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By: Rob Wagener
Welcome special guest blogger and fitness expert, Rob Wagener, as he shares his tips on embracing and moving through change.
I’ve spent a lot of my life waiting for things to get better, the tides to turn in my favor, for luck to befall me, and for my time to shine.
With the passing of time and the gaining of years, it’s much easier for me to see now, but at the time, I could not understand why those things never happened.
I wished for the world from the comfort of my couch and then cursed it with equal fervor when things didn’t go the way I wanted.
But regardless of if I was wishing or whining, one thing always remained true.
I wasn’t putting effort into any of it. I wanted positive change without any challenges.
Creating Change Is 2X Harder Than You Think
This First Step In Creating Change
When we think of creating change for ourselves, our families, and the world around us, we think of it as a single process. We create a starting point and look forward to the future with these new actions, rules, and priorities.
That requires effort, energy, passion, and commitment. That’s a lot of work but a necessary evil.
A second and equally important part of this process requires just as much of your mental and emotional attention.
The Second Step In Creating Change
To begin a new process and pursue change, you must work through what is required to end your previous habits and choices. In other words, we gotta stop doing what we’ve been doing.
It means working up the strength to stop what is already in motion, disconnecting with the “old” version of your “new” pursuit.
And for many, shutting down a moving habit or circumstance is a lot harder than creating a new one.
New pursuits and goals are exciting. They represent “what could be.” They represent a version of yourself and the world that brings you to a better place.
But the “old” stuff you are trying to move away from can be emotionally and mentally burdensome and even traumatic.
But both actions, moving away from old habits and choices and moving into a new version of this, requires your full attention and commitment.
You are trying to stop something and start something else simultaneously.
This is a challenge, but that’s the only way to make this work.
Self-Doubt Is The Enemy Of Healthy Change
It’s tough to dig deep and find the strength to stop one moving train when trying to start another one at the same time when you don’t believe you possess the power to create change.
Or worse, when you feel deep down that you don’t deserve positive change.
No one wants to work hard for nothing. We need a light at the end of the tunnel, a beacon of light to signal to us.
If we are to get passionate about change, we need a purpose. We need to believe it can actually happen.
But many of us fill our heads with negative self-talk and images of ourselves while surrounding ourselves with people suffering from the same affliction.
So not only can we not see any rays of hope in our heads, but we have built a world around ourselves which looks the same way.
A Challenge IS An Opportunity, Not A Red Flag
When we embark on any new journey, one thing is guaranteed.
There will be challenges.
New terrain can present roadblocks, pain, confusion, and a general questioning of if we are even on the right path.
We’ve been taught to avoid these intercepting moments of our new quest at all costs. The world told us to look for another way to get to the destination.
But, this is not necessarily true. We can acquire no change without some sort of accompanying challenges.
It’s The Pressure That Makes The Diamond
This is a concept I simply didn’t understand at the time. Or possibly just didn’t want to accept.
Comfort is a disguise for laziness; change only comes from being challenged.
Rob Wagener is a Certified Personal Trainer and Nutrition Coach through the National Academy of Sports Medicine and the owner of Fizzness Shizzness. For the past ten years, Rob has been navigating the health and fitness landscape in a quest to better himself and those around him, focusing on tools such as calorie and macro counting, intermittent fasting, and HIIT training techniques.