Stop thinking like a teacher!

Admit it…

As teachers we strive to help our students achieve 100% on everything they do. We want them to do perfect on that math test, ace that spelling quiz and we always write “100%” on a homework or assignment with a little more joy than a number less significant, right?

Could that mentality be hurting us when it comes to our health goals?

Absolutely.

Instead of starting at 100% and working backward, let’s play the “opposite game” and begin with 0% (teachers, I know this is hard to do!).

For example:

• What is 0% knowledge? Well, maybe slipping through the educational system never having a single reading, math or language arts class/lesson EVER. This person can barely put sentences together let alone function in society.

Ok then,

• What is 0% fitness? Maybe laying comatose in a hospital bed for the past several years…
• What is 0% nutrition? Well, I would imagine it’s eating garbage. As in, literal garbage… not even real food!
• What is 0% health? One word. Dead.

So now think about your own situation.

• If 0% knowledge is zero education, how much smarter are you than that?
• If 0% fitness is comatose, how much better is your fitness?
• If 0% nutrition is eating literal garbage, how much better is your nutrition?
• If 0% health is dead, how much more alive are you today? (even if you caught that “bug” all the kids have, you’re at least 50% alive, still!)

Your day is really looking up!

So now let’s keep playing the “opposite game…”

1. Start from 0%
2. Evaluate how much better than 0% you are right now.
3. What would it take you to be 1% better today (or even .5%!)

What can you do today that would be just a little bit better?

What would help you move just a little bit forward?

Progress, not perfection.

Maybe you’ve been here before:

You start a new diet or routine and run yourself into the ground for a week trying to be perfect. 100% performance is what it takes! 

But then you eventually burn out and quit. It’s too hard…

Sound familiar?

For my math teachers:

7 days x 100% effort + 358 days x 0% effort = no progress (or worse, backsliding and feeling like a HUGE failure).

But what if your situation was this, instead:

You start working towards becoming just 1% better, everyday (perhaps with a year of the Fit Teacher Academy!)

Let’s run the math this time:

365 days x 1% better everyday = significant progress. Instead of a failure, you feel like a rockstar!

Instead of trying to be perfect (not sustainable) try “making a little progress” everyday. 

Instead of starting at 100%, start at 0% and acknowledge every accomplishment.

Allow yourself to be “good enough for now” – It’s way less pressure!

Just keep showing up and keep trying to get better everyday.

Start NOW.

Don’t wait for the “perfect” time or situation to come up. It never will.

Take action NOW.

Take 5 minutes today to do something that will help you stay on track, move forward or be just 1% better than yesterday.

Maybe today is the day you join the pre-sale list for the Fit Teacher Academy

Do that, and you’re already 1% better. Congrats.

As Roosevelt once said:
Start wherever you are.
Use whatever you have.
Do whatever you can.