Have you ever wanted to quit?
Seriously, at any point in your life have you ever thought, “hmm, if I gave up right now, my life would be easier, and I can always try again later.”
Everyone has had that thought cross their mind once or twice. We are human after all. But, I KNOW you are bigger and better than those thoughts. How do I know? Because the Bible tells us what to do in those moments in Hebrews 12.
Hebrews 12:1 says, “…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Everything we do in our lifetime is supposed to bring glory to God and He tells us in this verse that it isn’t going to be easy. We wouldn’t need endurance if it was. God has laid out our lives and pushes us to keep running through the hard, through the tough, through the sad, through the happy. By doing so, we ultimately bring him the glory he deserves.
I actually had a client tell me she wanted to quit Steel DESPITE the great progress she had made. She even said she saw how much progress she had made, but felt she was burdening us with having to reschedule her sessions because her life outside of the gym was busy.
I reassured her that she was NEVER a burden on us, and that I would be concerned if she didn’t have a busy life outside of the gym. I mean how boring would your life be if the gym was the ONLY thing you did or cared about? We understand you have a life that requires flexibility, and we are more than happy to work with you!
That client ended up staying with us and the race she ran with endurance brought her a 50lb weight loss! If you want to hear her story, check our Facebook and Instagram pages for her testimonial, it will come soon. If you haven’t seen our client testimonials on our socials, I highly recommend you do because I can tell you how much I love Steel but hearing it from our everyday men and women clients has a better ring to it. I’ll link them here if you want to watch them.
So, what’s the principle that I taught that client?
Do The Best You Can With What You Have
Most of us do this in our marriages, parenting, and in our work. If we have a bad day as a spouse, parent, or employee/business owner, we feel a little guilt or shame, but tomorrow, we get back up and try again. You aren’t going to give up on your marriage, kids, or job just because you had a bad day.
For some reason, the opposite is true for our health and fitness. We treat is as black or white, all or none, 0 or 100. There is no middle ground for anyone. I think this is the #1 reason people feel stuck, fat, sick, weak, and out of shape.
Imagine treating ANYTHING else in your life as all or none. Say you were impatient with your spouse and kids, so you say “well, I blew it today, so I am just going to leave and not come back.” Do you think your spouse and children will be better off if you leave because of a bad day or week? Imagine you had a bad day at work, so you quit. Do you think the company you work for will be better off if you left?
Of course they wouldn’t. So why on Earth would you think it is okay to quit your health and fitness journey when that is equally or more important than those other things in your life?
It’s hard to say if your health and fitness is more important than your marriage, kids, or job because those are CRUCIAL. But, if you are unhealthy then you can’t show up for those areas of your life the way you want too anyways.
So, we need to get out of this all or none mentality with our health and fitness journey and shift to a do the best you can with what you have mentality.
This reflects one of our core values at Steel – FAITH
FAITH to my family and Steel means being a faithful steward. We don’t think we should hustle and grind all the time. There are seasons for doing that, but we shouldn’t live our lives like that all the time. We also aren’t lazy.
So, no long-term hustle and grind or laziness. There are times when your effort could resemble one of these two, but it all depends on how you are looking at it.
Rest is super important, but sometimes people could see that as laziness when it is actually productive.
Your life should be a flow between the two. If you find yourself on one extreme majority of the time, something isn’t right.
We don’t want to be hyperactive or inactive for long periods of time.
Being a faithful steward and staying in a good flow looks like this:
In the Good Seasons: workout a lot, walk a lot, eat super well.
In the Decent Seasons: workout a few times a week, eat the best you can, maintain or make a little progress.
In the Bad Seasons: do the best you can with what you have.
Take advantage of the good seasons and go ALL IN in all the aspects of your fitness journey.
Be diligent in the decent seasons. Do what you can and maintain or get a little better.
In the hard times, the painful moments, truly do the best you can with what you have. This may feel like nothing, but something is always better than nothing. This could look like just maintaining your progress or minimizing the progress you lose.
This could seem like bad news to some and encouragement to others, but if you see yourself standing still or maybe going backwards, remember that that’s life.
If you find yourself in a hard season, just know that a good time is coming soon. Just keep going doing the best you can with what you have, minimizing the damage or maintaining what you have.
If you find yourself in a good season, don’t assume it’s going to last forever – because it won’t. You want to take advantage of the good season while you have it so when the bad season comes around, you are in a much better place to weather that storm.
So, we need to STOP
- Starting and Stopping
- Being All or None
- Being 0 or 100
And we need to START
- Doing The Best We Can With What We Have
If you take this approach, you will be leaner, stronger, and healthier because you are consistently showing up.
Sometimes you show up amazing, sometimes you show up over it, and most times you show up decent. But guess what, you still show up every time. This consistency is what will make you become a better version of yourself over time.
In 1, 2, 5, 10 years, you won’t even recognize who you are in the best way.
Stop giving up on your health and fitness. Treat it like your marriage, family, and job.
Do The Best You Can With What You Have.
Quit putting your health and fitness on a thin rope. One skipped workout, or one bad day in the gym should never constitute giving up on yourself completely.
Our trainers at Steel are here to help push you on your good days and pick you up on your bad days. They know the feeling of wanting to give up, but they didn’t, and they aren’t going to let you.
Start doing the best you can with what you have today. No more excuses.
