What is Success?

For some success is having lots of money. For others it may be reaching a personal goal or milestone, either professionally or personally. Wealth is generally considered to be society’s barometer of success. However, as Mohandas K (Mahatma) Gandhi famously said, “Your health is your real wealth.” and without our health all the monetary wealth we accumulate is worthless.

I wound up the previous newsletter with this quote on success from sociologist Daniel Chambliss, “there is no secret: there is only the doing of all those little things, each one done correctly, time and again, until excellence in every detail becomes a firmly ingrained habit, an ordinary part of one’s everyday life.”

And then I said that this was what I wanted for my clients: for them to enjoy exercising so much that it becomes an ingrained habit in their lives.

It is in the constant doing of the little things that success can be found.

Each small action builds upon the previous one. To begin with the sum of those actions may seem inconsequential, but over a long period of time the divergence from unhealthy choices becomes noticeable.

Eating a packet of crisps (which are my nemesis – if there are any in the house they will be consumed!) won’t have much, if any effect, on your overall health. Eating a packet a day for years on end may well lead to undesirable health outcomes.

As was stated in the previous newsletter, doing the best workout in the world once won’t have any real effect on your health. Doing workouts consistently for years on end will deliver some pretty great health benefits.

As this very simple graph illustrates, for quite a while there is no real difference between the healthy and not so healthy choices, but suddenly the divergence is very noticeable. It kind of creeps up on us.

One of my favourite quotes, which has been attributed to many people from Anne Frank to Tony Robbins, is “You make your choices and then your choices make you.”

Does this mean I want my clients to live like saints and have no ‘fun’?

Not at all.

A major part of life is enjoying it, otherwise what’s the point?

I’d like my clients to be aware of their choices, and for one of those choices to be exercise, which in turn becomes an ingrained habit, where if they are not exercising they feel that there is something missing from their lives.

Exercise has been shown time and again to improve the quality of life as well as the longevity of it. To quote Dr Peter Attia, “I now consider exercise to be the most potent longevity “drug” in our arsenal, in terms of lifespan and healthspan. The data are
unambiguous: exercise not only delays actual death but also prevents both cognitive and physical decline, better than any other intervention.”

And exercise can take many different forms. Walking is probably the easiest and best
exercise we, as humans, can participate in. However, as we age, we naturally lose muscle mass and bone density unless we actively do things to delay that onset of decline. We need to train for strength, power and endurance as we age or we may well find that things catch up with us pretty quickly.

The best thing about all this?

It is NEVER too late to start.

There are numerous social media accounts showing elderly people lifting very impressive and heavy weights who only started in their 60s, 70s or 80s.

So what have you got to lose?

Start small.

Build from there.

If you aren’t sure where to start, or want to chat about the next step in your health and fitness journey, I’d be only too happy to help. (Click the button below to book a call with me)