A year ago, I looked like an average guy. I found a 7 step guide to become extremely fit, extremely fast. Here’s what I did:
Step 1: Head to the gym at this hour.
4 am.
Just kidding. But go as early as you can. Go first thing and push some stuff around. Pull on some cables. Lift some dumbbells.
Doesn’t matter if it’s for 15 mins or 60.
Step 2: Go again.
And again, and again…. and again (at least 4-5x/wk) for a month
Step 3: Move to a new country during a recession
This is a really important step- so buy the plane ticket and get going.
By the way- you’ll probably struggle to find a job. Your relationships with people back home may become strained. You’ll have a hard time finding connection. Maybe, if you had a significant other, that might not last either.
The only thing you’ll know at that point? Your daily practise of putting your body on the iron forge that is the gym.
Step 4: Spend Fridays evenings alone
Since you haven’t found a job yet, you can’t really afford to go out. Spend your Friday evenings in your 8ft x 6 ft room, reading, eating, watching, drinking, ruminating….sleeping….then waking up and heading to the gym.
You’ll probably feel a lot of anxiety and not have many people to talk to. To the few you do speak with, you don’t want to burden them all the time. You can’t afford therapy either.
That should put you in the gym for a good 6-7 months at least. You’ll want need to go to the gym. Anything that releases that nervous ‘fight or flight’ energy inside your body.
Around this time, you might also realise that journaling your thoughts helps tremendously. You might make that a daily practice, even.
Step 5: Get a job finally… then get fired
You get a job after months and start to feel like there’s light at the end of the tunnel. You feel like you’ve ran a marathon. Maybe now you can stop to smell the roses. You look forward to your new life and…. it goes away in a matter of months.
Now you’re back to square one. Now you’ve become numb to the ups and downs. Now you accept everything that happens and understand that you only control one thing- your perception.
And that’s shaped by the gym. By eating healthy. By putting yourself in nature. By looking after yourself and being diligent with how you spend your time.
You start to feel like getting some movement in daily is like brushing your teeth. It’s no longer a chore, it’s a matter of hygiene. You do it automatically.
You also realise physical strength is nothing without mental fitness. You now set aside time everyday to be quiet and sit with yourself, just focused on your breath. You start to love this. You realise the outside world might be difficult but perhaps the answers are within.
Step 6: Get another job
At this point, you know you’ve got your own back. You start to realise that you’ll probably get knocked down again- maybe soon, maybe in a while…but you now have the confidence that you’ll figure it out.
It’s because, in large part, you’ve anchored your lifestyle on good habits. Habits that don’t demand anything from friends, lovers or society. Habits that only demand you to show up for yourself. Everyday.
Surprisingly, you got another job that you really like and is aligned with your vision for your life. Seems that even in a recession, there is abundance of opportunity.
Step 7: You don’t see the same person in the mirror anymore (congrats)
Actually, that’s a lie- you might have gained a bit of muscle but realistically, you still very much look like the average guy from a year ago.
But you know realise that that wasn’t why you did this 7 step program.
You realise it wasn’t about looking different. It was about telling yourself that you just needed to put one foot in front of the other.
It was about realising that the only way to live life fully is to love the bad as much as the good.
And that no matter how dire the situation felt Friday night, come Saturday morning… the sun would rise again.