Midwest Strong Fitness T-Shirt

For everyone who enjoys my DDPYOGA Workouts (Live or Online) or gets something out of my ocassional Blog Musings on Owning THIS Day, now you have a wsy to show your support by getting a Midwest Strong Fitness T-Shirt!

This is definitely the shirt you can throw on ready to Sweat It Out on the mat or on the street!  

You can find more info on getting your own Midwest Strong Fitness T-Shirt here:

http://www.tfund.com/MWSFitness

The Midwest Strong Post: Addiction to Nothing

Addiction to Nothing

If I could have my Wasted Days back

Would I use them to get back on track

Stop to Warn that Karma’s Burning

A Look Ahead

But Keeps On Turning….

-          James Hetfield - Metallica

Tell me if this sounds familiar to you:

You start an exercise program.

You are really excited about it because it’s the hottest thing out there!  You’ve heard great things about it & it is going to be the one that will FINALLY get you back in the shape you want to be!

You start on said Hot Shot Program fresh out of the gate!  You do REALLY GOOD for the first week!  You are sweating, eating clean, Feeling GREAT!

But then…. You miss a day of working out.  That day becomes two days, then three.   

A week later, you haven’t done any workouts.  Then two or three.  Before you know it, you are back where you started or worse.

Welcome to the experience of every normal person that thinks about making a change to their life & the driving force behind why the Self Help Book Industry is in business today!

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Now, let’s take that scenario and go from doing a week of work to doing a year of work or longer.  You’ve reached your goals and are feeling great!  You are a legitimate success story for changing your body & improving your health!

Then, something happens.  It could be anything from a traumatic life event to a simple thought of “Hey! I’ve worked hard to get here!  I can take a few days off!  I’ve got this!”

The next time you turn around, a few months have gone by and you haven’t worked out.  All of the smaller clothes that you got because you got yourself down to your goal weight are too small again.  You keep telling yourself  “I did it before.  I can do it again!”

But, it doesn’t happen.

The Big Question here is… Why?

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I contend that both of these scenarios have the same answer:  Addiction to Nothing.

Or, more accurately, the Addiction to Doing Nothing.

The Addiction to Doing Nothing could be one of the most insidious, potentially damaging addictions out there, in my opinion.

It has several different names: Procrastination, Lethargy, Laziness are just a few.

Everyone is At Risk when it comes to this problem. It does not discriminate when it comes to race, gender, religion or social status.   It can cover several different areas of your life.  It lures you in with the promise of Rest, telling you that one more skipped workout, treat or missed event isn’t going to kill you.  It gives you the empty promise that you can most certainly make it up “the next time”.

For some people, it comes not in the form of missing things altogether, but waiting until the last possible moment, then rushing to cram everything in at the last second.  This causes sleepless nights and untold amounts of stress.  It makes you feel like you are constantly on the edge, just waiting for the other shoe to drop.   There is a constant sense of self-loathing, depression and anxiety that just can’t seem to be put down.

This also makes it easier to reach for that “next time” fix.

My wife (who gave me permission to use her as an example, by the way), has issues had issues with this.She has been living with depression for years.  There’s a lot of anxiety that goes with it, and a lot of days, especially if she’s feeling  stressed or tired, it’s easier for her to put off small tasks like grocery shoppingor the article she planned to write until she’s “feeling better.” 

 But then the next day, she gets up, and those tasks she puts off are still there waiting, along with whatever it is she needed to do today.  So that makes her feel even more stressed and anxious, and it’s easier to put off what she had planned. It’s kind of a joke with her, most of the time.  

She calls herself the “Procrastination Queen” and laughs about times in college where she wrote a whole semester’s worth of papers in a week, right before finals. But it can be very serious, too.  When we were first married, she was stressed and anxious after the wedding with adjusting to the changes in our lives, and it was easier to “put off” pretty much everything, until after a while, she became so overwhelmed that simply leaving the house was too much for her and she’d have panic attacks if she had to go out in public.  She felt ashamed about commitments she’d put off, guilty about friends she hadn’t seen, and she became totally paralyzed.  Her depression reared up and we had to have medical help to get her out of the cycle.  But that cycle began with the easy fix of “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

A lot of people get so deep into this sort of addiction, that doing something about it seems overwhelming, making all of those feelings that…. much…  worse.

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So… what do you do about it?

Just like any addiction, the First Step to get through this is to recognize that you have a problem.  Be Honest with yourself and the people you talk to about what’s happening.  Then make sure that each step forward to take is an honest one.

Second Step: Look for Forgiveness, both from other people, but more importantly… from yourself.  Forgiveness doesn’t mean it never happened.  It does mean that you are not going to let your lack of effort weigh you down or define you anymore!

Third Step: Stop Looking for Perfection.  A lot of people that I know that deal with this issue (myself included), get into the mindset that if it can’t be done perfectly or better than anyone else, then why bother doing it.   It’s the Fear of Failure we perceive that we have.   We are afraid that if we do something and we’re not instantaneously successful in doing it, we’re not worthy of it…. So why bother trying!

Another important thing that pairs up with Looking for Perfection is Comparing Yourself to Others. This is something I see with new people and seasoned veterans alike. I

This is, by far, one of the hardest things to get over.  In this day & age of extremes, we are conditioned that if we do not have Extraordinary Results, we’re not doing it right and are going to be laughed at.  Or, we somehow expect that after 30-60-90 days, we’ll see magical results that will solve all of our problems.   

Fourth Step:  Find ways to keep yourself Accountable.  Some people plaster Post-It notes everywhere or lists on the things that need to be do.  Others reach out to your family & friends to help you to help keep you Accountable.  If you happen to be reading this and are a member of Team DDPYOGA, the Good News here is that you have growing number of both.  This is an Invaluable Step to conquering this Addiction, building that environment of people around you that Steer You when you need it &  Cheer You when you earn it!  This is definitely where you find out who your friends are, because they recognize and love you, imperfections & all!

Fifth Step: Keep Moving Forward Every Day.  This doesn’t mean that you are not going to Fall.  As any Addict of anything will tell you, you’re never “cured” of an Addiction.

Take a most recent example: Scott Hall (aka Razor Ramon – The Bad Guy).  Here is someone that has made some Amazing Strides in his addictions and getting healthy.  Then, one bad day happened & we hear about it on TMZ.  By absolutely no means does this negate all of the progress that he has made over the past 2 years!  It just proves that this is an Every Day process.  Some days are going to be Better or Worse than others.  With all of the great friends around Scott, I know that he will get through this!

The Every Day Process is especially important with the Addiction of Doing Nothing because it is so accessible.    All it takes it a shift in focus. That one day where we disengage from everything around us. Before you know it, hours/days/weeks have gone by where we’ve occupied ourselves with empty activity that.  Small things that do nothing but distract from taking those positive steps to our goal.

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So, if any of this rings a bell with you or someone that you know, understand that you are not alone.  

Also know that you can this is a battle that you can get ahead of.

With Effort... With Understanding.... and with taking everyday that you take air in your lungs and.....

#OwnTHISDay

Travis "Midwest Strong" Roberts