Let me say right off the rip that this is no “If you believe it, you can achieve it” post.

I’ve talked to numerous people who want a physique transformation. Sometimes, they are so overweight or underweight and far from their desired physique, that they begin to get stressed out just looking at how far they have to go.

It’s similar to having the desire to go to California from New York. You really want to go more than anything. But when you look at the distance that needs to be traveled, the gasoline and time that it is going to cost, you start saying things like, “Do I really want to go to California anyway? My car will be worn out when I get there and then I’ll have to buy a new one right? California’s no place I want to be anyway, I like it here…”. So you go back in the house and just live your days talking about the “lucky” people who make the trip.

This is exactly the thought pattern of many who desire to change their physique and health. It’s easier to stay the same, because they really do not want to change as bad as they say they want to change.

Take this lesson from me. I’ve weighed 250+lbs. with high blood pressure and joint problems beginning to impact my activity level in my early 20’s. In a couple of years when I hit 25, I was 200 lbs. and I remember weighing myself on a scale on my honeymoon and I was elated. I never thought I could be under 200 lbs. again. A little over a year after that, I hit my low of 175 lbs. (note: this is why those “recommended weight charts” are garbage because everyone said I looked like a crackhead at that time!)

But I changed not only myself, but my family tree as well (to use Dave Ramsey’s phrase) as my kids now grow up with a totally different view of exercise, diet and overall health. Trust me, they would’ve grown up thinking that having “sugar” was normal, high blood pressure means you’re eating stuff that tastes good, and having heart problems is okay because we are genetically predisposed in that direction anyway.

If I had focused on that fact that I wanted to weigh 175 back when I was 250, I never would have spent what little money I had on that 310 lbs. Olympic set and bench.

Don’t focus on how far you need to go, but focus on what you need to do TODAY.

Don’t focus on how you might feel when you get to “x”, but focus on how you feel TODAY and what are you doing TODAY to feel better?

Don’t focus on whether your clothes will not fit tomorrow, but focus on how you feel TODAY when something does not fit.

Don’t focus on whether your back/knees/hips will still hurt tomorrow, but whether they hurt TODAY and what are you doing to change it besides popping pills?

I could go on and on, but do you get the message?

Just pack the car with necessities for the trip, gas it up, and drive in the right direction TODAY. Trust me, your normal gravitational pull will always be back to where you are today, so if you don’t like CA, it will be very easy to return back to NY.

Hopefully you’ll view NY as a nice place to visit in the future, but you wouldn’t want to stay there any more.

This post was inspired by the video below. Special shout-out to our bodybuilding historian Breeze. Any nuggets of knowledge you can give us on Bruce Randall? You can read more about Bruce’s transformation here…and this is before the steroid-era of bodybuilding!