Now that I’m 6 weeks into this process, a realization hit me: how our goals… or more specifically, our achievement reference points evolve over time – and this has significant repercussions on our dedication / motivation.
When I started out 6 weeks ago, my goal was to move from my existing place towards a better place. Since I was so close to an inferior starting point, it wasn’t hard to move away. And the results have been insane… that’s typical if you give your best in a transformation – the immediate results (the transitional fat, etc…) will be thoroughly inspiring.
Then – after a while – you start to focus on your end goal… comparing yourself no longer to what you used to be, but to more and more people around you that represent elements of your ideal. You’re focussed more and more on what you want to move to. The further your success from your starting point, the more you focus on your end point. And when you’re starting off, that end point is far, far, far away… and when you shift your mental focus from where you were to where you want to be, you go from a couple of months to what’s realistically going to be a year or more – you’re further away than you’ve been comfortable with.
None of this will be surprising – but it’s a mental shift. You see amazing results from your starting point, but your perfection is always a moving target – your body won’t always respond the way you want it to… you won’t grow as quickly… you may not lose as much fat as you did in the first few weeks… there are so many elements that impede your achievement of your goal, that that goal always has to change / evolve to meet your current environment / situation.