“Progress not perfection- you can't perfect everything… but you can gain progress on a daily basis.” -Court McGee
Have you ever wanted to start a new diet program, exercise program, personal growth journey and a few days, weeks, months maybe even years later you haven’t started it?
Did you ask yourself why haven’t I started yet or why am I not making any progress?
Or Let's say you did start it, but shortly after you quit.
If you are like most humans, this has probably happened to you. Typically, we are too focused on doing things perfectly instead of making any type of progress.
Why is perfection the Enemy?
Cambridge Dictionary defines perfection as, “the state of being complete and correct in every way”.
This is an illusion- a recipe that sets you up for failure.
Waiting for the right time to start a fitness program or making sure you know everything about a new diet and eating healthy before you start is a demonstration of procrastination. Since there is never going to be the perfect time to begin a fitness or diet program, you will never have to take the next step of starting.
Now I’m not saying to lower your standards and to do the “hot, new diet, everyone is doing.
Focusing on progress means being persistent with learning, growing, and evolving.
How do you expect yourself to do that if you never start because you are worried that it isn’t going to be perfect?
Correct Your Mindset
1. Something is Better than Nothing.
Let's say that your squat gym PR is 190 pounds and your new goal is 200 pounds. Your first attempt you round your back or your knees caved in, and it looked ugly. Hey, give yourself a break. It’s the first time you have ever squatted 200 pounds. It isn’t going to be perfect. Now that you have squatted 200lbs I bet your 190 lbs squat looks a lot better than it use to.
This is what progress looks like!
From here you figure out why your form was ugly. Maybe it is a technique issue or a strength issue. Regardless of what it is, it’s all part of the journey. Focus on the small victory that your 190-pound squats look amazing and how you are going to make your next rep of 200 pounds better.
2. Momentum over Motivation
Being motivated is an uplifting feeling that pushes us to achieve our goals and dreams, but after a while that motivation slowly fades. You get started on a new exercise and diet program and you are feeling great about it because you are following it and kicking butt. Then there’s that one day where you feel like being lazy. You binge watch Netflix and indulge in pizza, ice cream, brownies… whatever your poison is. You begin to slack off and come up with reasons you can’t go to the gym. A few weeks go by, or maybe months, and you start to feel the urge to get back on track and you have the motivation again. And then the cycle begins again.
While motivation is a feeling, momentum is an action.
When we take action, we create momentum. With momentum comes progress, and with progress comes a sense of accomplishment, which can then create motivation. Instead of hoping that moment will just appear out of nowhere, start by taking a small step every day to create action and momentum.
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