“Are You a Pig? Should You Be Committed?

Let's find out.

Hi, I'm Mark Balch, President of Shift Mastery. Welcome to this week's training. What we're going to talk about today is commitment. Now, I'm sure we all have our own ideas about commitment. What I'm talking about is something that's related to the why of what you want, your results that you want in your life.

 Whether you want to have a vacation home or a little extra spending money, you need a big why. Maybe you want a cabin in the woods, or free time to travel. You might just want to lose a few pounds, get down to your, your ideal weight. Whatever that is, you need to have a why. Why are you doing that? And not just any why, you need to have a big, strong, deep why because things are going to happen.

 For example, about five years ago, I made the decision I wanted to get into shape. I did not like where my body was. I didn't like how I felt. I had low energy & felt weak. I just did not feel like anything that I wanted to be. And I thought about it. And I looked around. I saw a lot of people that were in much worse shape than me, and they were younger. And, and I saw a lot of people that were older than me, and they were in pretty bad shape.

 I thought, that, that's not going to be me. So I decided to do something about it. The why that I came up with is I want to be able to travel with my significant other and enjoy life and I want to do a lot of travel overseas. And, that will involve a lot of walking. I want to go different places where they'll be hiking. So there will be a lot of physical activity. And other than that, I just, I don't want to be around 90 something years old and can't stand up without some help. I want to be able to function normally. So that was my why. I had a very, very big why and it was very far out in the future.

 Now, the reason you need something like that is because things are going to happen, like it did to me about two months after I got really serious. It was a little more than two months since I changed my workout routine and I started getting into heavier weights and I tore my hamstring.

 I was out of commission on anything that involved legs for a while. So I just focused on my upper body and what I could do until my leg healed and then I got right back into it. Without a big why, that injury early in the new habit could have derailed me. It could have just set me back and then, oh man, I don't want to go through this. That's a lot of pain and struggle.

 It did set me back. I had to really go pull back off the weights and start lighter and build back up. But I kept going. And then other things happened. I tweaked this muscle, tweaked my back and it was just because of the heavier weights and being just slightly unfocused or just slightly out of the perfect form.

 I was being taught lessons that I need to focus or I need to have my perfect form. This was more than once. It happened several times. Then other things happen like you're out of town or feeling under the weather. Whatever the case may be, things happen and it gets easier and easier to just say, Oh, I'll start again next week or next month or this or that excuse. Then that turns into, you never go back.

 So you need a big giant ‘why’ to pull you through these times that will happen. Life is going to happen. So you need to have a big enough why, your commitment. Your commitment to yourself that you're going to do this and you're going to stick to it and you're going to keep going. Because without that why, life's going to get in the way and you're going to stop. That's what happens to most people.

 You need to have a big why to keep your commitment. As the saying goes, the cow is dedicated but the pig is committed.

 My challenge for you is be a pig. Hope you have a wonderful week. And remember, when you shift your mind, you master your life.