Great Analogy...

I have been just chomping at the bit to get home and get pictures of something in my parent's house that I grew up looking at. It is spectacular example of what I teach. And here it is...


So you're probably wondering what this is and why I'm so excited about it. Well, it's an original piece of the Golden Gate Bridge. A suspension cable, to be exact. And while it's a really cool piece of American history, that's not why I love it so much.


It's a marvelous design. Hundreds of these cables support the weight of the bridge, and from a distance, they appear solid. The cable is about 2.5 inches in diameter, but it is actually made up of 7 smaller cables. If you look closely at it, you'll see that those 7 smaller cables are actually made of about 30 much smaller wires.


Those smaller wires by themselves, would never be able to support much of anything, especially not a bridge. But when combined together, they form a much stronger cable. And when joined with other cables, they form a big, powerful cable that can hold up many, many tons. Imagine that your ideal health and fitness looks like that big cable; it's made up of smaller cables which are made up of little wires. Many people are looking for a magic bullet, or one thing that they can do to lose the weight, get fit, and become healthy, and that's just not the way it works. Changing or adding one little wire isn't going to make a huge difference immediately. But combining lots of little habits and larger principles will help you to get where you want to go. Imagine if you continually replaced one little habit a week. After a few weeks, you would be adding momentum to your positive changes. Swap out some larger principles and things will start to happen faster. By making these lifestyle changes it becomes easy to lose weight and keep it off because you actually ENJOY the process. It's not about crazy calorie restriction for a short period of time, feeling horrible, and then going back to "normal" when you get where you want to go. It's about redefining normal and making it healthy for you. Marinda(Where Desire Meets Discipline) summed it up really well in a post she had a few weeks ago. Before she had her boys she just worked out everyday. She didn't dread it; it was just part of her daily routine. And I'll bet that she probably enjoyed it. Regardless, it was a HABIT. And a good one at that. Jamie Clarke is a motivational speaker who has climbed Mt. Everest several times. I've seen him speak a few times and he said something that really stuck with me. He said, "You take the same steps on the valley floor that you do at the top of the mountain." He was speaking about consistency and persistence. In other words, creating habits.
Here's a challenge for you. Make a new healthy habit every week for the rest of this month, put it into practice everyday, and see what happens. What if taking care of our health and fitness became as automatic as brushing our teeth? What kind of example would that be for our families? Let's rock this one! Make this a great week everyone!!!