By
Coach Izzy
With the New Year fast approaching, many are already thinking about getting in shape once and for all. If this is your first time making that resolution, I hope it’s also your last, and if this is not your first time, what happened this year?
Sometimes I am dismayed when I hear people say “I am not making a resolution because I know I will not keep it“. What a perfect alibi! Giving up without even getting started. Getting overwhelmed by a journey not even taken. Embracing the comfort of a seemingly legit excuse.
It is not that people are not motivated. They start with a lot of excitement. Problem is they are only motivated as long as things are going their way. Alas we all know what life brings. We can prepare, we can plan, but life will always bring the unpredictable and will complicate the simple. Don’t ask me how that works all I know is it does.
I guess life is testing our determination and fortitude. We are telling life what we want, and life wants to find out how bad we want it.
I am not just talking about being in great physical shape, enjoying great health, or achieving a performance milestone.  This is a fact that transcends into our personal, financial, and emotional lives. They are all connected.
Over and over I hear people who started their 2010 resolution with excitment and lost some unwanted weight only to put it back on 4 months later. What happened? I guess life was testing them. Life wanted to know how bad they wanted to achieve their resolution and threw its repertoire of obstacles. Work, family, and school constraints made their appearance, sometimes together.
And then the scale stopped its downward trip, the needle stuck at one number. Extra work, extra deprivation, nothing would make it budge further down.  The dark clouds of failure set their presence, despair came.  “I tried and it did not work” it is the typical answer. Instead of learning from the mistakes, people start resorting to their excuses “If only I didn’t…” “If only I had…” “If only I could…”  I guess life knew they did not want it that bad!
And there is nothing mysterious about achieving remarkable goals. Last I checked, Hard Work, Perseverance, and an Open Mind were still the traits of those who not only achieve great things, but also keep amazing results.  Yes, it all sounds pretty and reassuring in the written form, but their reality is an ugly one. Truth is, you will not get acquainted with those traits until things turn really dark and shaky for you.
It is in those moments when the world seems to be plotting for your failure that you find out that you possess the strength to keep moving forward and learn from your mistakes.  It is only when you feel the most trapped when you find the only exit is the one you make, and it is when the world seems to turn its back on you that you find there are others ready to help you, you just had not met them.
Yes, we can all be content and successful during the good times. It is only when life tests our mettle that we find out whether that success was truly ours or it was a delusion disguised by the good times.
I am not here to tell you how to run your life or organize it. I’m simply telling you how hard work, perseverance, and an open mind are the keys to your success and permanently achieving your goals. They have worked in the past, keep working today, and will keep working in the future.
Here’s to your strength of resolve, which will carry you beyond the exercise floor!
P.S.
It never ceases to amaze me where you find priceless wisdom. You may not like Stallone, you may not even like his last Rocky movie but there is no denying his message is a universal truth. Don’t throw the baby away with the bath water! Enjoy!
