P90X requires a choice.
I can go to my basement every night and pop in a DVD and do the workouts,
or I can watch reruns of Big Bang Theory.
I can follow my diet, or I can eat donuts. The level of instruction that came with the program
is incredibly detailed and thorough.
There is online help in the form of personal Beachbody coaches and there
are tons of websites to go for advice.
All I have to do is decide to do it.
I could decide to not do it.
I could rationalize that by many things.
Ninety days is too long. I can’t
be expected to discipline my diet that way.
It requires me to buy weights (it doesn’t). I need yoga blocks (you don’t, you can use
something else). It’s mainly for
men. It’s mainly for women. I don’t have time. It’s endless.
I can blame almost anything at all for my failure to just
“do it.”
What P90X gives you is an opportunity. That’s all.
An opportunity is not ‘instant fitness.’
You don’t get the program and then suddenly wake up looking like the
people in the DVD. What it gives you is
everything you need to have/know to complete the mission except motivation and
determination to affect a change on yourself.
That has to come from inside you.
I was a party to a
very interesting online debate last night.
One side was claiming that societal discrimination,
oppression, sexism and a plethora of other things were the reason that women
and minorities are not in the pantheons of leadership. That side was citing the lack of those folk
as CEO’s, millionaires, politicians as evidence that there was a lack of
opportunity for those groups.
The other side to the debate was arguing that opportunity
was more abundant than ever and what is missing is the drive to actually take
that opportunity and convert it into success.
Guess which side I was on?
When I look around this country, there has never been more
opportunity for people. Education is as
available as it is ever going to be. A
young man even founded a school online called Khan University, offering a world
class education, online, for free. It
was featured on 60 Minutes the other night.
The online space has offered numerous opportunities for people of
ingenuity to achieve their goals.
College educations, while becoming astronomically high priced, are still
geared towards making it cheaper for the disadvantaged. Jobs are becoming less and less about the
‘who’ is applying and more about the ‘what’ is applying. ‘What’ skills, what attitudes, what behaviors
and what motivation.
Opportunity is NOT the instance of being given a CEO’s job
because you can locate the corner office as well as the person with 25 years of
business experience and an MBA. It is
NOT the starting position on the basketball team because you know how to spell
‘shoot’ as well as the person who can hit a jumpshot from forty feet out. It is NOT being handed the prize without the
work. Opportunity is an intern position
at Microsoft, not Bill Gates’ office.
Opportunity is a chance.
It’s when you are given the means to accomplish something and then YOU
have to do the work.
There was a day when all that was available to us in this
society was a book on fishing. We were
responsible for finding the pole, the bait, the tackle box and the right
lake. There was a day when the most
ingenious would go after getting the materials and then would also have to
learn how to do it. There were also, in
that time, certain barriers to obtaining those things. It created inequities. But that did not stop the driven.
Today, more than ever, there is information on how to fish,
on where to get a free rod, on where to find the best bait, on where the best
waters are, on the top methods of fishing.
Fifty years ago, if that same driven person referenced above had been
given access to that information, that person would have drained the whole lake of fish.
I wanted to write and publish a book. There was a day when that would have been
impossible. I found all kinds of
information, relatively cheaply, on how to do it. I simply had to apply the knowledge
diligently. I also had to sit down and
write the book…which took three years on and off. It was work…but I wanted to do it.
I wanted to build an Online Bank at my old company. Company decisions that were not mine to make
were real obstacles. But I found a
company that wanted to do it, and I did it for them. We opened it last week. You may find it at http://www.smarterbank.com.
I wanted to lose weight and keep it off. Done.
Four years and still cranking. I
could eat whatever I wanted. I don’t
have to be diligent about it. But I
would pay the price and lose what I have achieved.
I wanted optimum fitness and to see how fit I can get…and
here I am with P90X.
Self-help abounds in today’s society. There has never been more information about
how to succeed from work skills, to people skills, to leadership skills. You can find tons of information on how to
make yourself more marketable by making sure you look your best, instill
confidence and demonstrate poise.
The only thing that is not readily available is motivation
and drive. That, you have to find inside
you. If you don’t find it, don’t worry,
you will always be able to grab an excuse from the rest of the folk who simply
refuse to try. Blame society, blame
discrimination, blame…blame anything.
The real barrier to achievement today is the attitude of
entitlement. We give out trophies to
everyone, just for trying. Grades in
school have become dumbed down. Everyone
has to do well. We have thrown out every
metric that grades achievement. Everything
is so readily available and given so freely that if something seems hard, no
one tries any more. That drive is most
strong is those that have NOT had things.
They want them and will do what it takes to get them. We are given so much without real effort that
we have destroyed the desire that fuels motivation. THAT is the real barrier to achievement…the
lack of a work ethic...the lack of hunger.
Just give me my victory.
Sorry if you have that attitude…you will find out someday
that you have to take the victory.
If you really want something, there is no greater time than
today. Just go find out the information
on ‘how’ and then just go do it. Don’t sit
and talk about it. Just do it.
People who are running their fastest, and not looking behind
them, are never caught by a slower runner.
My thanks to Dr. Michele Noonan, star of the Big
Brother TV show and my partner in crime in last night’s debate. She inspired today’s blog.
http://www.doctormichele.com/about/
http://www.michelenoonan.com/
[later that night]
Yoga X and the Treadmill. Did everything...nothing notable...except the weight keeps coming off!
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