Keep Your Eyes on the Road!

This is the secret to reaching any significant goal and doing so feeling fulfilled, happy and having enjoyed the ride.

I’ve been very guilty of not doing this in the past. Wanting the end goal so much, wishing for it to occur sooner and as a result missing all the awesome experiences along the way. If I use my own kickboxing career as an example, did I achieve great things, yes. However, could I have got a lot more enjoyment and potential greater success from the process…. absolutely!

I used to be so focused on just the outcome of winning a big tournament that I failed to appreciate all that the sport was giving me along the way. The cardio fitness, the post workout endorphins, strength, physique, the lessons each loss taught me and the sense of achievement at the end of a tough session or a hard fight.

All these things were necessary in getting me to win the big titles, but I failed to recognise this as much as I should have at the time. I was only happy if I had a big win and I viewed everything else in my head at that time as not good enough or to put it more bluntly….shit!. Not a very happy way to exist!

I have no doubt that if I had stayed more present with the journey day to day, enjoyed each training session for what it gave me at that moment and took each loss as an opportunity to take a step closer to my end goal, I’d have had more successes along the way to my world title and enjoyed the whole process a hell of a lot more!

So let’s relate to an individual trying to lose a significant amount of weight.

If the only focus is the end goal of weight loss I can almost guarantee that person will give up along the way. Fatloss is the final outcome yes but it’s achieved through a process of learning how weight is lost and applying these principles to our lives. For that we need experiences where this outcome isn’t always happening in order to learn how to do the opposite! We have to embrace the times our weight might go up a little or we maintain for a while whilst we’re learning what and how to change things in order to progress. If people don’t do this, then this is the point at which they feel frustrated, like their efforts are getting them no reward and likely give up.

Whilst on any type of fat loss plan there are lots of cool things that start to happen! You will undoubtedly be starting to train more regularly and hopefully be getting stronger. This must be worked for and so comes with a nice side helping of achievement, empowerment and endorphins. You will also tend to be eating more nutritious food, start to feel like you have more energy, be moving more and then your sleep starts to improve. It’s at this point people then start to mention how well you’re looking and how you’re less irritable than normal! You will also have to overcome some tough challenges like social situations where you choose to stick to your calories or refuse a second drink which gives you a boost in self-worth and accomplishment that you’re making choices aligned with what you want to achieve.

Can you see that if we just look at getting to the end weight or size we could easily miss all these great moments along the way? And even more importantly, miss the boost to our motivation needed to continue to work towards that end goal.

The aim of this is just to encourage you to reflect a little more on any big goal you are currently working towards or about to. To make sure that you aren’t getting hyper focused on the end point but allowing yourself to enjoy the process of getting there, embrace tough spots as necessary learning opportunities and give yourself props along the way of all that you’re learning and how you are evolving mentally and physically. This makes the whole process a lot more enjoyable, fulfilling and therefore increases your chances of success.

 If you keep your eyes on the road you will not only reach your destination but also have a great trip!