Consistent Imperfection

The New Year is around the corner and many programs and products are hitting the market with another promise to help you reach your goals. Where do you put your focus and who do you really listen to with all the information coming and going?

I work online from my fitgalclub.com website Coaching women in Nutritional and Weightlifting programs. It’s an honor to come alongside someone who is working hard to change habits and make strides towards their goals. Of all the concepts I’ve noticed the most, one issue repeatedly takes the cake:

Consistency!

Here is how it all plays out. Maybe you can relate? I used to be in the “I have to be perfect with this” mindset, but over time I was mentored differently and bought in to another great concept…{and I’ll explain that in a bit!}

We all want to knock it out of the park. We start on a new workout and “diet” regimen and we vow to be “perfect” this time.

“THIS is going to work!”

Days one, two and three go fantastic. Life comes along and Days four and five get a little rocky. By Day six we’ve self-sabotaged, told ourselves we’re “bad” for the “bad” choices we made and by Day seven, the towel is thrown in and we’re back to old ways. We fell off the perfect-wagon!

Often times clients will report in and say, “I was far from perfect this week.” I usually write back and ask, “Well, what does perfect mean?” I can ask this because I’m a recovering perfectionist. I like to cross my T’s and dot my I’s. It used to consume me so much that I focused on the little of life and was not making room for what truly mattered.

Fortunately the right people got into my path, and more importantly my mindset, and I learned to let go of that thinking. I now know that perfect simply does NOT exist.

What happens is we see pictures, online stories, or glimpses of someone else’s highlight reel and we give it a “perfect” title because it seems that’s what is going on. In reality, we don’t see the highs and lows it took to get there or the inner struggle that comes with people’s everyday life.

When we learn to let go of “perfection” and give our lifestyle grace and balance, we can focus then instead on…..

Imperfect Consistency!

Perfection says, “I will hit all of my workouts every day in full or I won’t go.”

Consistency says, “I’m going to go after goal __________. I know I’m going to have good days and off days, but I’m going to get back up and move forward. I will not stop or pause.”

Perfection says, “I will eat strictly and deprive myself of “bad” foods so I lose this weight once and for all.”

Consistency says, “I will slowly rework my habits, strive for diversity in my choices, adding in rest days, down moments, and balance along the way.”

Consistency is forgiving and most importantly it’s an awareness that we are NOT perfect and the strive to be so, specifically in our nutrition and fitness, is purely a waste of time. Consistency is not, however, mediocrity. Mediocrity is “IF I get around to it, this might happen.” Consistency is “I will work on this, but I will be forgiving and flexible in my systems.”

Imagine if you started 2015 going for your goals and went at it with Consistent Imperfection? You know you’re going to work towards change, new habits, and awareness to your strengths and weaknesses. You know you’re going to take it one day at a time and focus on making the most of today, aiming to be a better you than you were yesterday. You start out knowing you’re NOT perfect and no one is.

This type of mindset has you in this for the long haul, for the lifestyle. THIS is where the progress is made!

Often we spend time aiming for perfection, comparing ourselves to Sally or Sue and then completely throw in the towel. We give titles to certain foods and actions and call them “bad”, so then we also call ourselves “bad”, which leads to a whole host of negative mental talk.

It’s 2015. Let’s stop doing that.

I’m sharing out to you from the fitness community that our secret is not perfection, it’s not getting it right the first time, or even the third. It’s simply about consistency repeated over long amounts of time. Bottom line: I care enough about myself to just keep going!

Imagine a place where you accept your dark side, your missteps, your failures and factor that in as part of the process. Then you wake up the next day and whole heartedly work your chosen plan, imperfections and all. Consistency is about letting go of the past and using what you’ve learned from it to move forward each and every day. Remember how gorgeous a sunny day looks after a rain storm?

Welcome to 2015. Let’s be consistently imperfect and see where that leads! It’s surely better than stopping and standing still all together, right?

To progress….see ya later perfection!

-Mindy

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