Why You Should Start Before You Are Ready
This guest post is written by Diane Flores, the founder of Venus Pole Fitness. She is a badass trainer and coach. You can find out more about Diane here.
Back in the early 2000's, I had a huge STACK of Oxygen Magazines on my nightstand.
For those of you not familiar with that magazine, it was a popular publication that was geared largely to the competitive figure and bodybuilding population (eventually the bikini category was created and that took the magazine over).
The pages of that magazine were filled with fitness models from all walks of life.
Every night before bed, I'd lay there and flip through the magazine. Reading it from cover-to-cover and then starting the stack over once I had read them all.
At one point, I had hundreds of these magazines.
I was immediately drawn to the "success stories" of women who were moms and had competed. I thought the whole thing was so amazing, but yet so far outside of my grasp.
Even though the women I stared at in these magazines were just like me, I kept telling myself that it could never be me.
I'd strip down and stare at myself in the mirror and think to myself "no freaking way."
However, those magazines were the spark to get me into the gym and trying new things. It was a step. A small step, but a step I likely wouldn't have taken otherwise.
Competition seemed so far out of reach. I'd talked myself out of looking for a coach, tried doing it myself, and just continued doing what wasn't working.
I was all over the place.I was program hopping, trying different routines out every week, trying all the fitness models diet plans, but ultimately, I'd land right back where I started.
Unsuccessful and frustrated.
I remember the first coach that I invested in was an online coach in January of 2007. She lived in Ohio and I remember I told her "I don't think I'm good enough to compete, I just want to look like I do.”
Guess what? I worked with her for 3 months, not even following her plan 100%, and it restructured my body pretty amazingly. I did my best and I was so happy with the results. I was addicted.
Even though I talked myself out of hiring a competition coach a hundred times, I'm so glad I did. Eventually, I took the plunge to compete but I was still "not ready" and talked myself out of it so many times before I took the plunge.
The voices in my head (AKA excuses/lies that I told myself) were:
I have stretch marks.
I'm a mom and I have had kids; I will never look like that.
I am terrified to walk on a stage in clothes, let alone a bikini.
I won't stick to my goal and I'll quit, just like every other program I've tried.
Eventually, I figured out how to stop thinking so negatively. It was like a lightbulb went off in my head. I flipped my internal dialogue and started thinking....
I won't know what I am capable of until I try.
I want to do this so that I don't live with regret.
The time will pass anyway, so why not enjoy the journey?
I'm never going to be ready, so I might as well just start. I became my own cheerleader. I started asking myself why NOT me?
If you spend ANY time with the elderly, I want you to ask them what they regret. In fact, I want you to immediately call someone 30+ years older than you right now.
Most often, they regret NOT doing something.
They don't say "I wish I had more fear and stopped myself from experiencing more life-altering challenges.”
My grandmother always tells me "I'm so proud of you, minah linda,” which means "my beautiful" in Portuguese. I wish I would've had as much courage as you do when I was your age.”
This may sound morbid, but I do NOT want to die with regret...
Here's to a little wake-up call,
xo
Coach D
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