It's Never the Perfect Time

It’s never the perfect time.  “Perfect” doesn’t exist.

The time to start your fitness journey is now.  Right now.  Not next week.  Not Monday morning.  Now.  Waiting for that “perfect” point in time to start anything is a sure path to starting nothing.

Consider your relationships.  Did you start dating at the “perfect” time?  If you’re married, did marriage wait until the perfect time?  Or having kids?  Did you take your job or start your business because the timing was perfect for it?  Probably not – I know it wasn’t the case for us for all of the above.

In 2008 when I started this whole fitness lifestyle blogging thing, I had been waiting for about 7 years for the “perfect” time to start.  Every week I said I would start doing something about my weight issues on Monday.  Then Monday would come, and I’d screw up my diet or oversleep and miss my morning workout.  That imperfect start meant I couldn’t start that week.  I’d just wait until the following Monday to get it right.

The whole time, I was just getting more and more frustrated with myself.  And I was getting fatter.

Eventually I realized that perfection wasn’t a prerequisite to starting a new lifestyle.  Doing better today than yesterday was all that mattered (and is all that still matters).  For example, my usual breakfast in 2007 consisted of a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit with a soda – about 800 calories – purchased from the little grill near work.  Doing better simply meant that I would eat a bowl of cereal – about 400 calories – in the comfort of my own home (that change alone saved me 2000 calories during the work week).  Doing better meant taking walks in the evening rather than sitting on my butt all night.  Small steps would yield positive results.

The changes weren’t profound, nor were they based on it being the “perfect” time to do something.

I spent a lot of time being preoccupied with whether it was the right time to get started with taking back my health.  Here’s what I discovered: as long as you’re breathing, you’re capable of starting.  It shouldn’t take a heart attack or major medical diagnosis to get you started down the path.

Now is the right time to get started.  Do one thing better today than you did yesterday, and do that every day from now until they put your remains in the ground.  The sooner you start the former, the longer you have before the latter occurs.

Be well!



Comments

[Mike P]

Good stuff, Keith...excellent points.