On February 7, 1994 a professional ballplayer signed a contract with a new team. The season began with optimism. The crack of wood bats, the sound of balls slamming into mitts and dust rising off the infield were all classic baseball. But as the season wore on nothing spectacular materialized. After batting just .202 with 3 home runs and 11 errors, the player decided to call it quits at the end of the year. It was an average year by the standards of any minor league baseball player. You could use sports jargon to say this player was no Michael Jordan, except that’s exactly who it was.
In 1993, after winning 3 world championships in basketball, Michael Jordan retired from the Chicago Bulls. His retirement was heavily influenced by his father, who was just tragically murdered. Jordan’s father always pictured him playing professional baseball. So Jordan quit basketball in hopes of living out his father’s dream.
Nobody who knows sports expected Michael Jordan to excel in baseball the way he did in basketball. And to his credit he was able to hang as a professional baseball player much better than most. In my opinion he likely turned to baseball to help him cope with the recent tragedy in his life. But basketball was always going to be his sport and he knew it. In 1995 he returned to the Chicago Bulls and won 3 more world championships in basketball. The rest is history.
Michael Jordan is arguably the greatest basketball player who ever lived. His talents made him a natural for the sport. We may never see another basketball player like him. But the most important takeaway from the story above is that he was meant to play basketball because that’s the sport that suited him the best.
Your fitness game
People struggling with a healthy lifestyle are often in the same predicament. They are playing the wrong game. This might be because they are trying to copy someone else who they think is fit. It might also be because they’re being advised by someone who doesn’t truly understand them. There are a million different ways to eat healthy and exercise. Why not work with your natural tastes and abilities to find the process that works best for you?
The best part about being healthy is that it’s not a situation where you’re competing against anyone else. There’s nothing that you have to do. Famous investor Warren Buffet likes investing because it’s a “no called strikes” business. This means he can wait and wait until he finds a stock he wants to buy. He can watch a thousand stocks come and go and it makes no difference. Where in a sport like baseball you have to eventually swing at pitches or you will strike out. That’s where the “no called strikes” term comes from. Thankfully being healthy is a “no called strikes” situation as well.
Find your game
Finding the process that works best for you can be fun. I define a process as a group of smaller systems. You might have a system for food prep, a system for food logging, a system for meditating and another system for exercise. Together these systems make up your process.
First, start off with what you already like. Write out a list of all the healthy foods you enjoy. Coffee always helps me brainstorm, just a hint. Then write out a list of physical activities that you like. For example I like walking, running, basketball and HIIT workouts. Don’t like running? Then that’s obviously not on your list.
After you get your list, think of one way you can implement those activities or foods into your life. Remember to start small! You can start with something as simple as going for a 5 minute walk on Wednesday after you get home from work. But do this every single Wednesday. Then as time goes on build around that 5 minute walk. Maybe every week you add 1 minute until you get to 15 minutes. After you get to 15 minutes on Wednesdays add a 5 minute walk on Fridays and build up your Friday walk in the same fashion.
Once your walking has been established, try adding a food from your healthy foods list to your regular meals. Maybe pick a vegetable and add it to dinner one night a week. Keep going and improving incrementally as time goes on. Keep all focus on your process, not immediate results, and change will come over time. The great thing about this method is that any change will be lasting change.
Be patient
A good process should be built around what you already do and things you enjoy. After all, it’s your game! Building your process takes time too. You might not have your full process established for 6 months or even a year. Don’t worry though, it’s all part of getting better. By the time you have finally built up a good process you will realize that it was well worth the wait!
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