The GRAVITY of this idea is not truly understood, and so I'm here typing up another blog to make sure IT IS understood! Why? Because when people don’t understand this idea deeply they unknowingly destroy what they have painstakingly built time and time again, and it’s too tragic for me to bare!! So listen up!!
It’s Easier to Destroy Than Build
First, this is a fundamentally true thing across all things in nature and beyond. It takes more energy, time, and thought to build a castle out of building blocks then it takes to knock it all over. It’s takes years to build trust with someone, but just one betrayal to destroy that trust. It also takes billions of years for a star to be born from cosmic dust and only moments for it to go supernova. Point is, I could give you more examples across the whole spectrum of existence, the result is the same, and the idea remains true.
“So how does this apply to my fitness/wellness goals?” Wow! A great question from my hypothetical client! I’m so glad you asked!
Well let’s start with a fan favorite: Weight Loss
There are many habits you can pick up to help you loss weight. Eat right, exercise, get enough sleep, go for a walk, etc. You could think of all of those habits as “steps” in the right direction that you take every day bit by bit. HOWEVER, unknown to you, you sabotage the project greatly each day more than you know. Causing you to slide backward and erase the ground you’ve covered. Kinda like this cat gif:
Except it's not exactly pointless, but more on that later
So another way to say what I’m saying is “It’s Easier To Slide Down Than To Climb Up”. Again, a fundamental truth about nature. And I’m sure the logic and science of this concept is landing on you just fine, but it STILL won’t change your behavior and I’ve identified 2 big reasons why:
#1 You Don’t Notice the “Slide”. #2 You Don’t Realize How BIG The “Slide” Is. If you can’t notice weight-gain in real-time you won’t know it’s happening at all. If you were a machine with a screen that could monitor your weight-gain numbers in real-time you would be terrified of sugary drinks for instance. You’d see that EVERY time without fail you gained a SIGNIFICANT amount of weight as a result of drinking the sugary drink. You would also noticed that the amount you gained was FAR MORE than what you lost from going on an early morning walk and eating a healthy breakfast. In other words, “It’s Easier To Gain Weight Than It Is To Lose Weight”. So if you don’t want to erase all of your hard work and dedication, please be very aware of how easy it is to do so.
2 More Quick Examples:
Mental Health Goals: Journaling, meditation, and self-affirmations every day will help you greatly, but those effects may never be fully felt until you get enough sleep. Same thing with compliments. You can give yourself 5 compliments in a day, but ruin your day with one bad insult.
ADHD: I could improve my condition with all the sleep, exercise, water, and healthy food I want, but if I eat one bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos, forget it, I’m useless the rest of the day lol.
Supporting Points:
Just because you slide backward on one goal does not mean your climbing efforts were in vain. This is because +10 and -30 = -20. But +0 and -30 = -30 (40% worse). In other words, if you think the slide was bad, imagine how bad the slide would have been without your climbing efforts.
If you make one bad choice and decided to say "screw it" this day is ruined, it will lead to MANY more bad decisions. Making the the problem MUCH worse. So what would have been a -30 could turn into a -120 in one single day (142% worse). How's THAT for the GRAVITY of the situation? And it won't end there if you let it snow ball into the next day.
Your climbing efforts will never be in vain because those efforts produce a wide range of benefits outside and beyond your specific goal. So even though you might “erase” your gains that day with a counteractive destructive habit, you’ll have still gained in many other valuable categories of progress.
Building good habits are VERY important even if you are countering them with bad habits. Because once you defeat you bad habits you’ll still need your healthy habits to build so you might as well start working on those now too.
So here is my Actionable Advice for you today!
Prioritize improving your most destructive habits first. The amount of time and effort you use to work on or remove bad habits will move you toward your goals MUCH faster and easier than spending the same amount of time and effort on building good habits. AND THAT’S SAYING SOMETHING, because building good habits is so important.
Boom! There it is. In less than 3 mins you learned a concept that, if applied, will improve your life tremendously for years to come. I love it.
If you found value here or think someone else would find this valuable, please share.
And if you’d like more 1-on-1 help with diet, exercise, or anything wellness please schedule a free 1-on-1 over-the-phone consult with me via this link:
Thank you all very much for reading. May you Reach Your Potential.