The Process of Progress (There Are No Overnight Sensations)
Life teaches us the hard lesson that progress only comes from following the process. Most of the time, it comes with a demonstration of the consequences of ignoring it. But it’s the process that will take us past any destination we can imagine.
Focus on it to the exclusion of everything else and you’ll automatically accomplish what you set out to do.
Because there’s no such thing as an “overnight sensation.”
Standing at the top of the podium with tears streaming down your face as the gold medal is draped around your neck is the result of years and years of intense work with almost nothing but frustration as a companion.
It’s easy to forget the time The Beatles spent in Hamburg performing multiple shows a day, seven days a week, when you see black-and-white videos of them being chased through the streets of London by screaming fans. Being a Beatle wasn’t so glamorous in the middle of an eight-hour set at The Indra Club or The Kaiserkeller, but that’s what made them into the musicians that changed the face of music, and the world, forever.
As Muhammad Ali said, “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”
If you’re frustrated, remember that your progress should only be measured against your compliance with the process. The results you want will happen but only by paying attention to the steps required to get you there.
Focus on the process and progress is guaranteed.
When you feel like you’re not getting the results you want, go through the following checklist:
Is the progress you’re expecting reasonable in the given timeframe?
Did you really do everything outlined in the plan?
Was your eating on point with no more than one cheat meal during the week?
Did you do all your workouts?
Have you gotten enough sleep each night?
The farther those are from the truth, the farther you’ll be from seeing the results you expect.
To paraphrase 70’s TV detective Tony Baretta, don’t expect the progress if you don’t follow the process.
Losing twenty pounds and getting off your blood pressure meds, building a dream body that stuns everyone at the beach or turning heads as you walk into a restaurant in your new LBD isn’t going to happen overnight. It takes time and effort and you’ll deal with loads of frustration. There will be numerous setbacks and plenty of times you’ll come within seconds of throwing in the towel.
But it’s worth it because you’ll end up tougher by doing the hard work and learning the lessons needed to make it happen.
Losing a half a pound to a pound per week is incremental progress that adds up to a nifty 25-50 pounds in a single year. Most importantly, it represents progress born of a process. You’ll need to implement a system that produces results indefinitely. The lifestyle you build will help you lose weight (fat) while protecting and growing muscle. You’ll have to create a healthy diet that stands up to the pressures of everyday life. The foods you eat will be ones you like and you’ll have to learn how to enjoy restaurants, holidays and special occasions.
It's a system that gives us, and then lets us keep, our results forever, but we still see it as just a measly pound per week.
For some reason, we view our health and fitness through a different lens compared to everything else.
If you saw a course that promised to turn you into a guitar virtuoso in just 90 days, you’d keep scrolling because everyone knows there’s no way something like that can happen.
Eddie Van Halen couldn’t play like Eddie Van Halen in just three months.
What makes us think we can look like Arnold in that short a time if we just find the right diet or workout hack?
The fitness industry has sold us on the idea we can lose virtually any amount of weight or build a dream body in just a few short months, and then keep the results forever, with no additional work.
Exercising, eating right and looking after our health isn’t the most enjoyable thing we do in our lives, so it’s easy to listen to someone, especially a self-proclaimed expert, tell us there’s a way to get around all that hard work. We’re eager to hear the message, so it doesn’t take much to make the sale.
Sadly, we end up unsuccessful and discouraged with something as important as our health.
Your goal should be to build a system around the basics that provides you with the results you want and leaves you with a lifestyle that makes them permanent.
Here’s an example showing how to spend your first month building a routine that will help you lose weight and improve your health. By focusing on what you want to happen, you’ll be less stressed over the results and they’ll appear as if they came out of nowhere.
Commit to completing all your weekly workouts, regardless of obstacles.
Promise that your diet will be on the numbers each day apart from a reasonable cheat meal each week.
Set a bedtime that allows you to get 6-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep and be in the sack within thirty minutes of that time at least six days per week.
At the end of the month, weigh yourself and take a waist measurement.
Your progress will be in direct proportion to your compliance with the first three items. It’s unreasonable to expect anything more.
If you have a 600-mile drive in front of you, it will take you ten hours at 60 miles per hour to get there. Stopping off to check out the world’s largest ball of string or taking an hour and a half for lunch puts you that much farther behind. You wouldn’t think of giving up and turning around when the ten hours were up and you weren’t there yet.
But that’s exactly what we do when it comes to losing weight or improving our health.
There will always be a reason (that’s code for “excuse”) not to follow our diet, do a workout or hit the sack on time, but we avail ourselves of it and then give up and quit when we don’t lose the weight.
Going out a few too many times, having a bit too much to drink or blowing off a workout isn’t necessarily bad. What is bad, and detrimental to ever reaching your goal, is expecting progress like you showed up and did everything. You’re better served by understanding that what you did, at best, kept you from losing ground, and that you’ll need to do the work if you want to see the results.
As Bill Bonner said, “We don’t always get what we want but we usually get what we deserve.”
Be honest with yourself. If you didn’t do the work, then you weren’t going to make any progress. Adjust your expectations, learn the lessons that need to be learned and then move on.
The only way you’ll get where you want to go is by getting the job done.
Companies that are famous for making high-quality products test them constantly because it ensures the integrity of the process. They know it’s the only thing that determines the outcome.
It’s important to realize the things you want to accomplish with your health or weight loss will take a concerted effort over time. Embracing the idea will put you in the proper frame of mind to make the necessary changes and do the hard work required. Focusing solely on the destination, wherever it is, only invites frustration from a perceived lack of progress.
You can’t wake up each day and run to see if your weight has dropped but you will wake up one day and realize your pants are way too big.
There’s no shortcut to a gold medal. You won’t trick your way into losing twenty pounds and keeping it off for the next twenty years. They only come from doing the hard work necessary to achieve them.
Focusing solely on the process will take you far past your dream destination. Let go and stop obsessing over what you see on the scale each day and concentrate on the journey. Give yourself a set amount of time and let nothing deter you. Everyone has a success story that involves a significant investment of time and effort. Those who stuck it out tell tales about how worthwhile it was and how much they benefited because of the struggle.
Make your health the next success story because it will, literally, add years to your life and life to your years.
Since we’ve already acknowledged we have a different reality when it comes to health and fitness, let’s start with a different analogy and then apply it to losing weight.
The goal is to demonstrate the power of putting on blinders and letting the process run its course.
Take a guitar course and commit to practicing every day for an entire year. Let nothing stop you, even if it means you only sit down and practice for fifteen minutes. You’ll think you suck for the longest time and, quite often, you’ll be so frustrated you want to imitate The Who and smash your instrument. But when your year is up, the chops you develop will get you nods of approval when you sit down at Guitar Center and shred on that axe you’ve dreamed of buying.
If you do the same thing with losing weight and becoming healthy – spend a year of concerted effort in a lifestyle-building program that includes workouts, diet and sleep – you’ll find you’re unrecognizable when you finish.
And so will everyone else.
There won’t be an eating situation you can’t handle. You’ll be able to walk into any restaurant secure in the knowledge you can have an enjoyable meal, while limiting the damage or staying right on target, whichever you feel like. You’ll look forward to enjoying the holidays instead of dreading them and you won’t need to undo the damage when the new year rolls around. Best of all, you’ll hit the beach with the confidence to wear whatever outfit you want.
Isn’t a single year of focusing on the process worth the years and years you’ll enjoy the incredible results it provides, secure in the knowledge you’ll keep them forever?
As Michael Jordan said, “Champions do not become champions when they win an event, but in the hours, weeks, months, and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely a demonstration of their championship character.”
It’s never easy but anyone who won a gold medal, or stepped onto the stage to play a sold-out show at the Enormodome or lost 20 pounds after years of struggle will tell you it was worth all the frustration and every one of the tears they shed.
You can do this. Set your mind on doing only what’s required – and nothing else – and you’ll never have to worry about whether you’re going to get there or not.
Your concern will be just how far past it you’re going to end up.
Regards,
Henry
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