How many times have you wanted to begin a fitness regiment or a weight loss program, but thought it was too hard? When training new clients, I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon I want to share with you.

When a new client wants to begin a fitness program, we might challenge them to walk just 20 minutes on their own. It sounds easy when the commitment is made, but when the day arrives and they haven’t scheduled the 20 minutes of walking into their schedule, somehow that 20 minutes seems impossible and not easy, so it doesn’t happen. What evolves afterwards is the interesting part. The client then goes into a guilty spin of “why didn’t I do it” mentality and then they end up wasting precious hours beating themselves up about it!

Another example is getting on a healthy nutritional program. Maybe the challenge is to go 3 days without having desserts. Well, day 2 happens and that cookie just was too tempting…then the next 2 days are spent beating themselves up again!

The energy spent on feeling bad completely outweighs the actual moment of following through with the commitment, yet somehow we connect more with feeling guilty than trying something new. Why is it we are comfortable in negative feelings? Interesting, isn’t it?!

So my thought for you today is to commit to something which, in the moment, might feel a bit uncomfortable because it’s different, but know that the ripple effect of this new habit won’t waste hours of guilty nonsense. Instead establish a comfort zone over time creating lifelong healthy living and a positive mindset!

As I heard one of my trainers say this morning…saying NO to a temping food is so much easier than actually burning it off through exercise!

Don’t do more…do different.  Well, maybe some of us need to do more. I do see a lot of people who “show up” but are not engaged in what they are doing.  You know what I am talking about, the ones who stand around the water cooler all day criticizing everyone like they are the authority instead of looking in the mirror. They show up in body, but not in mind and action.  It’s like their whole life is spent on the practice range but they never tee it up on the first tee.  You do have to GO FOR “IT” or “IT” won’t happen. Don’t mistake showing up for work, for working – a lot of people show up, but don’t do anything towards accomplishing their goals.  This is a great question to consider: Using work for an example – if you owned your company, would you pay yourself what you want to make for what you do everyday?  Be honest.

If what you’re doing now is not getting you what you want, doing more of what you are currently doing is still not going to get you what you want. It’s just going to make you more frustrated. You have to do different – or in some cases you just have to do something. It’s about simplifying, being consistent and actually doing it – not just thinking about it and planning on how to do it, but actually DOING IT. Create rituals and systems that are easily duplicated for the long haul.  Because it is the accumulation effect of the small things over a long period of time which are going to make the biggest impact and are going to be something you will be able to maintain for a long period of time.

Here are 2 great books I would recommend reading if you are struggling to have that breakthrough:

After you spend some time leading a company or team, you inevitably encounter a crisis. How you deal with that crisis as a leader ends up mattering more than the crisis itself.

On June 24, the consumer technology industry’s darling, Apple Inc., found itself wrapped up in a publicity nightmare. Many of the consumers who’d bought the latest iPhone 4 were reporting reception issues, and evidence showed that a defective antennae was causing dropped calls and poor connections when held a certain way.

The issues were more than a big deal partly because of all the fanfare leading up to the iPhone 4 release. When the long-anticipated iPhone 4 was announced in early June, Apple said it was the biggest leap they had taken with the product since the original iPhone shipped three years ago. The company sold more than 3 million iPhone 4s in the first 22 days on the market.

The negative press regarding the defective antennae continued to pile on, causing Apple CEO Steve Jobs to abruptly end his Hawaii vacation to address the issue in a rush press conference.

Apple handled some things inadequately during this calamity, but eventually ended up doing the right thing. Here are five leadership qualities Steve Jobs used to get through this crisis that we can all learn from:

• Strive to educate. In his press conference, Jobs focused more on the larger issues of the smartphones rather than the signal deprivation. He wanted to combine his learning with action and impel the public to seek greater understanding of the product.
• Maintain constant communication. As this whole debacle transpired, Jobs’ main goal was to show that communication is the real work of leadership.
• Become a problem solver. Apple did not choose to simply forget about this issue and not deal with it. Instead, company officials dealt with the situation head on and extended support to their customers.
• Don’t be afraid to show your vulnerability. Jobs began his press conference by admitting the company is not perfect. In doing this and explaining that Apple does have faults, he showed he was strong enough to care.
• An apology is a powerful way to make things better. At one point, Jobs offered a pure apology. His forgiveness does not change the past, but it will enlarge the future.

The clear lesson here is that it is only in the practice of leadership that we influence our world. Rather than view the iPhone 4 problems as a setback, Jobs saw it as a healthy, inevitable part of becoming a successful company.

As American football coach Lou Holtz once said, “Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.”

Steve Jobs exemplified just that. Without his passion and leadership to get through the crisis, the public would not have believed in his ability to resolve the iPhone 4 antennae situation.

As you think about your career and obstacles you face, remember that Steve Jobs believes, “Passion rules! Passion is about our emotional energy and a love for what we do. Without passion it becomes difficult to fight back in the face of obstacles and difficulties.”

The next time you face a crisis, let your passion kick in and guide your leadership decisions.

At the time, it was pretty comical, however it got me thinking: Are we ever really done? Or maybe more precisely: are we beginning, ending, or always moving?

Doesn’t it seem that whatever task or event we are working on we’re benchmarking it as if we are starting or working towards finishing?

If I look at my industry of health and wellness, I meet cool folks all the time who are looking to “begin” a training or nutrition program so they can reach their “end” goal and in their minds “finish.”

Truly, though, this life is just that…a life journey. Sometimes we are traveling a little slower than others, sometimes we are reaching a pivotal goal and other times we are renewing our commitment to something, yet through the ebb and flow of all of this, we are always IN it, always moving, always striving. The only time we really begin is when we are born and well, you know when we truly end (at least in this body).

Enough of the heavy stuff! Seriously though, maybe we can take a look at our week a little differently right now and consider what we are IN and the joy of the momentum, the newness of projects and the satisfactions towards reaching a goal. If we only look at when we start and when we are done, are we really enjoying the middle…which is actually our life! Think about this heavy topic and contemplate stepping out of the limits of a time clock and rather start being IN the entire process, for life!

Success in achieving almost anything in life is not going to be the result of jumping from one thing to another. It is going to be the compounded result of doing only the most important activities over and over again and by taking on fewer activities more frequently. If we do those few, most important activities consistently over and over again, at some point we reach the tipping point and we will explode into a quantum leap. It’s all about K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple Stupid. Getting what we want in life is not complicated, but it is difficult. It involves doing the important activities, not the urgent ones. The difficult part is being disciplined enough to do those important, not the urgent activities consistently and doing them over and over again until we have a breakthrough.

Why is it so hard? Because we have to do it over and over for long periods of time with what appears to be little or no results. But if we have the discipline to stick with it, all of a sudden, one day we will have a radical breakthrough. The hard part is not to quit when we feel like we are running into a brick wall with no results; the hard part is not quitting when we are having a breakdown. Because when the wall comes down, it won’t come down one brick at a time, but the accumulation affect of hitting it over and over again will bring it tumbling down all at once. It will happen when we are exhausted and beyond wanting to quit. We will hit it again and BANG!!!!

Consider this: Let’s pretend that each individual activity we do in life is represented by one piece of paper. Stacked up on top of each other, a stack of 50 pieces of paper will only be ¼ of an inch high. Unfortunately, the quantum leap never happens. Why? Because there is not accumulation affect, no compounding. Now imagine instead that we only have one huge piece of paper and we fold the piece of paper in half 50 times. This represents our most important activities we do over and over again. If we were to fold a piece of paper 50 times (if this were physically possible, which of course it is not) the paper will be high enough to almost reach the sun! Now that’s a quantum leap!

Do the important, not the urgent activities and make it a great week!

That’s why I want to tell you about Mint.com. It’s the hottest thing in personal finance apps since online banking.

The site has gained a lot of recognition and increased its user base after being sold to Intuit (the same company that brought you Quicken) last year. If you ever talk to people who use it, you’ll quickly see why. They absolutely love it!

What is Mint? It’s an online money management system that does all the heavy lifting for you. When you set up an account, Mint goes out and pulls your data from your banks and brokerage accounts in order to build a financial picture for you. This sounds a little scary at first, but the company uses bank-level data security and has never had any reported problems. The company does a good job at explaining the security measures at this link.

We all know that personal budgets and savings plans are about as exciting as insurance seminars. That’s probably why Mint has become so popular – unlike the old systems that had you sitting there laboring for hours entering your data, Mint gets to the goods in a matter of minutes. You get real insight and you never have to open a spreadsheet once.

It tells you: where your money is going, where you could find potential savings, how your investments are doing, and now offers a way to set up and track goals for yourself.

Who doesn’t need that?

Mint can even help you detect suspicious activity in your accounts. And of course, they have an app for your iPhone or Android device.

To sum it up – Mint is like the personal finance tool for people who hate personal finance. It’s easy and dare I even say fun? Plus, all the kids are doing it. So if saving more and spending less were on your New Year’s Resolution list this year, you might want to step on over and give it a whirl.

There is no mystery to mastery. Hard work and dedication are what distinguish the masters from the masses.

Notice anything missing there? What about talent?

In his bestselling book, “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell dives into this topic of mastering a skill. He says it takes a minimum of 10,000 hours for a musician to gain mastery over an instrument. In the book, the debate is over whether talent plays a role in mastery. Is there such a thing as innate talent?

Gladwell explains:

“Achievement is talent plus preparation. The problem with this view is that the closer psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role preparation seems to play.”

Psychologist K. Anders Ericsson and two colleagues conducted two studies to further explore this question of talent. One study compared star violinists with good violinists and those who were unlikely to ever play professionally. The violinists who ended up in the top tier were those who had increased their practice time and who, by the age of 20, had reached a total of 10,000 hours of practice.

In the second study, Ericsson compared amateur pianists with professional pianists. The amateurs never practiced more than three hours a week. The professionals, however, steadily increased their practice every year until the age of 20 and like the violinists, had reached 10,000 hours of practice by that age.

Here’s what Gladwell noted in “Outliers” about Ericsson’s studies:

“The striking thing about Ericsson’s study is that he and his colleagues couldn’t find any ‘naturals,’ musicians who floated effortlessly to the top while practicing a fraction of time their peers did. Nor could they find any ‘grinds,’ people who worked harder than everyone else, yet just didn’t have what it takes to break the top ranks. Their research suggests that once a musician has enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That’s it. And what’s more, the people at the very top don’t work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.”

This appears to be the case with top athletes as well.

In his book, “The Score Takes Care of Itself,” legendary San Francisco 49er head coach Bill Walsh explains the reason behind the glorious success of Jerry Rice and Joe Montana, perhaps the greatest receiver and quarterback in NFL history:

“…they understood the absolute and direct connection between intelligently directed hard work and achieving your potential. We all do; you do; I do. Everyone who’s a serious player knows what it takes. The difference is how much you’re willing to give to get there.”

So does talent count? Sure. The point, though, is that talent is not whole game nor is it the deciding factor. And this is true not just in music or sports, but also in business.

There is no mystery to mastery. Most of us know what it is we have to do to win. It comes down to how much time you’re willing to put in to beat out the rest.

A client of mine sent me a link from Joy Bauer, MD which I think is fabulous and wanted to pass along….

Cheers to successful and healthy dining!

STEAKHOUSE MENUS
Au Gratin: Baked side dish (using potatoes, cauliflower, or another vegetable) typically made with cream or whole milk, butter, and cheese and topped with buttery bread crumbs
Hollandaise: Heavy, classic French sauce made with butter and egg yolks
Scalloped: Baked side dish (usually potatoes) made with heavy cream and/or whole milk
Creamed: Cooked with cream (as in creamed spinach)
Smothered: Usually covered in some sort of heavy sauce or gravy

ITALIAN-AMERICAN RESTAURANT MENUS
Parmigiana: Coated in a mixture of bread crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese and fried
Alfredo: Heavy sauce made with butter, cream, and grated cheese
Scampi: Sauce often served with shrimp or other seafood that’s typically made with lots of butter
Fritto (Fried): Fried in oil (*Some restaurants in all cuisines have gotten more savvy in an effort to sound healthier and now refer to deep-fried foods as “lightly fried” or “crispy” on their menus. Don’t be fooled; if you have any doubts ask the waiter to explain the preparation.)
Breaded: Coated with bread crumbs and then typically deep-fried in oil (where it can soak up lots of calories, especially if not fried at the proper temperature)
Carbonara: Pasta sauce made from bacon, whole eggs, cheese, and sometimes cream

MEXICAN/TEX-MEX RESTAURANT MENUS
Con Queso: Topped with cheese
Refried: Fried, often in lard
Deep-Fried/Crispy: Fried in oil
Loaded/Supreme/Grande: Often used in reference to nachos, quesadillas, or burritos; this indicates that a dish is served with ALL the toppings, including cheese, sour cream, refried beans, and sometimes meat
Chimichanga: Burrito stuffed with meat and fillings, then deep-fried

CHINESE TAKEOUT MENUS
Egg Rolls: Vegetables and meats wrapped in dough and deep-fried in oil
Fried: Fried rice, dumplings, meats, seafood, and more soak up excess oil which adds more calories to your plate
Chow: “Chow” indicates that a dish has been stir-fried, typically in liberal amounts of oil; chow mein and chow fun (or chow foon) are both dishes made with pan-fried noodles
Egg Foo Young: Egg dish (similar to an omelet) made with whole eggs, pan-fried, and usually smothered in salty brown gravy
Sweet and Sour: A sugary, syrupy sauce that’s very calorie-dense
General Tso: Bits of meat (most commonly chicken) are coated in an egg and cornstarch mixture, deep-fried, and mixed with vegetables in a high-salt sauce

They are both right, because you get what you focus on and you attract people into your life who are like you. So the good news is, if you are positive, upbeat and fired up – you attract positive, upbeat and fired up people into your life. The more positive people you attract into your life the better your life gets. Actually it gets better exponentially! The downside is if you are negative, down and have low energy, you attract negative, down and low energy people into your life. The more negative people you attract into your life, the worse your life gets. And yes, it gets worse exponentially.

For a minute, just think about some of the people you know. Not necessarily those who are your best friends, but just acquaintances. What are the common characteristics of the positive ones and what are the common characteristics of the negative ones? What energy do they give off? Do they smile or frown? Do they laugh or do they yell? Do they fire you up when you see them or suck the energy from you? Do they complement or do they criticize?

Have you noticed that we don’t see the positive people and the negative people spending much time together, except when absolutely necessary? Why is that? Because the positive people naturally spend time with optimists and find ways to improve their lives. While the negative people seem to always spend time with the basket-cases and seem to always be looking for ways to sabotage their life – not intentionally, but subconsciously. The positive people tend to do things good for their physical, mental and spiritual body, while the negative tend to do bad things for their physical, mental, and spiritual body.

So, how do we get out of the funk and into the fired up?

One of the most important things we need to do is stop spending time with other people in a funk and start spending time with people who are fired up. Or if you are fired up, find other fired up people to spend time with. Better yet, find people more fired up than you to spend time with.

Both groups are like magnets and either we are going to get sucked down into a hole with the “my life sucks” group, or we are going get pulled up into the clouds with the “my life is on fire and awesome” group. You can’t beat it, because it is like any fight. No matter how tough you are, if you are out numbered you are going to lose. If you are trying to be positive but hang out with negative people, you are going to get your ass kicked. The good new is if your negative, but hang out with positive people, you are also going to get your ass kicked.

Remember, everything in life is contagious. Choose to hang with people who have the fired up plague and catch it!

Make it a GREAT week!