My wife and I watched a
great movie this past weekend called McFarland USA. If you have not watched this movie, I highly
recommend it. The movie is based on a
true story and is about a boys’ cross country team in a small town in
California that had many challenges to overcome to compete and succeed. While I
was watching the movie, it made me think about how everyone can relate to this
team’s struggle in comparison to the everyday struggles we have to be healthy.
There were a few points I took away that can help us be victorious in our goals
to be and stay healthy.
First, you need
to have a goal of what you want to accomplish. The goal should be precise with
a time frame attached to it. I ask people to write down their goals, and many times
they write very vague, open-ended goals. The team in the movie set a very
specific goal, they wanted to win a state championship at the end of their
season. Our goals should also be
specific. For example, I want to be at a
certain body fat percentage by the end of 2015. Don't be afraid to aim high,
but also be realistic on the time frame for what you are trying to accomplish.
Once you establish the goal, then the real
work begins. This is one thing that
viewers don’t think about when watching a movie. We get excited about how a movie ends, but
we don't think about the struggle and hard work that it took to reach that outcome.
So, the second thing is to have a daily focus. It's easy to write days off and
forget what your goals are and why you are doing what you are doing. I’ve been guilty of this, and I’ll say I
don't feel like working out today or eating right today. But those days usually
lead to many bad days in a row. If you can be consistent in your daily
activities you can accomplish your goals. The point is not just about being
healthy, but also being successful in other things like raising our children,
doing our jobs, or going to school. If we had a daily focus to do our best work,
we would be unstoppable. Just focus on one day at a time.
The last thing I
learned from the movie is it’s better to accomplish things with others help than
on our own. If you ever played a sport and everyone was on the same page, I bet
your team was successful. It's the same with our health, if you have others
there to push you and encourage you the task will be easier. I used to workout
by myself all the time. I would struggle with my workouts at times, so I asked
a friend to workout with me. What a difference that made for me! I push myself
so much more, and on the days I don't feel like doing what I should, I have
someone to hold me accountable. We've even added to the group, and it has been
that much more beneficial. So, find someone that can give you that accountability
in helping you with accomplishing your goals.
What really got me excited from
this movie are the parallels I draw from this cross country team to our
Training For Warriors groups. At TFW we have challenges that we do quarterly
that we can use to gauge how our fitness levels have improved, which in turn
are helping us accomplish our personal goals of better health and smaller waistlines,
etc. At TFW there are daily workouts
that help us achieve our goals, but also guidelines for nutrition and rest to
get the most from our training. If you follow these, you will be ahead of the
game. Finally, this biggest thing I took from the movie that parallels TFW is
the teamwork. We want everyone to be encouraging, and to not just focus on
yourself but helping others as well. We use the term Familia to describe what
TFW is all about. There were family members on the team in the movie, but the entire
team acted like a family.
If you are
interested in learning more about TFW please contact me, and if not at least
watch the movie, I think you will enjoy it.
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