Run your own Race!

Written By: Stephen James CPT at Prescription Fitness (CLE, Ohio)

Run Your Own Race!

Fighting the urge to compare yourself to others

Have you ever caught yourself seeing someone at the gym and thinking, “I could never look like him or her”, or “it would take me forever to get to the point that they are at?” Most if not all of us have this thought run through our heads at some point. What often times happens when that thought crosses our mind is that we get discouraged thinking about all of the hours and effort that those results would require. What if instead of thinking about all of the hours and effort required for the end result we focused on the next good decision to make to help us achieve our goal? Why waste time comparing someone else’s present to our beginning? The only measuring stick that should matter is the one against our own self. We have all fallen victim to thinking that people that have what we want must have had it easier than how we have it. The truth is, they are just farther along in the process; they started the race sooner than we did.

One characteristic that the human body requires of people is patience. Body and mindset changes like weights, muscles gain, or forming a new habit all take weeks and months to become our new normal. With this in mind, it is important to have the expectation that whatever you are trying to change about yourself is going to not only take time, but be a constant process throughout life. Some people think that just because someone does something as their career or at a high level that they always want to do it all the time. For example, people are surprised to hear that as a personal trainer I have days that I mentally struggle to get myself to the gym for a workout. Really the only difference between someone who is consistent and someone who is inconsistent is that the consistent person makes that action a non-negotiable part of their life. On the days that they struggle, they always remind themselves of why they are doing what they do and what the bigger picture is.

So as you make goals and work on executing a plan to achieve them for the coming weeks, months, and years forget the noise around you and focus on measuring progress against yourself. Work on stringing together as many good decisions as you can, one at a time, but give yourself some grace if the plan is not followed to a T. Measure your progress against who you were last year, last month, last week, or even yesterday and focus on who you want to be today, next week, next month, next year. Get excited about all of positive changes that are going to happen in the future as a result of making good decisions today. Always keep in mind why you are working towards change and use affirmations, like “I am” statements, every morning to tell your mind what your end goal is so that it can work on making it a reality. I am smart, I am beautiful, I am 150lbs, I am able to lift 300lbs, I am the CEO, I am in charge of the decisions I make.

There is no time like the present to get started on making a change, because a year from now you will have wished you started today!