Are Your Habits Moving You Forward?
Hi! My name is Coach Jimmy and I am curious, have you ever done a detox? I mean I think when we think of detox is we think something that’s awful, like you cringe immediately. You think, “Oh my gosh, I am just going to have to drink water and cayenne pepper and lemon juice and starve myself.” And I guess that’s what you think of when you think of a nutritional detox, but I am talking about a life detox today and the reason I reflected on this is that I am actually going through a health and fitness detox as we speak.
I am doing Beachbody’s 21 Day Ultimate Reset and it’s only the second time I have done this. I did it probably four or five years ago and I told myself, “Wow, that was great. I feel awesome. I’m never doing that again,” and why did I say that?
Well because in this thing you’re not supposed to workout, you’re giving up caffeine, you’re eating amazing recipes…like the food is actually really good and you actually eat a lot of food, it’s just getting out of habits and certain habits that we feel, or that I felt, were what were moving me forward…I mean the thought of not working out, former fat kid here, I used to be a hundred pounds overweight and the thought of going 21 days without doing a workout just seems crazy to me.
No caffeine? What about my pre-workout? What about my coffee in the morning? What about my green tea in the afternoon? These are the things that keep me going that make me so productive.
Now that I am about 11, 12 days into this and I am feeling awesome and my energy is up and I have dropped a little weight. I don’t think I was actually looking to lose weight, but I have lost a little bit. It really made me reflect and I said, “I was wondering what other things in our life do we hold on so dearly to because they think that’s what’s moving us forward.”
That if we would detox, declutter just for an amount of time…I am not saying forever for example this detox is 21 days. To let go of some things for 21 days just to see what it’s like on the other side, then after those 21 days or however long that you set, then you decide what you want to re-add and what you don’t.
You know it’s funny, I have seen other people actually go through this exact reset that I am going through and they get to day 21 and then they just splurge all this food the day after. Like, “Oh my gosh, I am done!” and they go, “Yes, I’ve lost weight. Yes, my skin is better. Yes, I feel more awesome. Yes, I have…” they all these list on these positives, but they are so quick to run back and add back on all the things that made them feel like shit which is the reason they needed to do the reset in the first place.
Take Stock of ALL Your Habits
I think that goes on in our lives and in our businesses and in our relationships as well. Maybe it’s binge-watching Netflix, maybe getting some kind of negative connotation in your head. It’s listening to the news too much, it’s not protecting our mindset. Maybe it is something physical; maybe it is making a 21 day commitment that you are a business owner or an entrepreneur and you really let your health slide.
I don’t know. There could be so many things that we could actually detox ourselves from, just to see, “Is this thing really the reason I get more stuff done or if I would cut this out for a little bit, would I find a different way, potentially a better way, to be productive in life?”
Maybe it’s something like protecting yourself from your inbox. So many people wake up first thing in the morning and they play defense. They are in reaction mode from the minute they wake up because the first thing they do is go to Facebook and check notifications or check their Facebook messages or check that inbox and so they are immediately on somebody else’s schedule.
If I go to my inbox or if I go to my Facebook immediately, I am already reminded of somewhere I am failing somebody somehow. It doesn’t matter how many awesome things I have done.
So what if the detox was that that, “I am not going to look at my messages, my notifications, or my inbox until after lunch,” and I am going to spend the first part of that morning maybe it’s in reflection. Maybe it’s meditation, but maybe it’s just reflection and gratitude of what things are going right in your day, because if you start on the defensive, you are immediately reminded of where you are lacking.
If I go to my inbox or if I go to my Facebook immediately, I am already reminded of somewhere I am failing somebody somehow. It doesn’t matter how many awesome things I have done. That’s where those things live, in my inbox and on my Facebook, somebody needs me for something. So if I immediately start there, I feel like less of a person. I feel like I am inadequate.
So what if you flip that? What if the morning was…maybe it was that workout or just some light stretching or some yoga or something? What if it did start with something positive? Maybe it’s a sermon you watch online or some kind of positive motivation thing that you watch on YouTube. Maybe it’s reading a book. Maybe it is a devotional or a journal in time and just to give yourself some time to execute some things a different way with an open mind to see is this better, is it worse?
Your Way May Not be the Best Way
But I just think that we are so white knuckled into our current schedule in our current lifestyle we think, “I’ve got to do it this way. I have to stay until 4 o’clock in the morning to grind and make my business work.” And maybe you do! I don’t know, but what if you flip that? What if you went to bed earlier and you got up…some of you go to bed when I get up in the morning.
My alarm went off this morning at 4:40am and you may think that’s crazy, but in…my background is in theater and in bartending. I am naturally a night owl, I get it, but I realize I was able and willing to try something different for a few days and eventually, now my natural body clock gets my up early. Yes, I kind of joke that I should have my AARP card because a lot of times by 9 o’clock I am done.
But I’ve lived both sides and then I can say which one feels better. Which one am I truly more productive? You know, sometimes we have a little extra time so we fill it with more busy time thinking, “I am going to get more done here. I am going to grab that second job. I am going to teach that class. I am going to do that thing where you are busier, but you are not more productive.”
There is just…this video could get super super long because I could just go example after example after example of things maybe you need to detox. Like I said, for me, it started with this nutrition thing and giving up caffeine for a few weeks and not working out the same way and you know having big bowls of fruit for breakfast instead of you know eggs and oatmeal and heavier breakfast and stuff like that.
I am going to look back and I am going to reflect and what I hope to do, is at the end of this not just revert back to where I was beforehand but really take the time to really look at, this is how I ran things before, this is how I ran things after and maybe there is a happy medium.
And I am just…I am not judging it. I am just observing how do I feel? What’s my mindset like? Is this better or worse?
And then at the end of this, I am going to look back and I am going to reflect and what I hope to do, is at the end of this not just revert back to where I was beforehand but really take the time to really look at, this is how I ran things before, this is how I ran things after and maybe there is a happy medium. Maybe it’s, “I am going to add back in these two things, but I am going to stay…” there is something on the other side that you are going to adopt long term, that just becomes a habit and no longer forces you to do it.
So just food for thought today. If this video has been helpful, I really would love it if you would click the like button, but even more than that, this is what I want to know and this is going to be a little tough. In the comments, tell me the one thing you are willing to detox. Maybe it’s 7 days. Maybe it’s 2 weeks. Maybe it’s like me the full 21 days.
What thing are you willing to detox to find out if you are better or worse without it? That you can only find that out when you are willing to give it up? Let me know in the comments and you and I will hold each other accountable. My name is Coach Jimmy. Until next time, keep moving forward.