| The quest to develop a stunningly fit, lean and | | | | One day, you look in the mirror and "suddenly," your |
| attractive body is a long, slow journey. It's not | | | | blueprint has become reality. |
| something you achieve overnight by popping a few | | | | The body of a fitness model, figure competitor or |
| pills or strapping an electric gizmo to your belly. | | | | bodybuilder is no more likely to be built overnight |
| Which reminds me, did you know that by the time | | | | than a high rise is to be built overnight. It's not |
| the FTC finally blew the whistle on the electronic ab | | | | physically possible. Accepting the idea that any type |
| belt scam, the makers of those "ab zappers" had | | | | of pill, powder, drug, supplement or machine of any |
| swindled over $100 million dollars from unsuspecting | | | | kind will make it happen sooner than nature intended |
| consumers? Fortunately, some of those companies | | | | (without negative consqeuences or side effects) is |
| had to pay it back, and then some! | | | | pure folly. You can't force it. |
| The FTC charged three companies - Fast Abs, Ab | | | | Growth and development of any kind always requires |
| Tronic and Ab Energizer - with false advertising and | | | | a gestation period. For a baby, it's nine months. For |
| deceptive warranty practices for these "ABSurd" | | | | corn, I believe it's about three months. If you were |
| gimmcks. | | | | an expectant mother, would you want to hurry the |
| But I digress... back to what I was saying about the | | | | process? Could any new development in nutrition or |
| journey to a better body... | | | | medical science speed up this wonderful miracle even |
| Last week I looked out my window, and where | | | | one iota? If you were a farmer, would you try to |
| there was once nothing but a dirt-filled empty lot, | | | | harvest your crop before it was ripe? |
| there stood a sprawling six story brick condo | | | | Would you dig up your seeds to see if anything was |
| complex. If someone looked at this massive | | | | growing down there? |
| completed structure for the first time, they might | | | | The answers are obvious. If only we would adopt |
| not be impressed. However, since I observed the | | | | the same patient, nurturing "mother's" or "farmer's |
| entire construction process unfold from my living | | | | mindset" towards getting in shape, then no one |
| room window, I was impressed - amazed even - at | | | | would waste their money on "fast abs" or "exercise |
| what goes into erecting this kind of structure. | | | | in a bottle" or any such silliness ever again. We would |
| I remember watching the crew humming around | | | | understand that one must sow first, then reap the |
| diligently every day like busy bees, laying one brick | | | | harvest, but that you can't sow and reap in the |
| after another. | | | | same season. |
| From one day to the next, it didn't seem like much | | | | If you ever get frustrated with the rate of progress |
| changed. | | | | in your fitness or weight loss program (and who |
| But slowly, over a period of a year and a half, I | | | | doesn't), just remember; success is always |
| watched the building gradually morph into the finished | | | | guaranteed to the persistent. |
| product. | | | | Nothing in the world can stop someone who knows |
| When you look at someone with an incredible body | | | | what they want and is willing to continue paying the |
| as a finished product, you often tend to dismiss the | | | | price until they get it. It just takes time. |
| long, arduous journey and hard work it took to build | | | | Become the architect and builder of your own dream |
| that body. | | | | body. |
| Unless you were side by side with that person in the | | | | You WILL build the body you want eventually if |
| gym (and in the kitchen), observing the work | | | | you're patient enough and you refuse to quit. And |
| involved, it's easy to attribute such a chiseled | | | | set your goals HIGH! Create a fantastic blueprint. |
| physique to genetics or give credit to a supplement | | | | Michelangelo said, "the greatest danger is not that we |
| (they just took product XYZ and voila - overnight | | | | set our goals too high and miss them, the greatest |
| abs). What you don't see or appreciate are all the | | | | danger is that we set our goals too low and we |
| months and years of sweat and hard work. | | | | reach them." Envision a castle - a veritable Taj Mahal |
| Getting in shape is a lot like a construction project. | | | | of a body! There's nothing wrong with building castles |
| First, there must be a picture in the mind. Then the | | | | in the sky, as long as you patiently work at putting |
| vision goes onto paper as a blueprint. It takes | | | | the foundations underneath them. There are very |
| months just to lay the foundation. More months of | | | | few unrealistic goals; only goals with unrealistic |
| work will follow. On a daily basis, it doesn't seem like | | | | deadlines. |
| much is happening. You look in the mirror and appear, | | | | So keep laying those "bricks" - every day - one at a |
| for the most part, the same as you did yesterday. | | | | time - and sure enough, eventually, you'll build |
| But sure enough, the small improvements are slowly | | | | yourself a palace. |
| accumulating like compounding interest in the bank. | | | | |