People think personal trainers are afraid to hear that they skipped their cardio, or that they went out drinking or ate ice cream, fast food, or another “forbidden” treat. To me, all of those things are just a part of life…but the words I do fear are “almost”, “pretty much”, and “basically”.
These sneaky terms of self-mistrust and self-sabotage won’t just “almost” derail your journey toward your goals – they will absolutely undermine you, make you doubt yourself, and give you the wiggle room you need to let yourself down.
Plus, doing “almost” all the work is harder than just doing the work; it takes more thought and effort to finish something to just 90% completion, because now you have that remaining 10% hanging over y0u while you go on to whatever is next in your day, pinging you to stress about it while you complete other tasks, snowballing into a bigger and bigger stressor.
Don’t believe me?
Well, you can either take 3 minutes to drink all the water you need in the morning, or you could take the same 3 minutes to set the water out and drink some of it, but then move on to checking your email.
In your email, you could find a task that legitimately needs your attention. Two hours into the task, you might notice that you had really meant to finish drinking your water this morning, so you think about it for a minute, now distracted from the task you were trying to finish. Distracted, your task takes even longer, and the water doesn’t get touched.
As you go to prepare lunch, you realize you still haven’t finished your morning water, and now you’re on to your lunchtime glass. But, you feel too full from lunch to drink all that water, so you take 2 minutes to post up a mental (or post-it) reminder to catch up on your water. You go back to work, and then it’s 4pm and you’re ready to have your end of day snack, and you’re a full glass of water behind and you’ve been stressing about it all day. It’s too exhausting to think about catching up on your water intake now, and you’ve spent more than double the time and energy needed to just get it done on schedule.
And then, a few days later, I ask you about your water intake and you have no idea that I already know that the scenario I just described is what “pretty good” means, and another week goes by without that part of your progress.
Sometimes life is legitimately busy for a week or a season. Things absolutely do come up. That is why it is so important to me to help everyone I work with (and reach via this blog) find strategies to make healthy habits easy enough to maintain consistently during the placid seasons. That is why I check in on my people and help them anticipate and navigate tougher seasons when they arise.
And that is why I try to break the “almost” curse by being precise and specific in both my recommendations and our communication about steps toward goals. Macros, cardio, water, sleep…all the numbers attached to these mean a lot to me, and it costs a lot less time and energy to do your best on them the first time 💚
I know that the honesty can be tough, but your body records the truth anyway. I will never ask a question in judgment or expect you to judge yourself – but I do use the real data to help you reach your goals as quickly as possible.
So if you feel like you’ve been chasing the same ends for too long, but this is a time in your life when you can dedicate yourself to working toward your goals (and not busy with too many other transitions or life events), look to see if you’ve been a victim of the “almost” curse.
Are you getting enough protein, veggies, and key nutrients? Or are you almost getting them?
Are you reaching your cardio goals and working as hard as you need to in those workouts, or are you almost doing it?
Are you sleeping enough and giving yourself a quality bedtime, or are you almost getting enough sleep?
Reclaim soooo much missing energy by ditching your almosts and just doing the thing. I know you can do it!
(PS this works outside the gym, too…decluttering, work goals, relationships…don’t build in room for failure and hamstring yourself with doubt before you start! If you need that doubt, it will find you, don’t worry. Believe in yourself just a tiny bit 💚)
I’ll see you…not almost see you…on the dance floor:
- Wednesday 6:30pm Zumba at Jerabeck Athletic Center – last class of the semester will be 4/24 (free; second floor dance studio, street parking)
- Saturday 9:30am Zumba at Montrose Collective (free, meets at 888 Westheimer, street/garage parking, and make sure to use your Zumba discount at the Plant Project!)
- Sunday 9am Zumba (free, meets at Levy Park – 3801 Eastside)
- Monday 6:30pm Zumba (free, meets at Levy Park – 3801 Eastside)
