Hello Team, this is your Extremer conscience speaking. Fall is in full swing, and there are only a few short months left to deliver on those New Year’s resolutions that we set so many moons ago. You did make some big goals for the year, didn’t you? Well, it’s not too late to achieve them!
Allow me to back up the bus a bit here and share my own story. Earlier this year, when I left my job to work full-time on my book and explore how best to bring out Extreme You in others, I began to notice a change in my energy level. I didn’t feel the same drive and urgency to crush every day. Usually, I set my alarm for 5:30 am, get straight out of bed and head for my morning run or ride.
Now, though, my alarm seemed to get set a little bit later each day, and I found myself starting to DVR episodes of Dr Phil, and taking little breaks to watch them. And even though I’d be making work calls, some days I’d still be in my PJs if I knew nobody was going to see me! Meanwhile, tasks that I should have completed in a couple of days could drag on for a couple of weeks. Had I changed? Was I becoming, well… a wee bit lazy?
What had happened to my drive? And how could I get it back again?
The chance to jump-start my internal engine, came, as chances so often do, unexpectedly—at a neighborhood house party. My close friend, Felipe, started talking a big game about the half iron man triathlon that he had just signed up for. Instantly, my ears pricked up. I’m not sure if it was the flowing caipirinhas that bolstered my enthusiasm, but by the next day, I had not only signed up to participate, I’d posted the news on Facebook to all of my friends and family.
Then came the second thoughts. Am I freeken nuts?!! A half iron man? I’m a suburban parent, for goodness sakes. Maybe there’s a polite way to back out…
But by then, I was being smack-talked on Facebook by some of my fitness colleagues, who threatened to post embarrassing pictures of me sleeping on planes if I didn’t step up and complete this.
There was no turning back. I’d put my balls on the line, in public, so now I was going to have to get it done.
My poor training partner, Felipe, had to endure eight weeks of whining and complaining about our daily training. Every day I wanted to quit, every day I worried that this event was way too big for me, yet I kept pushing along because I’d made a commitment to him, and a very public commitment to myself.
And my God, did this half iron man endeavor get my own internal drive engine back into gear. I was waking up early again, feeling energetic and urgent, because I had hardcore goals for how much swimming, running and biking I had to do. Even when I was riding my stationary bike in the basement, I wasn’t mindlessly watching TV, I was reading through research related to Extreme You. I was my old self again, multitasking through my workouts and kicking ass on my deadlines.
So… back to YOU! What are the practical steps you can take to close out your goals and end 2016 on an Extreme note?
1. State your goals
Pick out the goals that you still want to achieve this year and publicly state them. Tell them to a close friend, to your partner or your parents, to anyone who will make you feel guilty if you give up. Be sure to include a goal that feels like an adventure, a worthy quest, the way that half iron man – which I finished! – felt to me. Let the energy for that goal flow into all you do.
2. Bring it on!
Encourage the smack talking! If you come up against naysayers who think you’re tackling something too big, too small, irrelevant or trivial to your life, use that as the fuel of your drive to prove them wrong. Get that extra motivation that comes from putting your balls on the line!
At the end of the day, if I proved anything to myself this summer, it was that the more you publicly commit yourself to a goal, the more you will go to extremes to succeed. That’s when your drive will rev up to Extreme overdrive. Now speak it and do it!
