“It’s summertime and the livin’ is easy.” – Edwin DuBose Heyward
As nice as it sounds, could this be standing in the way of your personal progress? While the days are long and warm it can be daunting to take on a new challenge or start working to accomplish a new goal with our fitness, but as hard as it may seem, now is actually still the right time to get started. Hear me out.
In the summers of my youth I lost a lot of time researching and dabbling in different training paradigms. I fantasized about how nice it would be to find more productive time for martial arts training or to somehow fit in more strength and conditioning work and skills practice to improve my hockey game for the fall. I did a workout here and I’d go for a run there, but nothing ever really took off. It was a lot of dreaming but not a lot of doing.
Then inspiration struck from a most unexpected source. This was way back before social media had really taken off and you only used YouTube to find videos like “David After Dentist.” Cable television was still on top. It was the early days of the reinvented Ultimate Fighting Championship organization which the new owner, Dana White, had just pulled from bankruptcy. One of Dana’s first ideas to increase viewership for the sport was to create “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show, where the contestants where all athletes fighting (literally!) for a contract with the resuscitated UFC. I thought I detested so-called “reality” tv, but this one had me hooked.
It was while watching that program that a lightbulb lit up in my head and I realized it was time to stop window shopping and start working on getting myself back into fighting shape for real, like the young men I saw on the show. Each episode actually revealed just how transformative coaching, programming and a proper training schedule could be! And wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I took a workmanlike approach to consistent training and actually got some good programming and coaching, everything changed. Fantasy became reality. I actually stopped watching the show because I was finally taking the time to practice more martial arts myself. My strength and conditioning improved dramatically, and I became a leading goal scorer on my just-for-fun hockey team. There was no turning back.
But right before I took action, I remember having conversations with myself that sounded like:
Q – “When is actually the best time to make this change; do this good thing for myself?”
A – Right now!”
Q – “But what if this isn’t really the best thing for me to do, and I research a bit more and then I do something even better later on?”
A – “Better to just take action and do the good thing now and not look for a “better” thing for later”
Q – Hmmm… It’s summertime. Shouldn’t I give this some more thought?”
A – “Argh!”
We all like finding out about “the best” thing; the best way to do something, or the best time to do something. In fact, we waste a lot of time thumb-hammering our phones to find out “where’s the best taco in Los Angeles,” when we’re already so hungry that any taco would taste like the best one if it was ready to eat right now!
A good plan implemented is much better than the perfect plan that never gets used.
When it comes to self improvement, we can usually sort out “what” action needs to be taken, or at least the first steps, but then an internal disagreement often occurs on the subject of “when” the action should be taken. People like to say “There is no time like the present.” Well, they’re right! But people also like to say “Be careful, timing is everything.” Which is also true, especially when it comes to peaking physical performance. So how do we reconcile the whole “perfect timing” thing with the power of just taking action now?
Well, I’m here to tell you that when it comes to taking action to improve our health and wellness, the answer is usually simple: unless taking action right now would in some way be medically inadvisable, then now is indeed the best time to act!
Q – “What if my upcoming summer travel plans will make it hard for me to get into the gym?”
A – No sweat, you can adapt! You’ll need a system that takes this into account and still enables you to make progress. Having a coach who knows how to write and deliver flexible periodized programs, not just workouts, will be a key component of your success with this. Most athletes these days have very challenging work-related travel schedules in the middle of their competition training, and they still achieve amazing results and have a blast doing it!
Q – “What if I’ve got a series of social obligations coming up that will make it hard for me to keep my nutrition in order?”
A – Planning ahead is key; if you know the dates when things will be challenging then you can take them into account, keeping in mind the 90% adherence rule. Following ideal nutrition principles 90% of the time still allows for that 10% variance for when things aren’t ideal and your social calendar demands flexibility. Having the support of a peer group who shares in this challenge can help quite a bit too, of course. Planning (keyword!) your 10% of not sweating the guidelines means you don’t get nutritionally shanghaied 40% of the time.
Q – “What if I just can’t afford it right now?”
A – If better health and fitness or a new training goal is really a top priority, then how can you not afford it? Everyone has to do what’s right for them, given their financial circumstances, but most people find that for something truly important to them, it’s possible to make compromises in their monthly budget to accommodate a level of training and nutritional support that can help effect a positive change.
Q – “So I should start next month then? When I get back from my trip and my friend’s bachelor party is over and the kids go back to school and I win the lottery?”
A – “Nope. Now is still the best time.”
You get the idea. There will always be plenty of reasons not to take action right away, but when we’re being honest with ourselves, those are usually just excuses. If we want to effect a positive change and get different results, then we have to do something differently. Sometimes we talk ourselves out of making a change simply because we’re convinced that we already know what to do, we just “haven’t had time to do it.” I’ve had casual conversations with would-be trainees who tell me they don’t really need to change anything, they just need to somehow do more of “X…” “X” being the thing that hasn’t been working so far, but somehow doing more of it is going to work someday! It’s actually kind of funny when you spell it out like that. More of the same is only going to deliver more of the same results.
Whether it’s getting through a plateau in a chosen sport or frustrations over body composition, the fastest way to get past it is to take action now. An effective combination of programming, nutritional support, coaching and a peer group to encourage and keep us accountable works exceedingly well. It has worked on “The Ultimate Fighter” now for 32 seasons. It’s why we do what we do. With consistency, results usually appear much faster than most people think. So there’s no need to hesitate; set an exciting new goal and start taking action today!