PAURIC GRIMES: Postponing a problem extends it

I HAVE a friend that lives in the big smoke. Now I don’t live in the city and haven’t done so in ten years so I can’t comment too much on what I’m about to tell you, but I hope when we dive into it that it’ll start to make sense.

Whenever they’re going somewhere they’re unfamiliar with they’ll bang the address into Google maps and check how far away it is. If Google tells them it’s more than one mile away they’ll drive. If it’s under a mile, they’re happy to walk.

If it’s 0.99 miles, they’ll walk. If it’s 1.01 miles, they’ll drive. Black and white.

But by using that framework it would take them less time to drive two miles than it would to walk one mile. So even though there’s a loose logic around it, there are major holes.

It begs the question, where do you draw the line? Same friend, because they drive most places instead of getting out and putting one foot in front of the other, has piled on the pounds since they moved to Dublin.

I asked him is he doing any training at the minute and he replied by saying he knows he needs to do something, get fitter and lose a little weight but that he just doesn’t have it in him at the minute.

So what’s he waiting on? To go one pound over the imaginary line he’s drawn for himself? Until he runs out of clothes that fit him?

Postponing a problem extends it. He’s just kicking the can down the road instead of dealing with it when he knows something needs to change.

How anyone treats their bodies is their own business, but I know that this man’s confidence is shot because he’s let himself go.

So often your confidence and self belief is intrinsically linked to your physical and mental well-being. When you’re training consistently, eating well and generally looking after yourself it gives you a platform to be the best version of yourself. And quite often that version is full of self-confidence because they’ve pushed themselves physically and seen such fantastic results that they can push themselves personally too.

I’ve lost count of the amount of people I’ve worked with that once they’ve lost those first few pounds of body fat that they where unhappy with it’s as if they where a new person – or for some they rediscovered the person they used to be.

So I put it to him, “What’s stopping you getting up in the morning and out to the gym like you used to?”

Man says he bangs the snooze on his alarm like he’s playing hungry hippos.

I suggested that the next time he has that intention to hit the snooze button to think about how he’ll feel in ten minutes. Unlikely that he’s any less tired. He’s been woken up anyway so that’s the end of his night’s sleep.

Then I said, how about ten months. How do you think you’ll feel if you hit that snooze button in ten months? A little regret? Anger maybe? Disappointment?

And what about ten years? Are those extra ten minutes in bed versus starting the process of getting into a better physical shape worth it?

Or would you rather be sitting there in ten years’ time proud of yourself for getting up even when it would have been easier to hit snooze.

Proud that by doing that small thing ten years ago you set yourself up to be fit, strong, healthy and happy.

That by getting up and doing the hard thing you’re reaping rewards that are hundreds of times greater than an extra ten minutes in bed.

Spoiler alert – We had this conversation in January. He’s lost 10kgs and has signed up for his first half marathon this September.

So just like I put it to him, I’ll put it to you –

Are you waiting to cross an imaginary line of clothes not fitting or fitness going? Are you extending the problem by postponing dealing with it? And would you not rather your future self is thankful for the tough decision now than regret making the easy one now?

If the penny has dropped or a light bulb has just gone off but you don’t know what your next move is I’ll tell you – email me at info@leveluponlinecoaching.com with the word ‘Reignite’ in the title.

Action begets motivation. Doing that might be the spark you need for things to truly take off!