What’s your North Star? Through the rough seas and scary nights, what aligns you to the right path?

Everyone’s North Star is different

Everyone’s north start will change with time/experience

The most effective north stars are sefless

Who is benefeting from my actions?

“I support my best friend by committing to hike the canyon”

“ I want to get on and off the ground with my grandchildren “

“ I want to an anchor for my partner”

Secondary north stars

“ I want to live an extraordinary lifestyle “

Third north stars

“ I want to do a pull-up”

“ I want to see shoulder muscles “

None of these are wrong or right

We may have multiple north stars

We may have temporary and long term north stars at the same time

But

when that alarm clocks goes off

When we just don’t feel like to

When motivation is low

When comfort wins over uncomfortable

What North Star keeps you on track?

Whatever it is

It’s need to be seen and touched daily

Write it down , take a screen shot , set an alarm , print a picture , put it on the fridge, put it in a mirror

Discipline is not easy

Action decisions become easier when there’s a why behind a why

What’s your North Star?

My north stars - fear of failure - regret - Danielle - family - Prevail instructors- all of you

"How often do I need to work out?"

Great question; first, let's answer some other questions

1. what is your goal?

2. What are you doing right now?

3. How much time can you commit with 80% confidence

4. how often do you enjoy working out?

5. What's your social/work/family schedule?

6. When do you want to achieve that goal?

These are a handful of questions to ask yourself, helping us paint a picture of where you are and where you want to go.

We know that acquiring 180 minutes a week of aerobic work and 180 minutes of resistance training should be the ultimate end goal. These 360 minutes will create the most robust, capable, healthy, and lean human.  

We also know that exercising for 20 minutes 2x a week is highly effective when doing zero minutes of exercise a week.

Anything and everything in the middle of those two options may be an excellent solution for you as an individual. 

A sit-down conversation with a professional would be a great place to create a plan for you.

until then, let's look at some myths about how much we need to exercise

Let's start with fat loss. At Prevail, we understand Fat loss is high on the list for most students. Prevail looks at exercise through a much bigger lens. 

here's why

Increasing exercise frequency does not guarantee changes in the scale.

  If you go from zero days of exercise to 3 days, you will most likely lose weight IF you don't change anything else. That's a big IF. If you go from 3 days to 6 days, you may see another small change. However, is six days of exercise sustainable forever? 

Or, as we increase exercise, our hunger cues also increase, and we still have a net zero change in EI/EO.  

When we look at weight loss (fat loss), exercise only accounts for 10% of the total equation.  

On the plus side, Increasing exercise frequency may increase your awareness of nutrition and habits consistency. 

When we lift in the morning, we are more likely to make better nutrition changes throughout the day. So does exercising in the morning help us lose weight? Or does paying attention to nutrition help us lose weight? ........

Increasing exercise frequency will increase your overall health

The more often we move, the more often we improve our health scores. Bumping from 2 days to 2 days of lifting and three days of walking is moving toward better health. 

Increasing exercise intensity does not mean an increase in weight loss or health. For those that embody the western philosophy of "more is better," this can become a trap.  

We start chasing intensity because it makes us feel like doing something. It strokes our ego and smothers our Doubtfire. Veteran strength coaches have a saying 

"if you don't take a rest day, your body will take one for you."

This shows up in injury/sickness/burnout.

Intensity is essential; we should be cycling bouts and programs of varying intensities. 

it's still only 10% of the energy equation 

Managing EI and EO as an individual will result in a scale change when an individual is crazy consistent with taking notes on both sides of the equation. 

Exercise is not the driver of results; it's 1 part of the equation to maximize the results as long as nutrition/habits are in check

Exercise prescription will change the type of non-scale results tho

Exercise is essential, and having clear expectations and intentions as an individual is more important.

At Prevail, we use exercise to create a wide range of results.

-Decrease in pain

- increase in ability and capability

- increase in durability

- increase in muscle mass

- increase in strength

- increase in conditioning

- an increase of feel goodness ( science)

- increase in social culture and community

- "toning" 

- increase in function

oh yeah, decrease in body fat

So what do you want out of exercise? What do you want for the highest elevated self? These questions answer how often I should exercise.

The Prevail system is intentionally a 3-day week system. Three days that intentionally create strong/capable/durable adventure-ready humans. We then coach individuals on how and if they need more than 3.

As a reference - Prevail Instructors average 5-6 days of the movement. Cycling in 3-4 days of strength/muscle work and 2-3 days of easy/medium/hard conditioning and walking/hiking/play. 

The fallacies of discipline

An assumption that being a marine by default mean’s I am self disciplined. Couldn’t be farther from the truth. Oh and organized? Psssh

The Marines taught discipline but it was motivated by fear and pride. Remove that structure and you remove fear and pride ( more on pride later) 

One of the reasons I joined was because I knew that without structure I would fail. I do not have it in me to be disciplined or self motivated. How do I know? Because when I did get out and try college I failed.  

I didn’t have to discipline to finish the work

I have always had the ability to say no or remove myself from decisions that I knew wouldn’t progress myself but saying no is easier than saying yes and actually doing the thing you said yes to

Often in the industry we here “ I can’t “ “ I don’t have that control” “how do you find motivation?”

Really what’s happening is we aren’t in fear or have a plan to create self pride.  

Everyday I have to tell myself “ get shit done” 
All the stuff that comes with running a business, I’m horrible at it. It’s not fun , it’s not easy , I don’t want to do it. 

The only reason I finish half of what I set to do is because of fear and pride

I fear failing and my pride won’t let me imagine failing

You know what else is a huge contribution? 

A support system- without Danielle , coaches, and fellow business owners I would be failing. 

You don’t need motivation, you may need focused discipline with a community of support that are in line with realistic goals. 

Oh and I’ve been meaning to make this post for about 5 days, can we say procrastination? I kept double guessing and worrying about it not being good enough. Then finally “ shut the fuck up sean and write”

What’s your weakness in discipline?
What do you fear?