Don't Let This Seemingly "Good" Habit Ruin You

I wanna warn you about this poisonous, venomous habit.

While recording the video version of this, I came up with a perfect example.

I have pretty bad lighting in my room and everywhere, pretty much, because I have a very strong caveman-like brow, which means that there's a thick shadow cast over my eyes and most of my face, wherever I am, pretty much.

I usually look like I have a domino mask on, like a superhero.

But if I move to a certain position, it's not 100%, but it's something, right?

The poisonous mindset is: “If I can't get 100%, I shouldn't bother doing it at all.”

That's stupid.

I have a friend who's been doing that kind of dance of, "If I can't get it perfect, I might as well not do it at all," with their calorie counting.

They’ve been wanting to gain weight for a very long time.

But the issue is that, first of all, calorie counting is kind of annoying, NGL.

But their main reason for not doing it is because, "What if I eat out a lot? How am I going to track that? What if I can't perfectly measure the food that I'm cooking, blah, blah, blah, that kind of thing?"

So, the conclusion that they always come to is, "Well, if I can't do it perfectly, I might as well just not do it."

That's silly.

Even for me, I lost 100lbs, and I lost 40lbs through brute-forcing exercise.

But the other 60lbs were straight-up from tracking my foods and eating at a caloric deficit.

And obviously, I'm human, so I wasn't 100% every single day.

I mean, unless you eat astronaut food or something like that, I don't think you can be 100% with what you're doing.

That does not mean that the best alternative is to go straight to zero.

Can't reach 100, might as well go to zero. What is this mindset? That makes no sense.

If you can get 50%, 60%, 70, 80% of the way, that's great.

Because if you get a little better, you make your circumstances a little easier, you can get to 75%, 80%, 81%, 82%.

But if you start at zero and you stay at zero, guess what?

You're going to just plateau at zero.

You're not going anywhere.

You're not going to make any sort of progress with the calorie counting.

So, this friend of mine, thankfully, they actually started tracking their calories recently, knowing that they cannot get 100% of the time.

But it's better than the zero they've been doing for years, right?

Do this as well as you can, not perfectly, but as well as you can, and you'll make some progress.

If you just say, "I can't do it perfectly, I guess I won't do it at all," you're not going to get anything.

This is great for fitness, as well.

There were some people who came to me when I was a personal trainer, saying, "I don't know if I can even commit to three days. Two days might be okay, but one day might be better. But I'm not sure if I can do it every week."

First of all, what's going on in your life? You can't exercise once a week?

(Second of all, buy my fucking fitness course.)

But the point is, even if you can only exercise once a week, do that.

Because, guess what, one is bigger than zero, okay?

Eventually, you can do twice a week.

Every other week, you can do twice, and you can do the other two weeks of the month once per week, whatever.

I don't want to say it doesn't matter, but it is way better than doing zero.

The poisonous mindset is thinking, "I cannot commit to three 40-minute workouts per week. I'm going to do zero."

Thinking that just because you can't be the absolute best physically possible means that you should just do nothing at all.

It's a poisonous mindset.

As the quote goes, "Perfect is the enemy of good," which means just because you can't get perfect doesn't mean you can't do good to yourself, and this applies to goals as well.

Just because you can't hit 100% of efficiency in your goal or make everything as perfect as it can be, it's fine.

If you automatically think, "I can't set myself up for complete and utter success, I guess I better just not do it," that makes absolutely zero sense.

Some people even do this when they have help or accountability from someone else.

Let's say they have a boxing coach or they need to go to physical therapy or something like that, and they think, "I don't know if I can make every single session twice a week or every week. I don't think I should even sign up for that."

Just try it

Listen. There's another person helping you out while you're doing this, and they are a person, which means if you can't make it one week or can't make it once for that week, you guys can work it out.

They're not going to tell you, “Hey, you didn't make it twice this week, so guess what? We're canceling everything. I'm actually ripping the progress from your soul right now, and you're banished."

That's not what happens.

What happens is that we as humans try the best we can, and if that means doing 50% one time or 1% one time, that is unfortunate, but we can work our way back up, and it's better than zero.

One will always be bigger than zero, so just get your ass in there.

Whatever your goal is, get your ass in there.

Start.

There are people who think that zero is superior to 100, and that does not make any mathematical sense.

That's dog shit, and if you think like that, you're not going to make it.

So, try.

Do your 40%.

Do your 80%.

Whatever it is.

Just go for it.

Because you're always going to be better than that zero.

😈 DEVIL’S ADVOCACY 😈

• "But I can't commit to a full workout routine, so why bother?" (Even one workout is better than none. Start small and build up.)

• "Calorie counting is too tedious, and I can never get it perfect." (You don't have to be perfect. Just be consistent and you'll see progress.)

• "I don't have time to exercise regularly." (Even a short workout is better than skipping it entirely.)

• "I don't think I can make every session with my coach." (Communicate with them. They can adapt to your schedule and still help you progress.)

WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?

• Small wins lead to big gains over time.

• Starting somewhere, even at 10%, is better than not starting at all.

• Learning to adapt and be flexible can lead to more sustainable habits.

ACTION STEPS:

1. Think of something you’ve been avoiding because you can't do it perfectly.

2. Commit to doing it at 50% (or even 10%) capacity.

3. Gradually increase your level as you get more comfortable.

4. Reassess and adapt your approach as needed to keep moving forward.

5. Keep pushing forward, and remember that one will always be greater than zero.

Okay, bye!