Why We Need To Be Reminded More Than We Need To be Taught
I had a stark realisation this week…
I had tried so many things with my training, my diet, and my routine over the years but seemed to get nowhere with a lot of them.
For a long time I thought learning was all about continually adopting new things or constantly delving into different ideas.
I mean, we are regularly told by everyone around us to look for new and better opportunities and ways of doing things.
“Get the edge and try something different” they say.
But in reality, when I look back, I can see that the things that actually had the most impact and made me improve the most, were the things that I had remembered rather than the new things I things I had continually explored.
When it comes to keeping in shape, this is certainly the case.
We want to try new exercises, new diets, new training methods, and all sorts of things that are pushed in front of us every day that promise us the latest and greatest results… and often with less pain and toil too.
And what is the result of exploring all these new endeavours?
With all the novelty that we implement, we often end up worse for it.
We try to catch many rabbits at the same time, but we end up catching none.
We don’t accomplish our goals because we continually want something that’s new, fun, and exciting – A.K.A Bright Shiny Object Syndrome
Our efforts and energy gets scattered and there is not enough time and resources to possibly do everything.
Often we throw out many of the elements that were working in our favour, and replace them with everything that is fresher, newer, and better.
This leaves us lacking the one key ingredient that we need to succeed – consistency.
We learn best by repetition, rather than trying to introduce more advanced things.
More often than not, we should be focusing on how we can do the basics better instead of poking our heads in every new rabbit hole.
We can only get better at something by doing that same thing over and over again….rather than continually trying to adopt new things.
Yes, doing the same things over and over again can get boring – and that’s what makes it hard!
But boring is the brother of consistency, and consistency compounds.
You can’t say your nutrition has improved if it is never the same.
You can’t say you were stronger than before if your exercises are completely different all the time.
You can’t say your routines are better if they are constantly in flux.
And the truth is, getting in shape is simple – eat right regularly and train a little harder than last time on a consistent basis.
The hard part is the consistency in the boring basics – bit it’s these that make us better….much better!
Bruce Lee said it best:
“I don’t fear a man who’s done 1000 kicks one time, but the man who’s done one kick 1000 times”
The truth is that we need to be reminded, more than we need to be taught.
It’s persistent practice of the fundamentals that will help us to climb higher up the summit– not trying to embark up different mountains all the time.
So do yourself a favour like I did – Turn off the social media feeds, resist the urge for the latest diet on the market, and stop comparing yourself to those around you.
Instead, ask yourself: “where do I need to get back to basics with my nutrition, my training, and my health?”
You will likely find what you have been searching for all along and what has been the missing feature in your results to date.
– Michael
