CoachBioArt

One of the mistakes that I think people do is to keep their goals secret… when I started P90X, I told everyone at work I was doing it. Sure they were somewhat supportive at first, but they were laughing inside… they all expected me to quit after some time. I found out they even talked about having a pool as to when I would quit. In fact, friends I’ve known forever (>15 years) said that they expected me to do it heavily for a while and then lose interest quickly…

The reason I was very public about it was that it made me be accountable. It would be easier to continue than to have people laugh at me or made funny comments if I quit. I updated my facebook status every time I worked out and even though it probably annoyed some, it added another level of accountability… When the 90 days were over, I put up random pictures of the new me and the response was great! Similarly, at work, people just kept doing double takes. I also got new glasses and changed my haircut just to make it even more obvious

The funny thing is that by telling everyone, I found out that many were willing to encourage me when I was being slow or lazy… I’d put up my facebook status saying that I was fighting inertia to get off the couch and I would get comments from friends telling me to go do it. It sounds silly, but it helps!

The lesson here is: be open about what you are doing! As soon as you lose some weight, change the way you dress and show your new confidence. People will encourage you and help you (directly or indirectly). Trust me, it’s easier to keep going than to try to explain why you quit