At the start of every journey, there must first be a desire. Should we have a desire to go on a special vacation, the desire must turn into discipline. Discipline to save and plan for the trip. Once we get to our destination, do we just turn around and come home? Of course not, we want to enjoy ourselves once we arrive at our destination. Maybe that destination is Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or New Jersey. We want to put our toes in the sand, enjoy the local foods and enjoy our friends and families while there. What does any of this have to do with being consistent as a runner? In this week’s blog/podcast I (Coach Tadris) will break down the ways to find consistency in your life. It is as simple as understanding where you want to go. 

Your life is one big journey. An adventure with all sorts of twists and turns. However, those twists and turns stop us from ever getting to where we want to go in life. It’s time for us to take control. Grab the wheel of our lives and not let others drive for us. Others drive our lives in the form of a boss asking you to work late, emails coming in constantly or us being addicted to social media feeds. It’s no wonder we find ourselves mindlessly eating on foods that don’t serve us or skipping that early morning run. We may find that our clothes do not fit as well as they did when we were on our last fad diet. Then we hear of a new fad diet we can try, to get the weight back off. Wait a second? Did you even finish the bottle of pills that were in the cabinet from the last fad diet that you tried? Do you still have that fat-burning tea left? Probably so because like so many of us, we get bored and the only thing that is consistent with today’s society, is inconsistency. So how do we fix this?

The Destination/Desire:

We must start with “WHY!”

Q. Why do you want to go on vacation?

A. I’m burned out and need a break. 

Q. Where do you want to go?

A. I never took my children to Disney World and that would be a great destination! 

Awesome: The DESIRE is to get to DISNEY as your DESTINATION! Let’s call my travel agent and see what it will take to get you there! 

With my example above we are starting with the end in mind. Our WHY is because we want to getaway. Another part of our WHY is to give our family the vacation of a lifetime. Once we speak to the travel agent and find out the price, we will work on paying our trip off consistently every month to get our family to its destination. Stay consistent and you will have the vacation of a lifetime. 

Now let’s take this illustration and apply it to our weight loss journey. 

Q. Why do you want to lose weight?

A. I’m tired all the time and I don’t feel good in my clothes. 

Q. Why else do you want to lose weight, other than yourself?

A. I have a granddaughter and I want to be around to see her grow up! (Graduation, wedding, etc.) 

Q. Where do you want to go?

A. I would feel comfortable if I lost 30lbs. 

Awesome: You have a burning DESIRE to lose 30lbs to be around for your granddaughter’s graduation. (DESTINATION) Let’s set you up with a good running coach that can help get to your destination. 

Desire is so crucial in you becoming consistent in anything in your life. How bad do you want it? Desire changes over time. Your original desire may have been to lose weight because you didn’t feel good in your jeans. Then your friend calls for beer and burgers and your desire changes to fill your right now. That’s where remembering your WHY comes into place. It wasn’t just for your skinny jeans to fit, your desire to change was to be there for your family. Here is where #2 comes into play, your DISCIPLINE! 

#2. Discipline: 

Discipline and consistency go hand and hand. We desire a lot of things that we see with our eyes. Then we realize the work involved to get the desired result and we shrink back. We want to see the work involved and embrace it. We want to build the quality of discipline in our everyday actions. Desire is like a campfire that can easily burn out. To keep that fire going we need to keep adding logs onto it. Stir up the ash and keep that fire lit. Keep your WHY on the home screen of your phone. Every time you see your “WHY” it is like adding another log to the fire multiple times a day. This increases your discipline. The discipline of saying no to things that won't move you closer to your goal. The discipline of waking up and running towards your goals. 

Destination: 

Now that you turned your desire into discipline, you are getting closer to your destination. Once you arrive at your destination, then what? There are two ways to think about your destination. #1. Once you arrive at your destination, enjoy the view, stay awhile. No one sets out on a trip and once they arrive, turn around and go right back home. We get to our desired destination, unpack and enjoy our stay. When we get to our desired goal weight, the last thing we need to do is return to our former way of eating. #2. There are times when we arrive at our desired destination, we may not be satisfied. The destination didn’t live up to our expectations. Maybe we even had to find a whole new hotel to stay at because the original resort was not up to par. When it comes to our health journey, you may feel as though nothing changed. You are still the same person, and you expected a certain euphoria. We must at this point analyze all the good that we accomplished to make it to the point where we are. Then we can reassess our goal. Maybe we still don’t feel optimal health. Remember too that it’s more than the overall weight number we see on the scale. We may not feel satisfied because our muscle tone is down, or the troublesome foods we eat are wreaking havoc on our happiness. It is ok to change your goals. As long as you have a burning desire to get to your new goal, you will find the consistency and discipline to arrive at your new destination happy and healthy. 

Final Thoughts:

Many people turn to jogging and walking as a way to improve their overall health. Let this be a beautiful vehicle to take you to your DESIRED goals. Enjoy the outdoors with family and friends, or just alone with nature. Set goals on a calendar, by signing up to 5k races in your area or virtually. After we come home from a wonderful vacation, we often want to get to planning our next one. Our lives are a series of journeys, have vision and desire, plan and use discipline, arrive at your destination, sit back and enjoy it. 

Love  - Coach Tadris