Over the years, I’ve realized how easy it is to get very comfortable. Comfort for most people is the measure of their success. The more successful you become, the more comfortable you can get. The more money you make, the more complacent you can get. The more your hard work pays off for you, the more likely you are to start to set up on autopilot. This is a common theme. I’ve worked with a lot of high-performance people over the years. Just like the things most people know are not the best for your health, like being on your phone too much, overeating, and drinking too much alcohol. These things should be treated with respect, almost like the way you look at fire. Your success and comfort should also be treated in a similar fashion. You accomplish some difficult things, become a success, and then start letting yourself slip. There's a multitude of reasons. You feel like you deserve all the fun and “free time”. Perhaps you’ve shifted your focus to enjoying the daily comforts. All the while, not realizing you aren’t sharp anymore, you smack the snooze button every day, missing appointments & making excuses. You don’t realize you don’t push yourself anymore, letting the comfort creep in. A comfort zone is a beautiful place where nothing grows. Spending too much time in comfort is a grave mistake, something I’ve dealt with in my own successes. I found myself slipping many times. I’ve so far been able to check myself through the practice of these very uncomfortable hurtles. We experience glimmers of success and let the soft and easy creep in. These are some ways I’ve been able to keep myself in check. Having accessible mentors - people who have accomplished things you’ve admired. Talking to them feels like you’ve lit the fire in your soul again. It’s helpful for some new perspective on hard or tough situations that can push you through this flat-line comfort crisis. Read - reading can reinvigorate and spark the fire needed. Reading an inspiring story or reading about someone doing something of great value or difficulty can add to your thoughts and mindset. Giving you the details, you need to look up once more at the challenges ahead. Aim at something difficult - find something challenging to accomplish and use the things you’ve learned over the years to pursue it with actionable steps. Make sure it's difficult enough to change your behavior. Make it something you’ve wanted to do that's tough but fun or interesting enough to hold your engagement. Success can hurt you if you let it. We know that, but it's hard to see or feel in the moment. Comfort creeps in so slowly, tip-toeing into our lives. Don’t underestimate the power of stepping back, taking a hard look at yourself, and asking, What am I doing to myself? What promises am I breaking to myself? Finally, the most important question of all is, am I even challenging myself anymore?  Don’t let comfort win

Often, as a coach, I have people come to me for change. Most of the people that we see are looking for major life changes. What I found in my experience is that you can start putting all of your discipline and energy into the minor changes you need to make from day to day first. What’s my reasoning behind that, you ask? Let’s go over this in three parts. There is no task small enough for you to tackle. Fall in love with the small tasks first. Practice as much as you can, and discipline the 24 hours in a day first before trying to take on the years. Focusing on the small things you do every day adds up. For example, "I want to start strength training for my health and longevity" instead of taking on this monumental task, saying that you’re going to strength train every day, focus on what you can do and manage for the week and start from there. If it’s one day a week, start there; if it’s two days a week, start there, etc., etc. Practice does not equal perfection. Practice makes progress. The longer you take to improve, the more likely you are to make it a lifestyle change. The more practice you have, the better. Every published study I've read claims that people who changed their daily habits first and focused small saw the best long-term sustainable and significant results. Measurements are probably the most critical of all the steps and oftentimes the hardest to look at out of fear of failure. We have had the pleasure of working with many clients, and we always make sure we do one thing well, and that's making measurable progress. Some examples In body scale, measuring lean body mass and body fat Training logs and programs from day one (strength increases) Body measurements Bloodwork (we recommend) Overall, how the person is feeling Whatever you're trying to accomplish, make sure you measure and track it. It’s important for you to look back and see the progress and the fruits of your labor.  Minor > major turns into minor, making major changes in the life you would like to see for yourself in the most manageable way. The more practice you get today, the more practice you have doing the smallest tasks well. It becomes a domino effect. The question is: What type of domino effect do you want in your life? Do you want a domino effect of incomplete tasks, not taking care of your health, not sleeping well, and looking for every excuse? Do you want a domino effect of treating the small tasks with pride and doing them well, making sure you’re dedicating the time and conquering tasks that you can actually do? I’ll leave that up to you to decide what type of person you’d like to become in 1 to 3 years.