Another personal milestone was hit over the weekend. I am officially Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certified. I decided to study under this company after having gone through 1 year of coaching with Precision Nutrition as a coaching client. During this year of my life, I assessed, reassessed, and established habits that would not only change the framework of how I viewed my own nutritional habits, but also change the very way in which I lived my life, all of which were for the better. I encourage you, be you a novice trainee or a serious fitness professional, to do the COACHING PROGRAM first prior to getting your certification. I am of the mindset that the best coaches out there are the ones that were coached themselves before from the very people that owned their skills in their particular niche profession. You will leave the Precision Nutrition program on both counts a much stronger, confident, and empowered individual ready to take on the world having gone through both areas of their protocols. Trust me. I guarantee this!
Lately, I have been obsessed with habits, or I guess I should say the idea of habits. The knowledge I acquired with my bachelors degree in psychology has seemed to resurface having studied under Precision Nutrition directly. Cognitive and behavioral psychology. . ..I dig it! My inner nerd is jumping with joy!
Habits are behaviors, and they are so ingrained in us that our own habits can happen on a subconscious level. They are immediate, automatic, even ritualistic. Look up the word “habit” in the dictionary, and you will find that the very word draws parallels with other words such as “involuntary” and “repetitive”. Habits have the ability to make us stronger than we ever thought possible. Habits can also destroy the very essence of who we are, to the point of even putting our own lives at risk. Good habits. Bad habits. They have something in common.
Choice. The ability to choose.
Recently, one of my friends in my fitness realm wrote an article about making conscious choices. The article was in reference to alcohol consumption, and it ended with a very witty two part question.
“Are you flossing your teeth on autopilot? Congratulations! Are you pouring yourself a double scotch on autopilot? How is that working for you?”
I got to thinking about this question in terms of other areas of my life. I have gone through an incredible amount of change all at once here in the city of Pittsburgh, and that made for a not so usual me. For the first time in the past 3 years, I found myself off my sleeping game, off my meal prepping game, just off my game in general. Having spent a serious 2 months with my current coach, I came to realize something thanks to him pointing it out in front of me. He had asked me two very difficult questions.
“Is it safe to say you brought on more issues because you chose to do so?”
Um. . .Yes.
“Are you ok with this?”
Hell no!
Circumstances in our lives can be very unpredictable. We can choose to REACT to life’s random chaos or we can choose to be PROACTIVE and make good things happen. I came to realize early on in my new coaching program that I was thinking with a more REACTIVE mindset than PROACTIVE mindset, and I had done so on my own volition. I think it is safe to say that when too much shit is hitting the fan, we can find ourselves expecting more shit to hit the fan because that appears to be normal. We can become conditioned to expect the worst when too many bad things happen all at once. Consider this to be Pavlovian Conditioning at it’s worst. The good news?
Choice. The ability to choose.
I am not writing this piece tonight to talk about unicorns, rainbows, and butterflies. While I believe that seeing the good in every situation is essential, the truth lies in the fact that good, sustainable, attainable and measurable results don’t just fall out of the sky. We all have an active part to CHOOSE how to live, and when we make the right choices consistently over time, the end result is success. Apply this rule to your business, your fitness goals, your relationships. You may find that they have something in common.
Choosing the right habits.
If there is one thing I can take away from being with Precision Nutrition for the past two years it is this. We all have the ability to choose our own habits. We can rest then, knowing that our conscious decisions can determine our outcomes. Set your goal. Do the work. Achieve. It really is that simple.
You have the power to choose your own habits, and my hope is that you find this incredibly empowering.
What habits are working for you?
What habits do you need to change?
Most importantly. . .
What are you going to CHOOSE to do moving forward?
I know the answers to these questions.
Do you?
Press on!
