Aggressive Patience
Patience is a concept that has become lost in the hustle and bustle of the world we live in today. When we want something, we want it right now. Whether that means paying for expedited shipping (thanks a lot Amazon), or freaky fast delivery (looking at you Jimmy John’s). So why should fitness be any different? We feel that if we work as hard as we possibly can, we can and should see results faster. What does this look like? Well, it can look like doing hours of cardio in the gym while under eating. It can mean completely restricting carbs to lose the water weight that can be associated with them. It can mean taking pills like ozempic or other dieting supplements touting magical, fast results. The truth isn’t pretty. The faster you rush the process, the harder it is to actually achieve that end result you desire. You end up effecting your metabolism, sustaining overtraining/ overuse injuries or simply putting a band-aid over the habits that were hurting your progress to begin with. The truth is…you need to develop aggressive patience.
Aggressive patience is the concept that seeing true results will take time, and you must adjust your pursuit of that result aggressively. You must take actions that align with your goals, understanding that it isn’t the single days of the weeks that matter, it’s the overall months, six months and years of aggressively pursuing what you want. Having one bad workout, or having one weekend where you didn’t eat towards your goals is not going to derail your journey. The truth is, oftentimes people have these bad days or a bad week and allow them to snowball into multiple bad days or bad months. That happens as a consequence of all or nothing thinking and lacking that aggressive patience. People who have aggressive patience understand that a bad day or week can’t hurt them as long as they are able to reassess and get back on track.
Stop feeding into the stigma on social media of needing results fast, and start feeding in the idea that building habits is the key to success in any life endeavor. Stop bouncing from program to program or diet to diet and start building one new habit a day or week. Give yourself a full 90 days to start consistently building and putting these habits into place, and stop looking for results right away.Progress doesn’t always show immediately on the scale or in the mirror. The best form of progress you can possibly achieve is consistent action towards whatever it is you’re striving towards.
Instead of going from sitting on the couch to lifting 6 days a week, and likely injuring yourself. Start by going for a walk each day, then the next day challenge yourself to go just a little bit further. Maybe you want to start lifting, start 1-3 days per week and challenge yourself to push a little more each week. At the end of 90 days, 120 days, 365 days look back at how much you were able to accomplish by finding what works best for you and then aggressively pursuing that goal. You may have heard the saying “slow is smooth, smooth is fast”, this is true with training as well. Aggressive doesn’t necessarily mean more, it simply means having a dedicated mindset. That no matter what setback shows up, or how many bad days come around, you will continue to aggressively pursue that dream.
Don’t stop after a day, a week, a month, if fitness is something you truly want. If you want to move better, feel better, sleep better, and live better, start practicing aggressive patience and stop wasting your time trying to find the easiest or fastest way to achieve results. Take that first step, and don’t look back!
