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So you said yes to our challenge eh? You decided to buckle down, set a goal, commit yourself, take action and transform your body over the summer. That's good! Now, are you ready for the next 5 challenges?
New Challenge #1: Finish the 98-Day "Big Burn."
Most people are not action takers, they're spectators. If you've accepted the 98-day summer challenge, as an official contestant vying for the prizes, or simply to do-it-at-home for self-motivation, either way, you're already in a small, elite group by taking action and starting. However, another, even smaller elite group always emerges... the finishers.
I recently had a brief chat with Shawn Phillips, author of Absolution and Strength for Life, and the Face (and body/abs) on the cover of the documentary, Body Of Work. Having been involved in one of the most popular body transformation contests ever - the Body For Life Challenge - along with the founder, his brother, Bill Phillips, I figured Shawn would have more data on completion rates for fitness contests than any other source.
So I asked him, "Do you have any data on how many people actually finished your Body of Life Challenges? He said he did. He told me the finish rates were anywhere from as low as 10% to as high as 25%.
It would be great if OUR contest could buck the odds and have a high completion rate. I'm an optimist at heart, but I'm also a realist, and no matter what I say or do, ultimately, I can't control anyone actions or results except my own.
The fact is, most people won't finish our challenge either. So it's not a question of whether most people will drop out, the question is, will YOU be in that small group of finishers? only YOU can decide that.
I'm challenging you to be a finisher. The rewards are endless: Less body fat, more muscle, greater strength, better fitness, improved health, increased energy, self-confidence, the respect and admiration of others, and the list goes on.
By being a finisher, you'll also gain a satisfying sense of completion. The psychologist William James once said:
"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an unfinished task."
James may not have been talking about flattening an overhanging belly, but it's likely that an "unfinished task" that you face every morning in the mirror is even more mentally frustrating than a mundane unfinished chore such as cleaning a messy house.
You'll always feel a nagging, festering sense of dissatisfaction for as long as you say you must do something and you don't complete it. The only way to closure is to finish.
Make finishing this contest a MUST. PLEDGE to finish what you started NO MATTER WHAT. Finishing this contest means: (1) completing the 98 days of consistent training and good nutrition, (2) taking "after photos," (2) posting your after photos to your forum journal and (4) writing/ submitting your essay and posting it in the "completed challenges" thread in the Summer challenge forums. If you've done all 4 of these things, you're a finisher, NO MATTER WHAT kind of results you achieve.
New Challenge #2: Get focused, stay focused and know how to re-focus
The Burn the Fat Summer Challenge is 98 days long. That's 14 weeks - a long enough amount of time to make a dramatic body transformation - but also a long enough time that it's easy to get sidetracked or lose focus.
One way to define focus is that all day long, you're constantly thinking about your goal. What do you think about all day long? Do you think about hating being fat? Do you think about pain you feel - physical or emotional? Do you think about past failures and replay them over and over in your mind? If so, you're focusing on the wrong things. What you mentally focus on, you will eventually act upon and get more of it.
You need a technique to stay focused on what you want and to re-focus if you lose it. That starts with goals. You must have them. You must set them scientifically and specifically. You must get them in writing.
Then you must revisit them constantly. Repetition is a sure fire way to keep your mind focused. One of the best techniques for goal setting and focusing is the goal card technique. Take your 14 week challenge fitness goal, put it in writing on a pocket-sized card and carry it wherever you go for 98 days. Any time you lose focus, if you feel down, if you feel distracted or if you realize you're off course, read and reread that card. Sometimes, achieving your goals is as simple as keeping your eyes on them, at all times, and re-focusing on them the minute you realize you've lost sight of them. New Challenge #3: Keep going strong through the rest of the year and take a long term perspective beyond 98 days Most people who set New Year's resolutions fall off the wagon by Super Bowl Sunday. Within 6 months, most of rest have dropped off as well. Even most people who FINISH transformation challenges slip back into old habits eventually. Why do so few stick with it? Short term perspective, and what I call "quick fix disease" are two of the big reasons. The winners of the world avoid quick fixes and look at the long term as they take action in the present moment that moves them closer to their short term goals. They view these goals as steps along the journey, not end points. They make goal setting a lifelong habit, not a one time event. With each goal achieved, another one already lies waiting to be pursued next. Perhaps most important, winners have a vision. A goal has an end point. A vision is not something you achieve, reach or complete. A vision is something you live every day for life - it has no end point. Dropping your body weight from 237 pounds to 180 pounds is a goal. "To easily maintain my ideal weight, improve my health, increase my quality of life, and inspire other people with my success story," that is a vision. When you have a vision, it will not only keep you from backsliding, it will help you with choosing new goals, as each new goal will naturally unfold when the previous one is realized. That will keep you going strong through the rest of the year and beyond. Remember, this doesn't end in 14 weeks; this is a 14 week goal on a journey that never ends. Fitness is a lifestyle, not a 3 month program. New Challenge #4: support each other There's a very important reason why I set up this challenge with teams and team prizes. That is, so you could prove to yourselves the power of support and teamwork. When you connect with other people, you tap into their energy. If your energy is down, your partner or teammate's energy may be up, and it's their responsibility to lift you up to their energy level. That's the agreement you have in a team. Another day, your energy may be up and when you see someone on your team who is down, it's your responsibility to lift them up. Other people - friends, family, mentors, coaches, teammates or anyone who supports you, can help you draw more potential out of you than you ever could pull out of yourself, simply because they see potential in you that you don't see yet. Look for the potential in other people - and show it to them! Connect with others. Find a support partner. Form a team. Pull together. And make friends. People who never knew each other before can meet on an internet forum and real friendships can be formed. You may find yourself chatting with someone on the open forum. Next thing you know, you're sending private messages to each other. Next thing you know, you're emailing each other through your personal email accounts. Next thing you know, you're talking on the phone. And the next thing you know, you're meeting face to face. Most important: Don't just use support during this 98-day challenge. Learn about the power of support and learn how to reach out and get it, so you can take that skill with you after these 98 days and use the support strategy in the future as you go on to the next level. New Challenge #5: Enjoy the summer and find balance as you transform your body Why do most people gain weight over the summer? One reason is either/or thinking. They believe they can EITHER get in better shape OR enjoy themselves, but not both. Stated in reverse: You can either deprive yourself of summer enjoyments OR gain weight, but it has to be one or the other. The truth is, "either/or thinking" is neurotic thinking and a great killer of fitness programs. I'll be taking an extended vacation in late July or early August, and enjoying some really good restaurant food while I'm enjoying my R & R. On July 4th, you bet, I have a cookout planned with friends. And I have quite a few visitors over the summer, and we've got plenty of dinners and other summer festivities planned out. The key is, I don't eat restaurant foods and burgers or drink beer or alcohol very often. It's just a few meals on special occasions. Every other meal stays right on schedule and I work out as hard and consistently over the summer as any other time of the year. I don't train to get in shape FOR summer, then let it slip DURING the summer. But some people, due to faulty thinking patterns, believe that if they cheat once on 4th of July or down at the shore, they are a complete failure and their whole day, whole week, whole month (or 98 day challenge) is ruined. Not true! Achieving optimal health and fitness is not an either or proposition; it's a matter of achieving balance. Train hard. Eat clean about 90% of the time. Enjoy the other 10%. Always watch your portions, whether regular meals or treat meals. Enjoy the summer and all the holidays. Learn how to indulge in your favorite foods appropriately. Find the right balance. Your body and your mind will love you for it. There are your 5 new challenges. Now, go show us what you've got. The challenge judges and I will be watching. Train hard and expect success! -Tom Venuto, CLICK HERE To discuss The holiday challenge in the burn the fat forums
