Working Out: 5 Ways To Achieve Goals

We all have things in life we wanted to change or goals we want to achieve. I learned a lot about achieving goals from watching people work out. 

I was never an athlete, and have always struggled with a few extra pounds.  OK, my favorite made-up cheesy joke is to say “I’m not out of shape. Round is still a shape!”  The trouble is “round” is not the shape I want to have. 

People who lift weights realize five very important things that could help them succeed in other parts of life if they apply them:

1. You intentionally lift heavy weight (do hard things) to get stronger. Achieving your goals won’t be easy, but the process will make you stronger, even if you haven’t achieved your goals yet.

2. You don’t get stronger by avoiding the hard stuff. Growing up my Mom used to say (jokingly? hehe)  “Suffer, suffer, suffer!”  No pain, no gain, right?

3. Results aren’t immediate. It took time to put on the weight, or create the conditions you want to change, so don’t be upset when it takes time to reverse it. 

4. It’s a process you must start and continue to get and maintain results. You don’t achieve your goals by lifting weights every once in a while. It is a regular habit: your lifestyle and repeated heavy lifting over time that gets you in shape.

5. You don’t wait to “feel like” working out. You just make your plan and stick to it by doing it, whether you feel like it or not. You never “feel” like working out, but once you start, momentum kicks in and then you “feel” like working out.  

It seems like everyone in prison spends time working out, in one way or another. I personally feel it was harder getting out of prison and starting over than it was serving time. If you’ve survived prison, you can survive – and do –  anything! Just don’t give up. 

I tell people starting a business is one of the hardest things they will ever do. The principles are the same for both groups. When you are overwhelmed or upset you aren’t getting the results you want, remember why you started the process to begin with. Don’t forget your dreams, and what you were created to do. 

Staying in the process is the only way to achieve good results

You will get results whether you stay in the process or not.  The trouble is we don’t want the results from dropping off. Stay in the process – you and your future are worth any amount of frustration or pain you feel getting stronger. 

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© 2022 Pelshaw Group, Inc. Used with permission.

Bob Pelshaw is a formerly incarcerated citizen, successful entrepreneur, speaker, and author of the award-winning Illegal to Legal: Business Success for the (Formerly) Incarcerated. (Book and workbook available on Amazon). Bob also provides content to Edovo, GTL, PayTel, and jails and prisons nationally.

To ask Bob a question, write to him at:

ASK BOB
c/o Pelshaw Group, Inc. 
PO Box 460671 Papillion, NE 68046