Keri McKibbin Personal Training

Why get better? Why show up and try to put the effort in? Why not “coast it” in life? Why not go around the shops every day?

 Why not catch up on all the TV series’ your fiends keep telling you about? Why not reminisce about the “good old days”, because “life used to be better then” didn’t they?

You may have heard these words off people you know, and they may have half-convinced you of accepting you’re top old, you’re too overweight, you have too much joint pain, you don’t. Have enough ability any more, you are “entitled” to feel sorry for yourself.

If you want all of these things, then you will have a whole stack of people to back you up, to enable these highly limiting thoughts, to let you sink into obscurity bit by bit, because this lifestyle doesn’t demand anything out of you.

You will become a very big moaner, complain that life passes you by, and before you know it, it’s impossible seemingly to turn the tide.

At the gym, you decided to become different. You decided to push yourself and turn back the clock and become better again. 

You became fed up with the lack of energy in your life, the lack of ambition and being scared of taking on challenges again.

The funny thing is though, no matter how tired you seem after work, when you show up you feel much better, especially when you didn’t even feel like coming in the first place.

A decision to get better and improve your life across the board is exactly that, a decision. When circumstances seem against you, you need to act even when you don’t want to, putting on that red t-shirt you know elevates your mood, especially when you show up and test yourself, and brings back your self-esteem and self-confidence in abundance, when done regularly.

Getting your trainers may always seem tough, but following the process through by showing up makes a massive difference in every area of your life.

Tyson Fury, the unbeaten world heavyweight champion, tells us in his recent book about his deep battles with mental health. 

He says that all was good climbing up the ranks, and when he won the world title and achieved “ultimate success”, when he got to the top of the mountain, it’s then that the problems started.

He felt set decline start, just like in his mind the astronauts who went to the moon experienced deep psychological problems when they returned, they got to the moon and what was the next goal that would top it?

Fury descended on a food, alcohol and even drugs binge. He got up late, didn’t train anymore and went down the pub, and he was still treated like a hero by many (especially in the pub).

He started to lose his mind though, his purpose had gone, life was “too easy” and had constant thoughts of suicide and hated himself.

Before killing himself, he heard a voice he said tell him to STOP. He slammed on the brakes on his Ferrari in the process of going off a bridge and to cut a long story short, started to exercise again, eat right and got back in the ring for the right reasons, setting new targets and didn’t want to let his family down anymore by his very erratic behaviour.

His now daily habits of exercise, eating right and a deep sense of purpose keeps his life on an upward trajectory and simply feeling good every day, and keeps his demons at bay.

The lack of purpose suddenly in anyone’s life can be highly destructive. We think that doing “nothing” is an utopia, a nirvana, when it is a dastardly trap to send us not only into deep physical decline, but a sense of hopelessness in our mind which drops our self-esteem and self-confidence extremely rapidly.

Life promises you “once you get to that level”, “once you retire”, “once you do this and that” that life will continue to be amazing, but it can be the biggest lie society tells you and enters you into life’s most dangerous phase, lots of people suffer ill health, loneliness or even die in the 6 months to 2 years after retirement because their purpose has gone.

Daily routines are vital, keeping active even more so, eating well not only makes you feel better but fights off disease, hanging out with uplifting people is a daily necessity and the goal of continual self-improvement is not only possible at any age, it’s an absolutely imperative fact of life.