You need drastic change and you are capable now

November 20th, 2012 by Agent Kevin Miller

muscle

A couple days ago I did my daily headlines check to see if anything really important was happening. Not much to report there. But I did happen to see a headline letting us know some Hollywood starlet had shed 60 lbs. Again.

Normally it wouldn’t have even registered. However, I’m in the midst of a fairly rapid and drastic change which helped me see it with different eyes. And gave me respect for the girl. To lose that much weight in a short amount of time is impressive.
If you’d rather hear the show where I expanded on this topic:Right-click to download / Listen or subscribe via iTunes
It’s easy to discount, “Sure, if I could hire a personal trainer and spend 2 hours a day in the gym…If I could afford all the healthy food…If I was paid millions for a movie role, then sure, I could do it.” It’s not really fair though. Whether you are poor or rich, only your personal resolve can enable you to eat less calories than you burn. So really all we’re saying is this girl is more motivated by money and results. Hmmm. So if I paid you, then you’d put down the M&Ms?

But my personal story that made it relevant is lifting weights. I’m an endurance junkie and don’t enjoy standing still and lifting heavy things that cause me pain. When I run or ride at 9,000′ above sea level I get somewhere, see the sights, feel the wind in my hair. However, at 6′ I was close to dipping below 155lbs. My core wasn’t strong, lifting heavy stuff around our house and property wore me out quickly, I had shoulder and back pain from old cycling injuries and my wife wasn’t as thrilled with my ‘slight’ physique. What was the future for me? A thin, bent over, frail old man. A big pair of lungs in a skeleton.

I’m not OK with that picture. I want to hoist my great grandkids onto my shoulders when I’m 85 and help my kids build a house. I had to start now. So…I did. I knew the morning from about 7-8am was available time. While helping my four little kids get breakfast and keep them quiet for the rest of the family, I could workout amongst that.

123 days later, significant change. It’s been hard. So often I didn’t want to do it, but I feared if I quit, I would just backslide and lose it all. I just made it routine, like getting coffee in the morning. Most folks won’t miss their fave TV show, I don’t miss my workout now. The increase in my strength, the lack of aches and pains, and the way my wife looks at me…I’m sold. Even my teenage kids are kind of shocked, “Daddy’s buff!” It’s a new world. After only 123 days of consistency. Well, and a lot of wincing.

So all the Hollywood stars and celebrities and the drastic body transformations they go through…it’s pretty darn impressive. There may be better looking and more talented people out there, but they just aren’t able to commit to necessary ‘drastic change’. And they don’t make the cut.

What about you and your desire for change in your life? We usually go after change in our lives in little bits. Just try to add a bit here and there without disrupting things. It doesn’t work. Any decent change comes from some drastic efforts. Some life disruption. And you’ve done it before, it was just probably reactive instead of proactive. It happened to you instead of you happening to it. You took a 2nd job to pay the bills and lived a crazy life for a while. You decided to get a degree on the side of your day job and added a ton of time and work into your life. You had a kid and had sleepless nights for a long, long time. You got laid off and moved into a house with family with too many people in too little a space. Or worse. And you made it.

If you want a different reality for your life, you just need to happen TO IT. Maybe for the first time. Proactive. Drastic. I love drastic. I’m a fan of it. Matter of fact, in dwelling on this it occurred to me that ‘drastic’ is what I’m best at. I’ve changed my personal coaching and consulting to ‘DRASTIC CHANGE & RESULTS COACH’ (check it out if it sounds fitting for you). My past clients would attest that this is where I’m best and provided the most value…helping make drastic changes. Sometimes baby steps are best, but I’m just not that competent at them. I don’t do moderation well. I tend towards excess.

Right now. Here you are. You want a different reality. How about brainstorming some drastic changes, which are probably necessary to jar you out of your current reality (rut?) and toward your intended destination. I’m not talking about huge risk and throwing caution to the wind. There was no danger in my taking 45 minutes of my mornings to add in working out and do it for 123s straight. But it was a big alteration of my life.

Most every day for you is routine and is headed in a specific direction. Want to chart a new course? You’ll have to make some relatively drastic changes. A few degrees shift will usually result in barely making it up the curb and then…slide…right back into the old routine. You need a jolt. A big shift. Crash over the curb and escape your current inertia.

Ready?

  • http://seekoutwisdom.blogspot.com Joseph Iliff of SeekOutWisdom

    Incremental changes can achieve powerful results when applied over time. However, they often do not provide the learning opportunity that drastic changes do. When someone has to make a significant departure from their routine, where they will spend a meaningful amount of time outside of their comfort zone, they are much more likely to learn something about themselves. You can not find a strength, an resiliency, or a persistence you didn’t know you had until you venture beyond the comfortable into a challenge that seems too great. Whether you succeed in your endeavor or fail to meet your goal, only by pushing your boundaries will you learn what you are truly capable of doing. Try it. You may find out that your greatest limitation is only your belief in yourself.

    • http://www.freeagentacademy.com Kevin Miller

      Agreed that incremental changes over time are powerful, I just don’t see many succeed without first doing something significant to get them rolling

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1026054025 Wendy Sutter-Staas

    yeah. . .I can attest to both incremental change and significant change. I am coming upon my 4 years of quitting my corporate job. That was BIG change and HUGE risk. . more than most would never be willing to take on — I have accrued some cuts and bruises along the way — but you know what it has gotten me 4 years later? A stronger marriage (showing my spouse that through adversity we can make it!!!), stronger financial future (though currently still working on it. . . we quit spending like crazy and have been using only cash since summer 2009). . .I am a Free Agent — with a daughter who is now nearly 9 months!! Was it hard work!! Hell yes!! Sometimes getting to where you want in your calling, aka. lot in life, when it comes to doing ‘work you love’. . . God uses the time to change a lot more in life too — all for the better!! The pruning sucks, but the reward is great!! Glory to God!! Now, I am doing one step at a time (sometimes small and with a baby on my hip), when it comes to making my business more successful. .. it takes time, but each day is a great day to do business!!

    • http://www.freeagentacademy.com Kevin Miller

      This is a gift of a testimonial, as you so often give. Thank you Wendy. I read it in today’s podcast.

  • http://twitter.com/esggraphics Eric Gale

    Kevin,
    As some one that has undergone some drastic changes in my life over the past 4 months, I can tell you that had I not planned ahead, these changes would have been devastating.

    You’re example of exercising, while drastic in that you have done it daily for 123+ days, is not life altering in the short run. I fear that some that read this post could see it as a call to walk into work tomorrow and quit- with no backup plan. Just a sense of “damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead.”

    As you have mentioned in the past, if I want to hike Pike’s Peak, I need to plan accordingly. I can’t show up with flip-flops, or be 500lbs., or confined to a wheel chair. If I am going to hike all the way without severe injury or death, I need to have prepared.

    Drastic changes force people to do new things, but it isn’t always healthy.

    I can be proactive by taking steps towards a goal. These baby steps build experience and confidence. As a second degree black belt, I didn’t get here quickly. It was a slow process of several years of doing the basics well, then working on the intermediate, then mastering the advanced. I had a goal in mind. The drastic change was committing to it.

    We need to live each day as if it was on purpose.

    We need to be responsible and plan.

    I am trying to live out these 7 decisions from The Traveler’s Gift by Andy Andrews.

    1. I Will Persist Without Exception.
    2. I Will Seek Wisdom.
    3. I Am a Person of Action.
    4. I Have a Decided Heart.
    5. Today, I Will Choose to be Happy.
    6. I Will Greet This Day With a Forgiving Spirit.
    7. I Will Persist Without Exception.

    Maybe this difference in opinion has more to do with me being a high C and you being a high D/I. I know you aren’t telling people to quit their day job without a plan, but I can see some one reading this post doing just that.

    Thank you for challenging us all to make BIG changes.

    • http://www.freeagentacademy.com Kevin Miller

      Great commentary Doug, I read this in a podcast I recorded today…will be posting on this page shortly!

  • http://christopherbattles.net/ Christopher Battles

    Switching outlook and creating habit are nothing new, but seeing it in a new light is.
    Once that swith is flipped enough times it becomes less resistant. As you said, you took time off and did not beat yourself up over it, but then jumped back.
    Good analogy of the celebrity weight loss, we see it often, but processing it like this is good.
    Thank you Kevin.
    This was a smack on the head.

    K, bye

    • http://www.freeagentacademy.com Kevin Miller

      A smack on the head. I think that’s the first time I’ve been told that. Thanks Christopher.

  • http://www.jelenaovari.com/ Jelena Ovari

    Thanks for this, Kevin!

    I don’t always do (or enjoy) baby steps much either!

    I’ve recognized that there are some areas of my life where I’m eager and willing and dead-set to take drastic steps, and try drastic things, and others (mostly when it comes to this rather important area of self-employment), where I’m not (i.e, fearful). I need to work through the Risk Factors material; I know I have a tendency to self-sabotage!

    • http://www.jelenaovari.com/ Jelena Ovari

      Oh, and ps: good on ya! Sooo awesome!

      • http://www.freeagentacademy.com Kevin Miller

        Hey, thanks so much Jelena. I’m always learning too…

  • Terissa Miller

    Kevin, I’ve been so amazed by your drastic-diligence with working out. And now – wow- the way you keep at it, every day – following thru with the continual hard work – it totally inspires me. Okay, and yeah, you look hot!!

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