Your "not to do" list

Hanley

Tis almost that time of year again, and for the first time I WON'T be posting 2016 goals.

Something I've realised is that a lot of the time, when we express our goals to others, we're just looking for the immediate satisfaction of feeling like we COULD do it, and the admiration of others who think we're awesome for saying it.

Again and again I see people claiming big goals (biz and lifting) with hard deadlines, only for the deadline to pass and nothing done.

Huge squat goals. Sold out seminars. Blah blah blah.

Always end up failing or cancelled. Never to be heard of again. Until the next big claim.

I've done it myself too in the past, but during 2015 I realised talk is cheap, and sometimes even when you DO put in the work, you don't see the pay off.

You might miss the peak of your training cycle, or you spend months building in the background solidying foundations to see a bigger pay off in 1-2 years time.

At the time you'll feel stagnant, adrift and frustrated as hell, because for all the sh*t you're putting in, you're seeing nothing back.

(side bar - the last 6 months in RevFit has basically been us building the gym and systems for 2016 and beyond. We've grown during that time period, but not in the sustainable manner we all want as a team... you could say we've delayed the short term gratification for a better future)

We all have destructive behaviors. Things that don't serve our greater goals.

Every knows about to do lists... But I've flipped my thinking on that TOO in 2015. I only have the 45 minutes of each day mapped out, but done right it sets me up for the rest of the day in a way I've never seen before.

> Pint of water
> Meditate
> Write down 1 think I'm grateful for, excited about, and will get done
> Fill in top 3-5 priorities for the day
> Eat breakfast, watch 10 minutes of youtube (Casey Neistat right now)
> Get down to business

After that, I've a series of "not to do" items which I'm constantly working on.

> no facebook in bed
> emails off except for 2x checks per day
> don't open FB tab while in work mode
> don't indulge other peoples attention seeking behaviour on FB - immediate blocks

From a productivity standpoint, it's made my life so much better. I've done more productive REAL work in the last 2 weeks than probably in 2 months.

Not only that, it's helped me to improve my relationship with myself and my lifting. I've had a hard year training wise - have gotten stronger and trained more consistently than in the last few years, but even with a huge amount of effort I've seen others outstrip my gains with seemingly relative ease.

It's frustrating as hell.

BUT instead of looking at all the cool **** other people are claiming to do on facebook (training, biz, travel etc etc), as soon as I see something I don't like, I unfollow them. Not because they're bad people or I dislike them, but because it'll put me into a negative state of mind.

The fitness industry is full of BS, and things are not always as they seem - so as a client, or a trainer, when you see someone claiming something, or saying something, and your BS alarm goes off, trust your gut.

A healthy level of skepticism is good.

But don't b*tch about other peoples success.

That doesn't serve you.

Block them, unfollow them, and you'll forget they exist within hours.

(...and maybe in a few months you'll check back on their page and see their still making all these big claims but haven't followed thru - good on you for ignoring it and moving forward in that case!)

So... what are somethings you should STOP doing in 2016 that are having a negative impact on your health and fitness?

(think more about unconscious behaviours and automatic patterns here - ie "stop smoking" is a great goal, but not really a 'not to do' in this context)

Alf Veedersane

I'm not going to check my work emails in the evening once I'm home. It's a bad habit I've somehow got into.

There are very few things important enough to check in on so I don't to let checking work emails or mulling over work-related stuff when there's quality time to be had.

Zillah

Personally I've never seen the point of focusing on the new year for changes like this. If something needs to be dealt with make a decision straight away. You should always be making positive changes in your life, and putting it off until the new year is very suspicious to me. I never believe people who say they're going to do something life changing (weight/fitness/quit smoking, etc) in January. They're just making the declaration to make themselves feel good and to save face with others.

So in the last year I have decided things like:
- No online browsing/time killing outside of work. Far too easy to let an evening of free time whittle away.
- No bright screens after 10. Computer off, ideally, but if I'm doing something then Flux/Twilight or whatever to shift the colour tone so it makes it a much more soothing orange.
- Sleep. Sleeeeeeep. Being tired just isn't worth it, for fitness goals or genera life quality.
- It's ok to tell people you don't want to go to the pub. Maybe it's entering the 30s, or just a general life satisfaction motivation, but boozing in pubs, spending tons of money and wasting loads of time is just not for me any more, so I'm telling people to if they want to see me there are all sorts of things we can do, but that isn't one of them.

No point waiting until January!

Yer Aul One

I am not going to find an app that imitates the Apple TV remote. The remote is lost and normal aussie tv is so bad. But I have found so much more time to complete life admin and go to bed at reasonable times, since the apple tv remote went missing.

I downloaded two apps that didn't work before I realised I would remain happier without it.

jenizzle

Hanley wrote: »

So... what are somethings you should STOP doing in 2016 that are having a negative impact on your health and fitness?

I've stopped following so many people on IG - I felt like sh*te seeing others "completely smash" their goals, and it made me feel terrible for not really having any, or reaching the ones I had. So, I've unfollowed anyone who made me think negatively about myself. Nothing against them, personally.

I would like to stop giving myself such a hard time for not being X lbs lighter. I have come a savage way from where I was, and even though I'm not where I originally set my goal, I've still transformed my life and I hate feeling so bad about that!

Stop wasting time in the evening watching TV for 6 hours - should result in doing things that are productive then!

Stop being so inflexible about having a random dinner out or leaving the house after 6pm.

Strange one but... I want to stop logging everything I eat. It's become ridiculous, and I've been doing it for a few years now. I would like to trust in myself a little more.

granty1987

I resolved to learn how to play the spoons last year - my time to shine came at a mountain feast in snowy Livigno last April when a guy playing a guitar needed a beat so I stepped up and learned how to play there and then.

Its now on my "not to do" it list as when i woke up the next morning, the spoons had cut deeply into my fingers and i had two massive bruises on each leg from 4 hours of non stop playing

Great night all the same

jive

granty1987 wrote: »

I resolved to learn how to play the spoons last year - my time to shine came at a mountain feast in snowy Livigno last April when a guy playing a guitar needed a beat so I stepped up and learned how to play there and then.

Its now on my "not to do" it list as when i woke up the next morning, the spoons had cut deeply into my fingers and i had two massive bruises on each leg from 4 hours of non stop playing

Great night all the same

Same

WHIP IT!

granty1987 wrote: »

I resolved to learn how to play the spoons last year - my time to shine came at a mountain feast in snowy Livigno last April when a guy playing a guitar needed a beat so I stepped up and learned how to play there and then.

Its now on my "not to do" it list as when i woke up the next morning, the spoons had cut deeply into my fingers and i had two massive bruises on each leg from 4 hours of non stop playing

Great night all the same

If playing the spoons can't get ya laid then nothing will!

Doug Cartel

jenizzle wrote: »

I've stopped following so many people on IG - I felt like sh*te seeing others "completely smash" their goals, and it made me feel terrible for not really having any, or reaching the ones I had. So, I've unfollowed anyone who made me think negatively about myself.

Popular lifestyle instagrams accounts rarely provide an accurate or complete description of the lives of the people that run them.