What Gear Are You In?

by Kris Pitcher

If you've ever driven a car with a manual transmission you know that you can't start out from a stop in second gear. Sure, you can try. You put the clutch in, feather the gas and lug, lug, lug. Nothing!

Quickly realizing you're in the wrong gear you can shift into first and get moving before the cars around you start honking and shaking their fists at you. Or, you kill the engine and get all flustered with the radio blaring.

If you've found yourself all flustered about your exercise plan with the radio blaring at a complete stop...you've tried to start out in second gear. And you may have killed your engine. But all we need to do is take a deep breath, put it neutral and turn the key. We can get this thing going again.

Starting out at the right pace is really important to our success. Maintaining a reasonable pace will help us continue to be successful. Going all out is difficult to sustain for any length of time. And, the reality is if we can't sustain it - we aren't going to do it.

Setting realistic expectations for our program based on our lives is important. We need to be realistic about what we can do. If you have three days of the week when you can make it to the gym and you're trying to do a five day split...well, I don't have to be a rocket scientist to tell you that's not going to work.

Check in with your expectations, with your plan and your goals. Is your program realistic? Are you in the right gear? Making small changes will help us incorporate them into our lifestyle. It's the lifestyle changes that are going to make us successful over time.

So, get behind the wheel. You're in the driver's seat here...just make sure you know where you're going. Make sure you've got your map, and you're starting out in the right gear!