This ONE thing will get you more results than any diet or training program will.

Nutrition & exercise tactics are a dime a dozen.

They're everywhere, and people get results with EVERYTHING.

Keto. Weight Watchers. Fasting. Calorie Counting.

You name it.

Big picture, we actually see there’s on predictor of successful weight loss long term…

Adherence.

So that means no matter WHICH approach you take, the key to success is sticking to it consistently.

As a coach, I've been lucky enough to work with 2 people that have lost over 100 lb and kept it off for multiple years.

For reference, losing just 10% of your body weight and keeping it off for multiple years is pretty damn rare...

And these 2 individuals successfully lost ~33% of their weight and kept it off.

Truly statistical anomalies.

I interviewed these clients for my client education site and there was one similar trait they both had:

Self Awareness.

This is the key to success in ANYTHING you do, but especially your fitness journey.

The reason for this is because you can’t find success without failure.

The more you fail, the more likely you are to succeed.

It seems backwards, but there's a million ways to get something done.

The key is finding out the best way FOR YOU.

And the way to find that?

It's not spending a shit ton of time analyzing and seeing what you think might work (paralysis by analysis)

It's STARTING, and finding out if it works, then adjusting if it doesn’t.

You could spend 12 months deciding which approach might work for you and then hope it does.

Or you could start SOMETHING, try it, and if it doesn't work switch to something else.

By the time 12 months goes by, as long as you don't quit, you will find something that works best FOR YOU.

If we know where we want to get long term, we can take action and continually re adjust every time we fail.

When you fail, you find out what DOESN'T work, and you get that much closer to what does.

Process of elimination.

HOWEVER

There's a big caveat here...

If you lack self awareness - these "failures" are going to wreck you mentally and you'll never find what works.

Self awareness turns the WORST of times into learning opportunities.

It's creates a true growth mindset.

And that's why it's the number one skill you can develop on your fitness journey.

When a client gets off track…

I like to ask 2 questions to my clients after these events:

1. What’s 1 thing you did during this that was 1% better than the last time your were in a similar situation?

2. What's 1 thing you can do the next time the EXACT same situation arises to be 1% better? (This doesn't need to be revolutionary - it could just be a 5 minute walk after the high calorie meal)

This does 2 things.

1. Finding small wins from previous times switches your brain to focus on the positives.

2. It builds our toolkit over time to help use learn how to handle different obstacles in our journey.

Repeat this process over time and you'll be able to handle anything life throws your way.

Another great way to growth from “failure” is to pay attention to the context of the situation:

• How was your sleep?

• How were you feeling?

• How's your stress been?

• How'd you feel AFTER going off track?

• How are you talking to yourself about it?

These considerations are what will make you REALIZE what may or may not be taking away from your results.

Without these considerations, you're moving without a compass, getting frustrated and not improving over time.

So how do we improve this self awareness?

At the simplest form, self awareness is paying attention.

Paying attention to your energy, your thoughts, your emotions.

This takes practice.

The number one recommendation I have for cultivating this is meditation.

10 minutes a day goes a long way in teaching you to start observing these things instead of identifying with them and getting caught up in them.

I’ve tried meditation on and off for YEARS.

About 8 months ago I started the Waking Up app by Sam Harris.

It was a game changer for me because he teaches you about the practice as you learn.

He starts you off with a 30 day course that walks you through the basics.

If you don't want to try an app - here's a great 14 minute meditation from Alan Watts.

I've paired daily meditation with reading about mindfulness / spirituality and have come a long way.

Here are my top recommended reads:

• Now is the Way by Cory Allen

• Awareness by Anthony De Mello

• The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

• The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer

Mindfulness helps you "step back" from your daily autopilot and start observing how you feel instead of identifying with it.

As time goes on, you'll do this throughout your regular day, not just while meditating.

That's where it becomes super powerful.

Bad mood?

Frustrated?

Negative thoughts?

These all become an alarm bell for you to "snap out of it" and recognize it for what it is - a fleeting emotion that you can't control.

This foundation will allow you to KEEP GOING on your fitness journey, even when it's tough.

Lastly, I can’t overstate the importance of data on your fitness joruney.

Nothing cultivates self awareness like tracking.

What gets measured gets managed.

No, you don’t have to do it forever.

But for just about everyone, having data on your movement (steps), body weight and food intake goes a long way to self reflect and learn to adjust your approach to stay on track.

If you have no measure of where you’re headed, you’ll have no idea if what you’re doing is working or not.

That’s all for this week.

Brooks