First, I have to give a shout out to my oldest daughter Alyssa today. She turns 7. Wow. Time flies. I’m so thankful that we were able to celebrate her and Olivia’s (3) b-day yesterday with family. What miracles these kids are!
There’s a principle I learned from John Maxwell that says you have to give up to go up.
Anything we want to accomplish in life requires sacrifice.
I’ve mentioned our story with money before. After a string of bad choices we found ourselves with well over six figures in non-mortgage debt. The good news is that we’ve paid off everything but the house. That may sound great but here’s the part you don’t always hear. We had to give up to go up. Here are some things we had to sacrifice:
- We drove one car for years. And we had a newborn! Break out the violin.
- We’ve driven very used cars for years.
- We didn’t take any personal trips for awhile as we were scraping and clawing out of debt. We had to miss out on some fun family trips.
- We rented out half of our home even though we needed more space. Break out the violin again.
- We had to have difficult and uncomfortable conversations about money.
- Certain house improvements were put off.
Sacrifices are relative because these things are a walk in the park compared to some people’s circumstances. We are able to have a better life now because of the years of sacrifices we made. It was worth it to us. We gave up to go up.
I was talking to some nutrition coaching clients over the weekend about the same concept.
The other piece to this principle is the more you go up the more you need to give up to see additional results.
Think about it. If you have a bunch of excess weight and lots of poor habits, changing some of those behaviors can yield big results. But what if you’re already in great shape and eat pretty clean? Well, if you want to get leaner, you’ll need to dig a little deeper. Maybe it’s one of these areas that need to change:
- Better quality sleep
- A little extra cardio.
- Maybe there are some hidden sugars in your diet that you need to cut.
- Perhaps you’re like me and you struggle to keep your water intake consistent.
You see, these things may not seem like a big deal but they add up. It’s death by a thousand cuts.
You don’t have to be perfect with your fitness/nutrition habits. I’m not. But a 25% improvement can go a long way.
Question to think about:
What are you willing to give up to go up?
Billy Hofacker – Owner & Transformation Coach at Total Body Boot Camp – BS, CSCS