The business researcher Jim Collins writes about the Doom Loop in his famous book Good to Great.

It’s when you:

1. Find a new direction
2. Enter a new program
3. Start a new event
4. React to a new fad
5. Get a new leader

without having any plan of action, no accumulated momentum, no build up, no direction.

You then get disappointing results and react poorly.

And so the loop continues.

When in reality, at least when it comes to fitness, we need to pick something that is realistic and sustainable. Something that you can see yourself doing in 5 years from now.

Or else, it’s just a short term solution. A band-aid if you will.

And when your fitness depends on short term solutions, you’ll wind up yo-yoing.

One of the ways I waste the most time is by constantly looking at the Amazon bestseller list. I’m truly amazed each and every time I look at how many diet books are in the top 100. A few days ago 10 of the top 25 books were diet books. (I’ve read them all.)

(I guess shame on me for not writing a book. But I’m not really interested in writing a book. I’m interested in helping people. And I don’t think a book is the answer.)

Why are so many of the bestsellers diet books? Because 99% of the people who want to lose weight or want to improve their fitness are in constant search for more tactics. They want the next fad. They want the secret.

Why?

Because changing is pretty damn hard. And most people don’t want to actually change. They want to ‘feel’ like they’re changing.

Big difference!

If you have a few free moments, I wrote about this extensively on my GuruGilbert.com blog. You can read the post by clicking here.

We all know the secret.

Pick something you feel comfortable with and decide that you’re going to once and for all – stick with it.

Of course, the sticking with it part is where all the magic happens. It also happens to be the hardest part and that’s why most people are always in search for that new book.

But if you actually stuck with something through thick and thin, you’d never be a part of the doom loop.

Instead, let’s fight like heck to get through the good and the bad, so we can actually create some momentum and some real change.

Let the others keep reading more and more books. While we keep making small incremental changes meal by meal.

(Sadly, most people will have tried 10 different diets by the time we reach your next progress indicator.)

I hope you had a great weekend!

In our society, thankfully, it’s the people who take action that get all the glory. Not the people who dream of taking action or dream of better for themselves and others.

In other words, it’s the people who DO that get the glory.

Not the people who want to do, or talk about doing, or intend on doing.

I had a friend in college that lived on saying things like, “I was going to do this for you but…” or, “I saw this and was going to pick it up for you but…”

Yes, the thought is very nice! But after a while, I would just laugh because I realized this friend had good intentions but never actually followed through on any of them.

One of the things I try very hard to do is to follow through on every good intention or thought I have. Other wise, it’s simply an intention or a thought. Not a kind act!

This applies to eating right and exercising, too. We all know people who’ve been talking about losing weight forever already.

I’ll start the gym next month. I’ll start eating healthfully Monday. I’ll do this. I’ll do that.

They’ll wait and wait until all of the stars are lined up and unfortunately, keep on waiting.

If not now, then when?

The excuses they make and the rationalizations that go with them make sense to them, at the time. However, I know when there is a disconnect between our intentions and our actions, unhappiness ensues.

Eventually, we start to see through our own bull crap and it really bothers us.

I do believe, for the most part, we all have good intentions. We all want good things for ourselves and others.

But we also have another side to us that’s constantly going against our true and deep intentions.

Our irrational mind (or short term self) is extremely irrational. “Eat that cookie.” “Just relax!” “Don’t go to the gym!”

What if for just this week you tried making good on all of your intentions?

How do you think you’d feel?

Remember whenever you don’t want to follow through:

The road to hell is paved with good intentions!

Happy Friday!

You can complain that:

You have terrible genetics. You’re never lucky. Life isn’t fair. She can eat whatever she wants and not gain weight. It’s not your fault. It is your fault. It’s all your parents fault. The weight won’t come off. This is too hard and on and on and on.

The list is endless of things you don’t have. Of things you wish were different.

Being that we can’t control how fast her metabolism is and so many other things on the list one would think to stop focusing on things we can’t control.

But we don’t.

It’s a lot easier to hope and wish and complain.

There’s one major reason why you shouldn’t focus on the list of things you can’t control: No matter how much thinking, hoping, or wishing you do it won’t matter. It won’t change a thing.

However, there is one thing you can control. It’s the common denominator for all successful people.

Effort.

You control the amount of effort you exert each and every day. Every workout. Every meal you prepare.

You can decide to put forth more effort than the day before. You can control how much effort you’re willing to give.

Instead of focusing so much on what we wish we had, or what we don’t have, let’s focus on how we can get what we want using one simple but extremely powerful and always reliable tool: Effort.

Think about effort today and this weekend. Think about that next time you habitually complain and wish to yourself.

You are in control. Just use effort to get there. It always works.

At least with your body it does.

What if you only had 1 body?

How would you treat it?

Would you nourish it?

How would you feed it?

Would you respect it?

Would you invest in it?

Would you take care of it?

Would you love it?

Would your body want you as its care taker?

It’s never too late to change that.