Anyone who’s a fan of basketball knows that tonight, Lebron James, is announcing his decision of where he’s signing.

Either he’s going to stay in Cleveland, or sign with Chicago, Miami, or New York.

Once he makes his decision, it’s final. He can’t change his mind.

However, we make decisions all of the time. In fact, life is a series of choices.

Unfortunately (na, fortunately!), we’re not robots. We’re human beings.

Economists love to refer to us as Econs. They believe that we’re rational beings and that we’ll always choose what’s best for us. Ha!

We’re all predictably irrational.

And thankfully, in our day to day life, especially when it comes to our diet and exercise, we’re not making irreversible choices.

There in lies the problem. Just because you made a decision to lose weight, or eat better, or realize your body’s full potential – doesn’t mean you’re never going to revert back to your old ways from time to time.

That’s silly! What? Just because you decided that you’ll never overeat again, you’re never going to overeat again in your entire life? Or never have too much dessert?

That’s crazy talk.

Behavior change is extremely hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone in this world would be exactly who they want to be.

Instead, we rationalize and justify our choices so we can (comfortably) live with ourselves.

The question, though, is what do you do once you make a bad choice? Do you make another bad choice afterward because it “doesn’t count anymore”?

“Ah, I’ll start tomorrow,” we say to ourselves. Momentum is EXTREMELY powerful. It can be our worst or best friend.

Most people fall off track for days, weeks and even months at a time – all because of one bad choice that set them off.

Instead, let’s embrace the bad choices. Hey, the milk already spilled!

And let’s obsess, that’s right – obsess – over the question, “How quickly can I recover?”

Oh and when Lebron decides he’ll be playing in NY, he won’t have to worry about recovering quickly. Because it’s going to be the start of a dynasty! [I'm sorry my fellow Florida and Illinois clients. No Ohio clients. ]

I talk and write a lot about monsters. I even write about the ‘Laundry Monster’ on the MBT website.

In the the case of doing laundry, well, I hate doing it. And no matter how many times I promise myself I won’t let it build up, I always do. I wind up using every sheet for my bed possible, and every pair of random socks and underwear I can find.

It becomes a ‘Laundry Monster’ because I become terrified of doing it. There is just so much! To make matters worse, the laundry room is in the basement of my building. So, I can potentially lug all of my clothes downstairs and washing machines might not even be available! Ugh!

But each and every time I do it – I always think something along the lines of, “this isn’t so bad!” In fact, the satisfaction of having all my laundry folded up including my socks in little balls, and knowing my clothes are clean is priceless.

I just let it build up ’til it becomes this (what seems like a) daunting task.

However, if I take the clothes from the hamper and put them into a washing machine and add detergent and then put those clothes into a dryer – one step a time – it’s very doable and dare I say – almost enjoyable!

The laundry monster is a perfect analogy for our ‘Health and Fitness Monster’ too. Like any monster when we attack it – it always feels incredible. The trick is to not let the monster build up!

Which means obeying the two day rule of exercise. You can skip one day – but you can’t skip 2 days in a row. (The exercise monster builds up quickly!)

Which means obeying the grocery store rule. You can’t expect to eat healthfully, if you don’t have healthy foods available. Get to the store and attack that ‘grocery store’ monster.

We all have other monsters, too. Whether it’s work related, house related, relationship related, etc. Not attacking them adds a level of stress and anxiety to our lives. We think about it so we put a band-aid on it. We start to take action but we figure out a temporary solution (ah, I can wear this t-shirt from 5th grade! Laundry can wait!).

My Monday challenge for you is to attack full force any “Monsters” that you may have lingering. They can be as simple as a closet that needs to be cleaned to a big project for work to a tough conversation you need to have with a loved one or maybe you just need to get to the store!

Whatever you know that needs to get done – that you keep putting off – why not do it this week?

If not now, when?

Just start with one step today! Attack it for 10 minutes. Make those 10 minutes your monster!

You’ll be glad you did and you’ll realize it’s not nearly as bad as you thought it was going to be.

The less ‘Monsters’ you have, the less anxious you’ll be. The less anxious you are, the less likely you’ll be to eat emotionally, mindlessly or habitually!

Attack those monsters!

Let’s go! I got your back!

Do you have that 1 thing? Yes, no, maybe, so?

Let me explain:

For those workaholics in the group, do you feel odd when you don’t have to go to work? Even more so, when you wake up and don’t shower first thing and get ready?

Or, maybe you’re addicted to exercise? When you don’t exercise you don’t feel as energized as you usually do. You just sorta go through the motions all day.

Or, maybe you need more sleep? I find that when I wake up late, my whole day is off. (But that ultimately comes back to my bed time.)

I think many of us have a select few activities that our day revolves around and if they don’t get done, we fall apart. Not like Humpty Dumpty but mentally we just drag.

So here’s a question:

Do you notice yourself not on point 100% when you don’t do a certain thing or two?

And another one:

What if you structured your entire day around those 1 or 2 things?

Getting the body you want is about 3 things. Eating right. Exercising. And doing those two things consistently.

Unfortunately, it’s the consistency part that’s so hard.

Besides the usual culprits like rationalizing, procrastinating and justifying, consistency is also so hard because it can get boring.

Variety is the spice of life, right? Not in our case.

Because consistency can get boring we bounce from one fad diet to the next, always in search of the next revolutionary program.

However, we all know deep down, the key to success is to do the right things over and over and over and over again.

No matter what diet, or what program or what “magic pill” (they don’t exist!) you take, you’re going to have to do the actual work. And the actual work means eating right, eating less, and moving more..consistently.

There is no escaping this!

I repeat: You can’t escape the work. Just like I can’t ski down a mountain safely without turning, you can’t escape the work…if you want results.

A few clients from time to time ask me if I get bored of what I do. “Do you really care what I eat? Do you really care about my daily feedback?”

It’s an honest question.

The answer is absolutely! Because I know each daily feedback will lead you one step closer to where you want to be. Each daily feedback is a critical part of the journey.

Every meal counts. Every workout counts.

And what really drives me, and what I really love, is the thrill I get when you email me and say “Damn! This is working!” “My pants feel loose!” “I hate you. I have to buy new clothes!” That’s what makes me get out of bed in the morning. That’s what keeps me up at night.

Because I know you can’t escape the discomfort nor the day to day consistency which isn’t sexy whatsoever. But it’s extremely effective.

And because it’s so easy to avoid the inevitable – being consistent – I know daily and personal support is what makes all of the difference.

No one said it’s easy. Nor sexy.

But ask anyone who’s pursued anything worth pursuing (usually, things that are hard to obtain) and they’re certainly convinced it’s worth it.

In short: Embrace the consistency. And when it feels a little boring, that’s your time to lean in even more and make more change happen.

Because like our moods, we have ups and downs. And when we’re up, it feels easy.

But when it’s easy, we quickly forget about the inevitable downs that 9.9 times out of 10 knock us off our tracks for good.

Until we start something else and repeat the cycle over and over again.

Not on my watch.