Last week we talked about becoming a mountain climber. Not someone who climbs one mountain – but someone who becomes a climber of mountains.
To summarize – when you have decided where you want to go with your health and wellness, goals are great to set and achieve but they are nothing more than milestones along the way.
Celebrate them, grow from them, but the mission of becoming doesn’t change – it only expands.
I see “drivers” for change in people’s lives every day.
“Drivers” are the “thing” that motivates someone to change direction in their life. Driving them to get off the couch or that destructive lifestyle path and make a healthy or positive change.
Drivers can include (but are not limited to) divorce, break ups, job loss, relocation, inspiration, “keeping up with the Joneses”, new friends, marriage, kids, – any number of things can drive someone to make a change in their life. They are unique and personal to that person.
Drivers are great as a reason to begin, but – like a flame, they can burn out rather quickly.
That initial driver pushes you to work hard, and it feels good. You’re driven by purpose – this is what you’ve been missing!
A few weeks in and you see some results in the mirror.
Hell yeah.
Here’s where people get funny though…
Here is where the path can split. Some go left, some go right…
Those who go left on the path feel fired up! Fueled by adrenaline and this new change they feel like they are able to do anything. They prematurely abandon the current work and begin to hop to all sorts of programs. Try a little here, a little there – anything to keep that flame burning!
But before long confusion and frustration set in when the “gain” they had disappeared. What the hell happened?
I liken this to growing a plant. Let’s say – an oak.
An oak takes a long time. The seed is planted and they begin to do the work of growing the oak. Water, sun, attention, and before you know it – a seedling sprouts!
And the first thing they do is: over do it – they prune it. To the root. They may not have “killed” it, but they have certainly hampered it’s growth.
Sounds kinda dumb right? That’s because it is.
Then there are those who take a right on the path The ones on a mission – they buckle down. They see that in a short period of time there were gains. There was progress toward their goal and their ultimate mission.
They planted an oak as well but when the seedling sprouted they work to enhance the growth process.
They keep the routine of water, sun and attention, but they add better nutrients to the soil, perhaps a cleaner water source, they mind the environment that the oak is growing in and eliminate threats to the oaks progress.
Before long the oak is standing tall on its own. The basic routine is still intact – water, sun and attention. However – this oak is stronger than the other oaks in the area due to enhanced attention to outside stimulus like nutrients, clean water and a tended surrounding environment during its growth.
Oaks don’t grow overnight. Neither will the success of your mission.
The explosive flame of your initial driver is going to die down. It had its place in time – it sparked the fire that drives the passion of your mission.
And for the successful – The path to their mission becomes their true motivation. The basics are the foundations that are never abandoned – they are enhanced and tended to in an effort to create the best versions of themselves.
Surround yourself with people on the same mission as you. Focus on the details of what you are consuming and work daily to enhance the things in your life that are working. Before you know it you will be a stronger, healthier person – driven by purpose.
I’m pulling for you,
Coach Ted