In today’s Episode #11 of Driving With Paul I dive into a topic which many people don’t often think about, but which can be very powerful to understand in your business and your life.
What I’m referring to is the concepts of efficiency and effectiveness and how the two play a role in your business.
Here’s the video episode for your enjoyment:
Once you’ve checked out the video, why not take a moment to share your comments below.
So it has been 15 days since I started my “Manifesting Body Diet and Fitness Plan” and I just wanted to do a very quick update post on how things are going.
Firstly, this past week on Wednesday I had my first full length personal training session with Sam from Ivanco Fitness.
I really liked my session with Sam, and found him to be the perfect balance between pushing me to go further than I would ever go working out on my own, but also knowing when to ease off during my workout.
This was my first real workout (strength or cardio) in a really long time so my body definitely wasn’t used to the workout.
We did a full body circuit routine using a combination of my new gym, my barbells and just body weight exercises like squats, push-ups, etc.
The strength training wasn’t easy, since it was my first workout, but the hardest part was getting past my lack of cardio conditioning.
The workout really kicked my butt, and definitely challenged me, but when it was done and over with I was glad I had done it.
Sam is going to be designing two more different work out routines for me to follow for the first phase of my program, and I’ll be rotating between the three to start with.
So that’s going to be my strength training and cardio portion of my plan as a starting point and then I’ll measure results and adjust as time goes on.
Another thing I’ve been working on is putting together a tracking sheet that is going to give me a more accurate picture of my progress over time.
Why do I need a tracking sheet like this?
Well, I have always found there to be one “flaw” with setting weight loss goals in the past…
…and that “flaw” is that it’s not easy to set an accurate weight loss target goal when doing a weight loss and strength training program if all you take into account is your weight.
Meaning, if you’re just going on a program where you’re trying to lose 10 lbs of or 20 lbs or something, and all you’re going to be doing is focusing on weight loss, then that is easy to track…
… simply step on a scale, take your present weight, and subtract 10 or 20 lbs and there is your target weight.
However, if you’re doing a total re-shaping of your body program like I am doing, then just tracking body weight is not enough.
The reason for this is because a straight weight loss goal doesn’t take into account lead body mass gains – meaning it doesn’t take into account a person putting on muscle.
So what I had to do is design a tracking spreadsheet which calculates a target weight for me based on what I want to accomplish, and then based on that initial target it automatically adjusts itself whenever my body composition adjusts itself as well.
Let me give you a quick example as to what I mean by this.
Let’s say that my starting weight was 200 lbs and 150 lbs of that was lean muscle body weight, and 50 lbs of that was fat.
Now, let’s say that I my goal was to lose 20 lbs of fat.
That would mean that my goal weight would be 180 lbs.
However, let’s say that one month later I lost 10 lbs of fat AND at the same time put on 5 lbs of muscle…
… well if that happened, then my target goal would no longer be 180 lbs, but rather 185 lbs, because now I had put on that extra 5 lbs of muscle.
By creating a spreadsheet which tracks not only my body weight, but also my lean body mass and fat mass and automatically calculates my target weight based on these stats I can more accurately target a specific body weight and not have to worry about any muscle gains actually working against me and my goals.
Now, I am using a Fitbit Aria scale to measure my lean body mass, which means that the measurements aren’t exactly 100% accurate BUT it’s still better than nothing and as my weight keeps dropping the stats will get more and more accurate.
For now though, here are the latest stats that my sheet shows me.
So basically my sheet has calculated out for me that based on my current lean body mass, current fat mass and current weight, my target weight I’m trying to hit is 176.5 lbs…
And since my current weight as of this morning was 241.4 lbs, that means I’ve got exactly 64.9 lbs of fat to lose…
And so far I have lost a grand total of 3.7 lbs since starting this program.
Now, like I said, the lean body mass measurement from this body scale is not 100% accurate so that 176.5 lbs will fluctuate each day depending on what the scale thinks my lean body mass is on that day… however, this at least gives me some indication of how I’m doing with my plan.
My tracking sheet also spits out tracking charts so that I can track the TREND of my weight loss over time.
Here’s my weight loss chart so far:
It’s early yet to try to plot a trend line, but within the next week or two I should be able to plot a trend to see if I’m losing weight or not.
Right now it looks like I am slowly starting to move towards a weight-loss trend, so I’m happy with that.
That’s pretty much it for today’s update. I should have another one for you guys soon.
One thing that really fascinates me is the study of how people try to achieve success in their lives and the thing that hold them back.
Recently I’ve become really aware of a pattern or program that people have in their subconscious minds that REALLY screws up their chances of achieving success in their live and making their dreams come true.
That patter or program is the subconscious desire to be “normal”.
Since I’ve become aware of this pattern, I’ve been really paying attention to what people say and how they act in their day to day lives and it’s been totally blowing my mind how often people make decisions based on what they think is the “normal” thing to do as opposed to what they intuitively feel is right for them.
In fact, you’ll often hear people even say the words “I can’t do that…that’s not normal” or something like “I really gotta start going to bed at a normal time” or other similar statements which clearly point out that they’re trying to conform to some sort of “normal” standard in life.
Now you might ask yourself “Well what’s wrong with NORMAL!?”
Nothing. If you want to be “NORMAL” then go right ahead, but realize what the statistics show us…
… statistics show us exactly what “normal” looks like …
I think you get the point, right?
Why strive to live your life trying to be “normal” when what is considered “normal” is not working!
A much better perspective to take might be to find mentors and role models that you could model who have achieved success in the areas of life that you want to achieve success in, and model THEIR beliefs instead of the beliefs that society tries to push onto you as “normal”.
Here’s an example from my life…
In the area of career and finances, I have completely stayed away from “normal” in the last 20 years.
The “normal” thing would have been for me to go to college and university and then to find a “good job” with a “good company” and then to keep my nose clean, work my way up the corporate ladder and then of course retire broke at age 65.
Instead I ditched post-secondary education and replaced it with SELF education and became an entrepreneur instead.
Now while “normal” people have to wake up at 5am in the morning to start getting ready for their “normal” jobs and then to battle rush hour traffic for an hour, only to work at some job they despise, surrounded by co-workers they find annoying, I get to work from home doing what I love.
I was only able to achieve this because 20 years ago I DITCHED the concept of what’s “normal” when it came to my career and finances.
However, let’s look at a different area of my life… my health and more specifically my eating habits.
My eating habits are pretty “normal”.
In fact my diet for the last 20 years could basically be described as the “Standard American Diet” (sometimes called the Standard North-American Diet) or S.A.D.
Up until about 2 weeks ago I’ve been eating and exercising ( or I should say not-exercising ) like a “NORMAL” North American person… for over 20 years now…
…and guess what?
By accepting those type of “normal” beliefs in regards to my eating habits, the result has been that my body is overweight.
I look like the average overweight North American.
See my point?
Trust me, you DON’T want to be normal! In ANY are of your life.
So what I’ve been doing now to correct that is I’ve hired personal trainers to start working with me to make a change in this area of my life…
…and one of the main things I’m focusing on changing is my beliefs…
What I’m actually doing is I’m listening to what they’re telling me, and I’m paying attention to what beliefs they have related to food, diet, exercise and lifestyles and I’m starting to eliminate some of my “normal” beliefs and replacing them with some of THEIR beliefs because they have achieved the results that I want to achieve.
If you want to achieve extraordinary results in your life, you MUST be willing to have extraordinary BELIEFS!
You can’t think like a “normal” person, act like a “normal” person and have beliefs like a “normal” person and then expect to produce results that are extraordinary.
Make sense?
Ask yourself… in which area of your life have you allowed “normal” people thinking and “normal” beliefs to lead you towards mediocrity and away from achieving your dreams?
Are you willing to accept change in this area of your life and to let go of your need to appear to be “normal” in exchange for achieving the results you want?
I came across this video today and thought it was a brilliant example of how a celebrity like Arnold Schwarzenegger can use his brand to raise money for charity in a fun, exciting and unique way.
Basically Arnold held a contest last year where people who donated had a chance to win a trip to meet him and to do fun and crazy stunts with his TANK!
Yes, you read that right… a TANK!
Check out the video here:
As you can see in the video, Arnold is back at it again – except this time the lucky winner will not be crushing things with Arnold’s tank, but instead blowing things up with Arnold!
I think the whole concept and idea and the execution behind this project is an awesome example of the power of properly utilizing branding, online marketing, social media and good-ol-fashioned FUN to do something worthwhile for a good cause.
It all starts with developing a brand for yourself, and in my opinion one of the best ways to establish yourself as a brand and to build an audience is through blogging.
Once you establish your brand, there are so many positive things you can do with it – just like Arnold did – simply thinking outside the box a little bit.
Sometimes people say to me “Hey Paul, I really don’t know what to Blog about anymore… I’ve run out of things to say.”
If you’ve started a Blog and at some point reached that point where you just don’t know what else to write about or what else to create YouTube videos about, let me tell you why this is a good thing!
Have you ever heard of the saying that in order to learn something new, you must first empty your cup?
Well, whenever you write a Blog post, you’re essentially sharing your opinion on a specific topic for the world to read.
When you do that, it has the effect of releasing that information from your cluttered mind – kind of like getting something off your chest.
Once you write your Blog post and publish it, that information no longer has to take up space in your mind.
You’ve put your ideas, opinions and concepts on “paper” and now your mind can move onto other things.
Being in this place of having an “empty mind” and not knowing what else to possibly write about should be celebrated, not seen as failure.
It means you’ve essentially finally said what you’ve wanted to say, and you’ve cleared your mind.
So what do we do next?
Once you’ve reached this point where you’ve written about all the things you can think of writing about, your mind (cup) has been emptied a bit.
What you now have to do is start filling that cup back up!
Read a new book, re-kindle your love for a hobby you once had, research something new, start learning a new skill of some sort…
… there are just a few ways that you can start to fill your cup again.
Get around other people who are succeeding in areas that you’ve wanted to succeed, and learn something new!
As you start filling your cup again, it will give you new things to think about and new things to Blog about.
Take my recent decision to lose weight and get fit.
As soon as I made that decision, I started reading books, taking courses, researching and even consulting with personal trainers on the topic of health and fitness.
As I’m learning more about this topic, it’s giving me new Blog content to write about, and ideas for the types of videos I can shoot.
This is the beauty of Blogging – it forces you to go out there and to LIVE life and to LEARN new things to that you have something to Blog about on a regular basis!
A very successful person once told me that he has been journaling in his journal every single day for decades, and the most common objections people tell him when he recommends daily journaling is that people say that they don’t have anything to write about.
His answer to that objection was simply this… he said “Look, if you spend a 24 hour period of time on this planet, and during that time throughout the entire day you have NOTHING interesting happen to you, and you LEARN NOTHING new, and you have NO NEW THOUGHTS, and you EXPERIENCE NOTHING that would be worth writing about in your journal, then you seriously need to re-evaluate your life because you’re either living a very small life far beyond your capabilities OR you’re going through your days completely unaware of what’s happening in your life because you’re not paying attention. In either case you may want to make some changes. To live a day on this planet without having anything interesting to write about in your journal is a total waste.”
I first heard this about 20 years ago and I’ve been journaling on an almost daily basis ever since and I have to say that it has been very transformational.
Journaling on a regular basis led me to also love Blogging on a regular basis.
And both journaling and Blogging have really helped me in my life by making me aware – every single day – that I’ve got to do SOMETHING with my life each day… something worth Blogging about or Journaling about, otherwise I’m wasting my life!
So if you’re feeling totally stuck and you don’t know what to Blog about – firstly, I recommend celebrating the fact that you’ve probably emptied your cup and de-cluttered a lot of the noise that has been swimming around in your head.
Secondly, it’s time to now start making some changes in your life by learning something new, or taking on a new project, or re-connecting with some projects you started in the past.
It’s time to LEARN and DO new things and then to Blog about them!
