Probably the biggest barrier to most people’s success in fitness has absolutely nothing to do with what they know or don’t know about exercise. In fact, it probably has very little to do with nutrition either. I think most people know at least some of the things they need to do to make progress. They just don’t Make It Happen.  

Consider the person who wants to be healthier, but continues to eat cheese burgers and other unwise food choices even though it will take them in the absolute opposite direction. What about the person who secretly desires to have a fantastic body? She won’t even mention it to her friends because she’s afraid to fail publicly, but sits on the couch watching TV instead of exercising to get what she so truly yearns for.

While this particular article is about fitness, the theme is about something much bigger. I would argue that this is the biggest factor affecting everything in your life. When you look at people who are successful in any arena, whether it be physical fitness, business, or even scientific discovery, you’ll notice one major difference from the rest of the population. They didn’t just sit around and wait for something to happen to them. They went out and MADE it happen. Moreover, some of them made it happen in several different areas of their life. Some made it happen despite great adversity. Most importantly, all of them made it happen when it would have been easier to make excuses or quit.

Arnold Schwarzenegger made it happen.

Ghandi made it happen.

Donald Trump made it happen. Several Times.

A Story About Jen

Now I can hear some of you saying things like “These people are all famous. Of course, they can make it happen.” The truth is that not one of these people would be famous without having made the great efforts and sacrifices to get there. However, If you’re still skeptical I’ll share a story about a “real person”. This is about a former client of mine that continues to make it happen in a situation where most people would just quit.

My client, let’s call her Jen, is a truck driver. She drives all over the United States and Canada and is usually on the road for several days at a time. She is also overweight. I don’t mean this to be offensive or to categorize, but you need to understand another limitation that she faces. Though she’s already lost over 100lbs she’s probably got another hundred or more to go. This makes things like exercise or just moving around difficult or at least more difficult that it would be for you or me.

She is limited most of the time to eating at truck stops. Sometimes she has the opportunity to pull off the road to get food at a grocery store, but on a day to day basis this is unrealistic when she’s on a tight deadline. To make matters worse, foods such as various types of produce and some meats are not permitted when crossing the border, making transport difficult. Jen also has no gym at her disposal. In fact, when she’s not driving she’s mostly confined to truck stops.
At this point Jen had two choices. She had to decide what was genuinely really important to her. Then she had to decide to make it happen. She opted for fitness (what really mattered) over convenience and she more than certainly decided to make it happen.

Making it Happen

Jen informed me once that when you eat at a truck stop you’re lucky if you can order a piece of chicken that isn’t fried. When it is, she scrapes off the breading in the hopes of finding a remotely healthy meal underneath. Of course, this isn’t optimal, but it is the best possible option. She also tells me that sometimes the only thing resembling a vegetable is a wilted salad. Nonetheless, she does what has to be done and opts for the salad over french fries.

Since there is typically no gym available and a female probably doesn’t want to get too far away from her vehicle in a truck stop, Jen did some math. She calculated that 32 times around her trailer is approximately one mile. Every morning Jen walks 32 boring laps around her trailer. Then she does it again at night.

To exercise her upper body she cranks up and down the “feet” that come down when a truck leaves its trailer. She does this 5 times per arm every day. I’ve done this. It is not fun. Then for her lower body she climbs up and down the steps on the side of the cab. For some this might seem easy, but remember that Jen probably has 100lbs on you. She’s also already walked a mile and has almost killed herself cranking the feet up and down.

Jen has lost 100lbs in a year because of one reason.

She could have pretended that she really didn’t care about her weight.

She could have made excuses.

But she didn’t.

Jen MADE IT HAPPEN.

Your Turn

Right now I urge you to examine the things you really want out of life. It could be fitness. It could be a better job. It could be anything. Now ask yourself if your actions are in line with what you want. If not you have two choices. You can sit there as a passenger in your own life or you can grab the wheel and drive.