the road, one of our parents would holler at us, reminding us to be safe, looking before we leap, so to speak. 

Some of us might have been told, “Don’t forget to stop and look both ways. Then, if it’s safe, and there are no cars coming, you can cross the street.”  

Now, you might be thinking, “That’s pretty much the same thing.” Pretty much, yes; the gist is the same. However, there are a few seemingly minor differences that go much deeper into the messages communicated. 

In the first version, it’s implied that crossing the street is going to happen and that to keep us safe, we need to do something first. The second message has something rather sinister lurking within. Instead of assuming we will progress across the street, we’re told to stop, first. We’re told to review the situation. Then, we have to perform an analysis of it’s safety. If our calculations are favorable, we can re-evaluate our decision and are granted permission to proceed across the street. 

So, what’s different? Not only did it take a lot longer to explain the sequence of the second message, it contains subtle inhibitors to progress.  

• Stop (The initial – and most obvious – inhibitor of progress. Side note: Stopping isn’t even always necessary.) 
• Review (Useful but time-consuming) 
• Analyze (Again, time-consuming. Plus, who knows how long we might take to form an assessment when we get caught up in the variables?) 
• Re-evaluate (Now, we allow doubt to creep in. Instead of assuming we will cross, we have to question if crossing is even something we want to do.) 
• Await permission (In this case, permission is given by the instructor and is conditional upon the previous criteria, safe crossing conditions.) 

Each of those, in some way, slows down progress. Admittedly, I may be exaggerating the situation a bit, but the principles carry into an infinite number of other scenarios where the impacts of each of these thought processes is increased. 

---

Now, before I continue, let me say that I am likely guilty of giving this type of instruction. It may be because I receive instruction like this often, and I end up reflecting it onto others. Either way, I know that I’m guilty of internalizing this as is evident in my proclivity to over-analyze, over-think, and not take action. (See Analysis Paralysis) While I find great value in identifying risks and obstacles to ensure a clear path, this (sometimes) obsession with “what-if”s too often results in me not taking any action due to the possibility of resistance. Ironic, right? The greatest obstacle or resistance is coming from me. With that said, let’s get back to the practical examples. 

---

Previously, I mentioned that those principles can show up elsewhere. Where? In almost every act or decision we make. Of course, if we gave that much analytical thinking to everything, we’d freeze up and die, so while it probably doesn’t happen in every situation, there’s likely an argument that it could show up in any situation. 

To give some common examples, it can show up in decisions to improve eating habits, start a new job, make purchase, write an article, or even post a picture on social media. Consider how often we’re told to “stop eating junk food” instead of “eat more leafy greens and protein”. This leads to people being even more hungry and frustrated than they were before, and they don’t even see the results they wanted! 

What about changing jobs? “Don’t quit your job! Think about the benefits you might miss out on.” “What if you don’t end up liking your next job, or what if you fail?” How many people do you think stay unproductive in jobs they don’t like because of those fears instilled within them by others? 

Don’t overspend on a purchase. Don’t publish something off-brand. Don’t post unless the photo looks professionally edited or, at least, shows only your best features. What if instead of being told or thinking about what not to do (and doing nothing), we reframed these instructions into how to do those things. 

Don’t…	Do…
Don’t eat junk food.	Eat more meats and veggies.
Don’t quit your job.	Find a good opportunity before you quit your job.
Don’t overspend on things.	Buy valuable things with a fair price.
Don’t publish something off-brand.	Publish articles with an authentic perspective.
Don’t post unless…	Post your favorite…

These convey the point that each negative, inhibiting thought can be reframed into a positive, encouraging one.  

What are some actionable take-aways to start doing more? 

• When you hear someone tell you – or worse, you tell someone else – “Don’t…”, try to immediately flip it to a positive action. 
• When you stop yourself from taking action out of fear of what could happen, assume that you will overcome any obstacle and that your progress is inevitable. The path you take may change, but you will get there. (I.e., you will cross the street. You may want to look first, but you will leap!) 
• Give yourself permission! Even if there’s a fear of failure, (while you don’t need my permission to do so,) you have permission to fail! You have permission to do things, and when the responsibilities are yours and the consequences of your decisions impact you, you don’t need permission from others. *Reframe: …you can proceed without permission from others.)

The reality of time is that it will pass, regardless of our action or inaction. That means that even when we are doing “nothing”, we are doing nothing. We can’t not do. (A double-negative is a positive, but it can still feel negative.) We do things, always. Time moves on either way, so we might as well make progress. 

---

If you would like help reviewing your own self-talk or making progress on a goal of your own, you can check out my latest coaching offer or contact me with any questions!

I don’t know if you’re an early bird or a night owl. Me? I’m firmly on the night owl side. I prefer staying up late and sleeping in until my body says I’m rested enough to take on the next day. So, when I heard Jessie’s excitement at waking up early, I understood why he was excited but knew that my default is usually less keen on early mornings. 

In fact, growing up, my dad used to take my brother and me fishing on the weekends. (Well, he still tries to get me to go any chance he gets.) I remember so many early mornings waking up to him getting ready in the motel room in whatever Texas coastal town we were visiting and just wishing he’d be quieter so I could sleep in another three or four minutes… or hours. Naturally, the best fishing was usually right around sunrise, so sleeping in more than three or four minutes wasn’t really an option for me. I would begrudgingly roll out of bed, pull my clothes over my lethargic body, and drag my feet from the room to the truck and the boat. I enjoyed fishing and the reward of catching fish by being in the right spot at the right time, but you still couldn’t convince me that getting up early was something to look forward to!  

Now, as an adult, I’m used to dragging myself out of bed. I know what happens if I allow myself to sleep in and what I’ll miss out on if I do. I know that I have to go to work on-time. I know that getting to the fish when they’re biting gives me much better odds of catching one. Now that I know that, I can plan ahead. I can go to bed earlier, even if it still takes a while for me to actually fall asleep. I can change my routine, my beliefs, and my behavior to my benefit. 

Here’s what we can take from these examples. Understanding others’ perspectives can evolve our own ways of thinking. Asking questions about why someone would do something you wouldn’t do can change your own way of thinking. It comes down to understanding others’ perspectives, not judging them. 

Whether the other person is someone in a movie who wants to get up early to see his killer whale friend or is your father who gets up early to be on the water at sunrise, we can learn something. These are, in my opinion, the relatively easy differences to tackle. So, what about the hard ones? 

What about differences in religion or culture? What about the opinions of those who are part of a different demographic, who had a different upbringing, who lived a different childhood and adulthood? Can we still approach these differences the same way? It’s not that easy, is it? We can’t overcome decades or centuries of differences by reading an article and trying to follow the suggestions of that one guy!  

Why not? I’ll seek to understand your perspective if you seek to understand mine. And that’s the point! 

It’s about seeking to understand the perspectives of others, not about placing barriers of prejudice around them. Don’t get me wrong; I definitely judge others. Yep, I admit it. I do. I have biases. I was raised to believe certain things, and you may not agree with them. That’s okay. The positive thing about me sharing this is that I’m aware of it, and that awareness is what allows me to challenge myself, my understandings, my beliefs, and to grow as I better understand others. 

Still, sometimes, I don’t agree with others’ perspectives. For example, I don’t fully align with why some people buy luxury cars. I don’t need a premium package or all the bells and whistles. I had a moon-roof on a car once. It never served me. I didn’t like having it open…ever. I would have been happier without it. But… just because I don’t need it and don’t get why someone would spend extra money for a premium feature when I prefer functionality (and yes, I realize it’s not that clear-cut and that there’s plenty of overlap), that doesn’t mean that luxuries are inherently wrong. It doesn’t mean that moon-roofs are pointless. I may fail to see the point, but that doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist.

So enough about cars and fish… What can we take away from this that will serve us? How do we actually tackle the big issues? How do we improve our lives and the lives of others? 

Here’s what can be done when you encounter a difference of opinion.  

• Pause. Stop judging.

• Ask questions. Seek understanding.

• Question your own thoughts and beliefs.

• Ask yourself, “Can I benefit by adjusting my thoughts and beliefs?”

What can you take away from the perspective of others and use to evolve your own? Taking those few (or many) moments to pause, reflect, and seek to understand has the potential to improve not just how and when we wake up but how we approach our relationships, our daily decisions, and how we live out our lives. This is how we advance the human race. 

So, are you listening? Are you asking questions? What’s one thing that you wish you could change? What simple practice do you wish you could change but believe you can’t?  

Do you wish you could wake up earlier but don’t want to? 

Do you wish you could be more active but prefer to sit on the couch, watching TV? 

Do you wish politics weren’t so problematic but you “know” they’ll never get better? 

Do you wish your neighbors didn’t act the way they do, but feel like there’s nothing that can be done about it? 

… 

What if you could change that? What would you change? What perspective do you need to challenge of your own, and whose perspective do you need to better understand?

Disclaimer: This article does contain Amazon Affiliate links. Side note: I only include references to a product because I find value in the book. If you’re not interested, just enjoy the article! If you want to buy the book and the best value is through my link, I will appreciate the support.

---

Look in the side mirror. Maybe check the rear-view mirror? Yeah, best do it, just in case. Check over the shoulder for the blind spot. Turn on the turn signal light… or is the signal before you check your mirrors? Oh, well. Then, I can change lanes. Now, do I have to stop and turn off and on the signal in each lane, or can I just keep going? Umm… oh, crap… I missed my exit! 

That’s basically analysis paralysis. It’s a situation or task you analyze so much that you can’t do it at all. Analysis paralysis is a plague that seems to affect the thoughtful, those who care, those who want to do things the right way or who want to make the right decisions. It may show up in a number of things! I’ll hit on a few examples in this article because analysis paralysis can affect all of us, but it doesn’t have to. 

Some of you may lift weights; some don’t. Some of you may be CrossFitters; most aren’t. Some of you may have at least seen Olympic weightlifting on TV or social media. Well, if you haven’t, just YouTube it. The reason I bring it up is because the Olympic lifts – the Clean & Jerk and the Snatch – are probably two of the most complex movements in an exercise repertoire. To make it simple (Hint: that’ll be on the quiz, later), the clean is just picking something off the ground to the shoulders, and the jerk is pressing that object overhead while getting underneath it. The snatch is just doing the same thing without stopping it at the shoulders. 

Okay. Now, some of the Oly lifters reading this just lost their minds because that horribly underrepresents the technique, finesse, and skill required to perform these magnificent movements! Well, that’s the problem! Yes, these lifts literally take years to execute properly, and the perfect form is highly subjective. Examining just the snatch, you have to be mindful of the following performance points: the wrist over the bars, knuckles under the bar, the lat engagement, the stance, the first pull, second pull, third pull, the shrug, the shoulder activation, the squat, the lock out, the pause at the bottom, the final rise to glory!

OMG!!! Now that you’ve read that and once someone explains it all to you, you can do the lift, right? Ha! This is why so many people don’t even bother trying to learn the lift. It’s just too much! As an athlete, I’ve over-analyzed these myself. As a coach, I’ve been guilty of telling someone too much too fast. Again, these lifts don’t have to be so complicated, and I’ll explain how later. 

Unless you’re under 16 years old, a New Yorker, or outside the U.S., you have probably driven a car. You probably remember your driving lessons. Maybe your parents put you in the parking lot and gave you the scary, constant corrections and instructions. Maybe you took lessons at a driving school and were taught the acronyms of how to start the car or how to change lanes. (SMOG – Signal, Mirrors, Over the shoulder, Go! Even I can’t believe I still remember that one.) Maybe you, like me, also ride a motorcycle. Maybe you can drive a stick-shift (aka manual transmission).

In any case, you’ll recall the many considerations to be mindful of in given scenarios. Heck, even going straight, you had to keep hands at 10 and 2, occasionally check the mirrors to be aware of surroundings, and keep a distance of 1 car length per 10 mph you were going at any given time to ensure you had enough distance to brake without hitting the car in front of you. Eventually, after a year or so, it got easier. We’ll touch on that soon. 

Now, where else does analysis paralysis show up frequently? If you avoid the weightlifting platform and don’t have to drive anywhere, can you avoid it? Probably not. It shows up all the time! It keeps us from picking a college to attend, from choosing a career path, from deciding to get married or not, even from picking which toothpaste to get from the store! 

As a quick note, this isn’t the same thing as decision fatigue, where the decisions made over the course of a day tire us out the point that we struggle to make any more. This is an overload of the brain in an instant. This is trying to cram too much data through a processor that just can’t handle the load and the inputs.

The brain has built in systems to prevent too much data from going through. Case in point, consider what physical sensations you have right now. Can you feel any joint pain or aching? Can you feel the pressure of your seat or the floor under you? If you hit your elbow against the wall, clap your hands, or bite your tongue, are you still aware of all the other lesser sensations? Probably not. Why? The brain can only take so much input in a given moment before it shuts down. Pain is just a data input, similar to the data of remembering all the requirements of a lift or of driving. There’s only so much we can handle.

So, how do we handle it? How do we avoid the paralysis? Even more, how can we perform and make improvements? Simply. 

That’s all… Keep it simple. Start with one thing and master it. Once it’s second-nature, add something else.

When you lift a weight, start light. Break down each component; it doesn’t matter where you start, really. Just master one thing, and add another. Connect the two, and add something else. Eventually, you will master the full movement. 

When you were learning to drive (if you learned), it was a lot to take in at once, so you took it slowly. You focused. You avoided distractions. You might have been taught to not have others in the car with you for a while or to keep the radio down. All so you could focus. Eventually, things became natural. You just innately knew what to do. It was like riding a bike, as they say. (That could have been an article in itself!) 

What about life decisions? What about the daily challenges that we face? How do we handle them? Simply.  

Again, keep it simple. This could be done in a lot of different ways, but I’ll propose one model for you that I use myself and with clients I coach.  

Start with priorities. Outline for yourself what is most important to you. Develop that into your identity.  

Who are you? What are you? How does that type of person act? What kinds of things does that person do and avoid? What do you allow, and what are your limits and boundaries? 

From there, it’s fairly simple. When faced with a decision, you just run the options through your identity filter. (Maybe I’ll trademark that.) Rather that thinking about all the pros and cons, the what-ifs, the what-abouts, just simply ask if that person would choose it. Yes or No. FYI, adding in Maybe to your list only complicates things, so try to avoid it. 

Viktor Frankl states in Man’s Search for Meaning, 

“For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What  matters, therefore is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a  person’s life at a given moment.” (pg. 108) 

Admittedly, I’m probably more guilty of over-analyzing things than most. I can’t tell you how many years I wasted (okay, it was probably about 9) thinking about what I was meant to do, what I was placed on this earth to do. Years were spent doing little other than thinking about what my life’s purpose could be instead of just living purposefully. Trying to analyze all of life’s inputs (yes, all of them) to come up with a single purpose that will direct every decision you make from now on is overwhelming. So much so that it prevents us from doing anything at all. Guess what, if I figured anything out about life’s purpose, it’s this… doing nothing but thinking isn’t life’s purpose.

If there are too many inputs, too many variables, or too many options, then how do we move forward? Essentially, don’t overthink it. Just take on one thing at a time. There’s plenty of time to get around to the rest, but there isn’t time to waste being paralyzed. Get moving, one step at a time.

FYI: This article makes a few references to Christianity, the Bible, etc., but the lessons within are applicable to non-Christians as well, so if you don’t identify with some of the references, I hope you will still benefit from the lessons within.

For years, I’ve seen messages about “waiting on the Lord”. Today, I saw another, and it sparked a question within me.

What does scripture mean when it talks about “waiting” on the Lord?

Christian song lyrics about waiting go like this…

“Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord” (Chris Tomlin)

“I will wait for you there, down on my knees where I met you” (Phil Wickham)

What do these writers mean by “waiting”? Do they mean that they’re not sure what God wants them to do, so they’ll just pray and wait for an answer? Even then, does that mean that they’ll just sit idly until an answer is given?

Regarding the song lyrics, how does strength rise if you don’t do anything but sit around, “waiting”? As a health coach, I can promise that you don’t get stronger by just sitting around. In reference to the other line, if God calls us to make disciples, which he does, why wait in the same place you met him? I don’t know where you met God, but people definitely aren’t lining up, flocking to me to see what I’m up to. Nobody wants to follow the person who discovered something so amazing that he just sat there and did nothing!

Now, to many of you reading this, perhaps you already realize that the questions above are obviously assuming an improper use of the term “waiting”. If you, like me, have misunderstood this for a while, let’s be enlightened together!

While the word “wait” comes up between 129 and 214 times in scripture (depending on the translation you look at on Bible Gateway), there are only a couple of verses in the Bible that I found that refer to waiting on the Lord. 

Psalm 27:14 - “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

 Zephaniah 3:8 - “‘Therefore wait for me,’ declares the Lord, ‘for the day I will stand up to testify. I have decided to assemble the nations, to gather the kingdoms and to pour out my wrath on them— all my fierce anger. The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger.’”

Psalm 27 (in context), believed to come from David, the perspective of a king/shepherd, shows that doing nothing is not in his nature, so what could be meant by waiting for the Lord?

Zephaniah references the day the Lord will serve justice, in a manner of speaking, so what are we doing in the meantime, if we’re told to wait, especially if we don’t know when that’s supposed to happen?

In the Parable of the Ten Virgins, Jesus talks about those who were ready with lamps and extra oil versus those who were unprepared and ran out of oil, having to get more, missing the wedding banquet (a symbol for Jesus’s return).

Mathew 24:45-46 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.”

Clearly, it seems that being unprepared or idle is not intended when being instructed to wait upon the Lord. Instead, it would seem that to wait is better understood as used in the food service industry. Waiters, at least those who do it well, don’t stand around. They are attentive to the needs of those whom they serve. They are also referred to as “servers” for this reason. 

So what can Christians take from this message? Don’t sit around, idly, for the Lord to come to you with revelation or, even, to your aid. Don’t presume that waiting on unanswered prayer means to stay where you met God, choosing to not grow, not do, not engage with others until He answers (or you understand that He has answered). In fact, being receptive and perceptive to His answer is part of the implication of waiting! Be attentive! Don’t stand around until He comes tapping you on the shoulder asking what you’ve been up to or why you’ve just been sitting around. Don’t wait until He asks for something the second time because you weren’t paying attention the first time he asked.

Get to work. Be attentive. That’s what waiting is.

What does waiting mean outside of scripture? Well, the lesson isn’t very different. Maybe it’s less about prayer, but it’s no less about communication with those you serve.

Stay in service to others. Stay attentive to the needs of those around you. Develop your skills and knowledge. Prepare for the next opportunity because when opportunity (or God) comes knocking, you better be ready.