Good Enough is the New Great

Good Enough is the New Great

You know why so many of us fail to achieve what we want?

We set the bar too high to begin with.

Let’s say we are talking about losing weight. You want to lose 15kgs and the target weight you now have in your sights you haven’t weighed that for 6 years. So what do you do? You hire a personal trainer, you join a gym, or maybe you start jogging. Maybe you say “I’m going to get up at 5.30am every morning during the week and go the beach and swim and jog in the sand!” Then you look at your diet. “That’s it – no more drinking for 12 weeks, no carbs and no caffeine for a month” And away you go. Starts off well enough. You feel invigorated at 5.15 am when you wake up and you enjoy this magical time of the day – where it seems people are “on something” as they are happy, buzzing around doing their thing. At the end of the day you review your eating and you’re surprised how good it feels not to be eating Carbs, and the extra water you had, replacing your coffee was refreshing. Sound familiar? How do you think our friend above is feeling after 3 weeks of this program?

Do you think they are still on track 100%?

Are they getting tired/ cranky with everything around them?

Fast-forward to week 5… The statistics tell me that they have fallen off the wagon and are no longer following this program.

Sadly, this person will free fall for the next 14-16 weeks with no direction or purpose in their eating or exercise strategy.

Then they will try something new/ different again.

Looking for another magic bullet.

Here is the magic bullet – – – Good Enough.

What if our friend above set their program up a little differently.

Instead of trying to be who they wanted to be the person who had lost the 15kgs, who was experienced in living the lifestyle needed for the 15kgs loss, what if they practiced/ planned to be the person who has lost 3Kgs.

If you are 15Kgs overweight – how much of your regular day to day life would you have to change to lose 3Kgs? Not too much.

So we make choices that are better than what we currently choose, but nowhere near the choices the person who has lost the 15Kgs makes.

So lets say the Lose 3Kgs Program looked liked this:

Exercise plan:

Walk 2 times per week for 20 minutes

Park the car at the furthest point in the parking lot – on Mondays

Stairs to work x 1 day per week

Nutrition plan:

- 1 litre of water each day
- 1 piece of fruit each day
- 2 vegetables each day
- Alcohol – 4 times per week (assuming they drink almost every day)
- Try not to eat packaged man-made foods

Duration: 4 weeks

So compare the 2 outlines. The first one looks like it can definitely make all the 15Kg loss happen. The second one looks a bit average really, not very sexy at all. But in there lays the magic bullet. It’s Good Enough. Its Good Enough to lose the 3Kgs we want. And lets be honest the above plan isn’t constricting and it is not turning your life upside down. So its going to be easy to do, and easy to maintain. Sure its not the deepest plan, but it is Good Enough to improve our friends life. Hit this for 4 weeks. Then let us make another 4 week plan that's Good Enough to lose another 3Kgs.

Good Enough for you? It’s good enough for me!