“How you do anything is how you do everything”.
” Strength of character means the ability to overcome resentment against others, to hide hurt feelings, and to forgive quickly”
“Character is how you treat those who can do nothing for you”
” No one is born with good character; it is not a hereditary trait. And it isn’t determined by a single noble act. Character is established by conscientious adherence to moral values, not by lofty rhetoric or good intentions”
Who do you want to be ? How do you want to remember ?
Everyday, we make choices. I refuse to be a victim. Yes, I have had wonderful successes in my life, but I also went through terrible failures and tragedies. Whatever my circumstances are, I refuse to be a victim. Where I am today is exactly where I am supposed to be. And so are you. Where you are today is exactly where you are supposed to be. And this place where you are has a lot to do with the choices you have made in the past. These choices you have made have had consequences and pushed you in a direction. Everyday we make choices, mainly small ones and sometimes some big ones. The small ones are in enormous quantities. Every day, every hour, we make choices : being nice or ugly, being positive or negative, being energetic or lazy, being friendly or ignoring others, helping or hurting, working out or being lazy,….These choices that we constantly make are going to determine where we are going to be in the future. If I keep choosing healthy food vs junk food, I will be in 1 year in a different place and in a different shape ! than if I make the opposite choices.
As one of the fastest growing women’s health and fitness brands in the US, the primary focus of IdealFit is to empower women to achieve their goals by providing high quality sports nutrition products, expert information, and performance clothing. Click the link below to learn more about this pretty amazing brand.
And guess what ? It is hard. I have been puzzled through my journey of growing and trying to get better, be better, I have asked myself this question a lot. Why is it so hard to keep making good choices constantly ? If I take my own experience, I know how important it is to make good choices, but still… I keep making mistakes. I keep making wrong choices. Why am I choosing to watch this Netflix show when I absolutely, without a doubt, know that reading a good book is going to bring me so much more for the long term. I have then realized that my brain, with its survival instinct old of millions of years, is still thinking that short term is much more important than long term. The survival instinct that my prehistoric ancestors needed to survive in a very hostile environment.
It is so difficult to fight against that instinct.
While I understand it, and its nature, I am still stuck having to fight it to be better, to grow, to do better.
And then it came clear to me. “Of course !!!!!!!” It is a question of character. If I decide who I truly am , what my true character is, what my true values are, what kind of man I man, and I am fully convinced that is what defines me, then my decisions will become much easier. Your decisions are a reflection of who you think you are. If you think you are “athletic”, then you will tend to work out more. If you think you are “fat and lazy”, you will tend to stay on the couch, eating chips and watching TV. If you truly decide to be a certain kind of man/woman, your actions will be aligned with that man/woman.
When I realized that, I knew then that the best way for me to become the man I want to become; was to already be that man in my mind. It is not anymore “I want to become athletic”, it is now “I am athletic”. And because “I am athletic”, choices about my body or workout become much easier.
Of course, it is not that easy. You cannot fake it. Your mind will know. You really have to believe it. You need to define what your true values are, what your true character is. One day, I took my fiancee (who is my wife now) on a date for the weekend in a romantic setup in North Carolina. It was important to me that we were aligned about our life targets as we were about to be committed to each other for the rest of our lives. So we did a little exercise which consists in writing down how we would like people to speak about us at our funeral. I know “NOT VERY FUN !!!!”, I know !!!! But that triggered the following reflection : “Ok, if I want people to remember me this way, then what kind of life do I want to live ? What are the character, values I want to show during my life ? What choices am I going to make ?”
Character says everything about the person you are today. But even more important, it says everything about the choices you are about to make and the person you are about to become. Working on your character constantly, double checking that your actions are in lined with it is key. When I am in front of a choice, I try to remember : “What choice would the man I want to be, would make ?”
It makes everything so much easier…..Once you know who you want to be….What kind of character you want to demonstrate…..
YOUR SUCCESSFUL HABITS COACH
Anthony Perdrix
As one of the fastest growing women’s health and fitness brands in the US, the primary focus of IdealFit is to empower women to achieve their goals by providing high quality sports nutrition products, expert information, and performance clothing. Click the link above to learn more about this pretty amazing brand.
