I’ve made multiple attempts to “get in shape” so far in life. With most things, the most shockingly successful results came when a few conditions lined up:
- I set an ambitious goal, but it wasn’t measurable or even controllable.
- I enjoyed the daily process.
- I let go of any expectation of how soon I’d see results. I took it entirely one day at a time, and my only criteria of success was to “not mess up that day.”
I have applied the above to two mega life-changing things so far:
- Losing weight (going from being called fat throughout school to being called lean / underweight and young-looking)
- Becoming fluent in Japanese, to a level that it just comes out automatically.
For fitness, I tried to “force” it and set “goals.” There was one time that on AthleanX, he asked people specifically to stop setting goals. I get it now.
The Wrong Goals
- Gaining X pounds of muscle.
- Being able to do X reps of some exercise.
- Losing X inches on my belly or adding X inches to my biceps
Somehow these goals didn’t motivate me — and a goal that doesn’t even do that is useless.
I want to be “strong and muscular and move gracefully” — which is more of a state of being than a target that can be hit. Even though that goal is very fuzzy, I can practice a way of life that gets me closer / deeper towards that state every single day.
New Goals
It is clear that setting goals around fitness have only caused me to fail in the past. I cannot control how my body responds, how quickly it builds muscle, etc.
So tying my happiness to goals like these is a direct path to disappointment and low self-esteem.
Instead, I will adhere to the same principles I used for learning Japanese.
Principle 1: “i + 1“ / Comprehensive Input
The key to making progress in Japanese was to expose myself to lots and lots of REAL Japanese, through authentic content.
I consumed anime that I’d enjoy when I actually was fluent. So I was practicing the feeling of fluency from the get go.
What kinds of things would I want to do if once I was “jacked” and “strong”?
- Animal flow, yoga
- Judo / MMA / boxing / BJJ
- Rock climbing
- Swimming / being shirtless
- Wearing tight fitting clothes
- Gymnastics
- Hiking
The common theme here is the focus on strong, graceful movement and grip strength.
GMB’s programs fully meet all these requirements as a process to lean on — they combine strength and graceful movement.
So the process for me is to practice high quality movements, just outside my comfort zone (i + 1). Eventually, my body will get stronger at them.
Principle 2: Daily dose
A daily dose that compounds over time is waaaaaayyyy more powerful than a “study routine” that has you doing 3x or 4x or whatever x per week.
My brain doesn’t understand weeks. It only understands hours and days.
So my practice / routine / protocol simply has to focus on a minimum dose that I can add every day — consistency over intensity.
And for that, I will just do 15 minutes of a GMB routine everyday. No breaks. Ever. And also add some daily hanging in the park for good measure.
Principle 3: Expectations that can constantly be surpassed
I’ve learned over time that I respond much better to praise and adulation, than to negative feedback (unless it’s something that points out a big, objective mistake I made).
Therefore, in order to achieve a goal, I need to set expectations I can meet easily and create a positive feedback loop.
I must avoid “failure” at any cost, and create a system where anything I “fail at” can easily be reframed as progress in the right direction.
So here’s the new expectation: I just want to move a little bit stronger everyday.
And I believe that following a 15-minute GMB workout every day will accomplish JUST that. It enables me to make tiny incremental progress (like LingQ), instant positive feedback when I check a workout off (like LingQ), and it’s easy to modulate according to my level (i+1) — again like LingQ.
If I can hit 365 consecutive days of GMB workouts, I will probably revolutionize my body, and I’m looking forward to discovering how.
