Happy Fun and Fit

Recipes, Fitness, Mindset to Making Ordinary People Extra Ordinary

Never Ever Ever Give Up

Sharing is caring!

*This post may contain affiliate links. See the disclosure policy for more information.

Last Sunday was Father’s Day and my family and I headed off to Movie World to celebrate. One of the rides that my son and I went on had a queue a mile long, so we got into the queue & waited patiently.  By sheer coincidence, an overweight lady and her equally overweight teenage daughter were waiting in the queue behind us.

Over the next 40 mins (yes, that’s how long we were in the queue for), I got to listen to the intimate details of the inner workings of these two people.  I know I was eaves dropping on personal conversations but I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on.  I discovered that the mother had been a yoyo dieter for more than 20 years and that her teenage daughter, while bordering on being morbidly obese herself, had also been an on and off dieter for the past 3 years.  As I listened, I learned that they had never ever seen through to the end, the many different programs in which they had tried, which included Weight Watchers, Lite & Easy, Michelle Bridges and Tony Fergusson just to name a few.

I started to gain an understanding that the mother was a quitter and that she was unintentionally teaching her daughter how to quit and was doing quite a good job at it too.  Now I don’t mean that in a derogatory way at all.  I mean that she would start something but never finish it, she would quit before she realised her ultimate goal and this point was hammered home to me while standing in the queue.

After about 20 mins, I got bored so I started counting.  I counted how many people were being admitted to the ride.  It was 16.  I then timed how long each ride took.  55 secs. Add another 3-5 mins to load and unload the ride.  I then counted how many people stood between the entry to the ride and where Heath and I were in the queue.  48.  I roughly predicted that it would take another 3 loads of riders and another 15 mins for us to reach the ride.  Anal I know but that’s just my westie personality.

Here’s where I was blown away.  I shared this useless piece of information with the lady behind me and guess what.  After waiting 20 mins and learning that she would have to wait another 15 mins, she promptly grabbed her daughter and they stormed out of the queue, slinging a verbal tirade at the poor teenage girl controlling the ride.

And here’s where it gets even more mind blowing.  Only moments after that lady and her daughter stormed off, the young girl controlling the ride called out for 2 riders.  Seemed there were 2 spaces left but the large numbers of people in front of Heath and I were in groups of 3 or more.  So rather than just let the ride carry on with 2 empty seats, Heath and I were called to the front of the queue to fill those 2 extra seats.

Just like the photo I saw a while back on Facebook.  2 men were underground digging a tunnel.  At the end of the tunnel was a pile of diamonds.  Their goal obviously was to dig a tunnel through to the pile of diamonds.  One of the men had stopped only centimetres away from breaking through to the diamonds.  He had turned around and with his pick axe over his shoulder he was walking back towards where he’d started, with his head hung low and looking all dejected.  The other man was tirelessly continuing on his merry way, digging his tunnel towards the diamonds.  Neither men knew how far they had to dig to reach the diamonds; they just knew they were there somewhere.  While neither had achieved their ultimate goal, only the one digging had any hope of reaching them.

The moral of my story is this: No matter what it is you are trying to achieve in life, whether it be a health or fitness or financial goal, whether you can see where you are going, or whether you can’t, NEVER EVER EVER GIVE UP.  If you give up one your journey, then you will NEVER achieve your goal EVER!

The plan can and often will change from time to time, but never change the end goal.  Heath and I planned to wait in the line until our turn, however, when we were invited to jump the queue to fill 2 empty seats, we took it.  The plan changed, but the goal didn’t.

People often quit their health and fitness journey because:

  1. They lose sight of what their goal is
  2. They don’t see the results they are seeking
  3. They listen to people who have no vested interested in them achieving their goal
  4. They listen to their own negative self belief
  5. They don’t know what their WHY is

So, here are my top 5 Strategies for REMAINING FOCUSSED

  1. Your goal must be read out loud twice a day, first thing in the morning and last thing at night.  This does a number of things, but mainly it commits it to the subconscious mind.  Once it’s residing in your subconscious mind, you will never ever forget it.  If you don’t believe me, ask yourself this. How many of you reading this can drive?  I dare say most of you.  The act of driving is something that you had to learn and through repetition so that I bet you can drive now while talking on the phone and yelling at the kids in the back seat.  Through repetition of reading your goal will be committed to memory (your subconscious mind) where it can pop up when needed.
  2. Your plan must have periodic measurable points along the way.  A 100 metre runner breaks their race down to the start (30 metres) the middle (50 metres) and the finish (last 20 metres).  Your health goal needs to have measurable targets set so you can achieve mini goals in pursuit of your big goal.
  3. This next one is a toughie.  STOP LISTENING TO PEOPLE who have no vested interest in you achieving your goal.  Quite often it can be someone quite close, maybe a spouse, a parent or a close friend.  While they might have good intentions, the only person you can truly listen to is yourself, which leads me to
  4. As I’ve just said, you are the most important person to listen to when it comes to listening to someone, so if you are the most important person to listen to, best you say the right things.  There are two types of talk.  One takes you closer to your goal, the other doesn’t.  So it’s not rocket science is it?  Say only the things that take you closer to your goal.

My health and fitness goal is my kids.  What’s yours? When your why is big enough, your what becomes insignificant.