#41 – Say “NO” More
https://anchor.fm/graham-tuttle/embed/episodes/41—Say-NO-More–Stop-Grinding-and-Start-Growing-eiissc
It’s time to say NO.
Let’s be honest, will power, external motivation, short challenges, and the “grind” are all catchy terms that we use to try and hype ourselves up for change. But you know what they all have in common? They’re not enough to actually make sustainable, long term change in your life.
Will power is finite, motivation is cheap, challenges push you outside of a sustainable norm, and the grind is, well, a grind. People, almost across the board, over estimate what they can do in a month or a year, and underestimate what they can do in a decade.
Sure, when it comes to weight loss or any change you care about enough to take action on, waiting a decade to see that come to fruition isn’t a fun proposition.
But step back for a second. Let go of the time frame and consider the principle behind what I’m saying. If something isn’t sustainable or manageable to be doing for the next 10 years, it’s not going to effectively last long enough to make a change.
I get it, it’s easy to be negative. But what else are you supposed to do? I mean, the weight needs to come off somehow! You’re not going to get stronger by just sitting around. How am you supposed to be productive if you don’t really push yourself through the grind for that 6 week challenge?
Well, the answer is to think about working smarter, not harder.
A big misconception is that hard work is a requisite to make a lot of money, or get in great shape, or to have a dream body. That’s just not the case.
Sure, these things take effort and at times are difficult, but what I’m talking about is the false belief that the more effort something takes the bigger the reward would be.
If that were the case then manual laborers, farmers, and deep-sea fishermen would be incredible successful. Unfortunately, many of these individuals struggle to just get by.
The reality is that most success is forged by what you are NOT doing rather than by what you are doing.
- NOT being addicted to drugs makes being successful in your job much easier.
- NOT drinking sodas or alcohol all the time makes being lean and healthy much easier.
- NOT staying up late playing video games makes getting enough sleep much easier.
- NOT making excuses makes seeing the world from an honest perspective much easier.
- NOT sitting down all day makes feeling good when you work out much easier.
You get the point, right? Sure, in all of the above situations you could willpower your way into achieving that outcome, but the sheer effort it would take is most likely prohibitive of actually maintaining that in the long run.
This is why I get always laugh when people tell me that I’m in great shape or whatever. I really don’t do much work to maintain my health or muscle or all of that stuff. Sure, I like to exercise, and would never turn down a game of basketball, but it’s not like I live in a gym.
I don’t follow a diet. I don’t follow a training plan. I don’t spend hours doing mobility work. I don’t spend my life doing tons of cardio. And I’m not overly restrictive with anything!
This is not to brag, of course. It’s simply an example to help highlight the fact that achieving the thing you want will take a whole lot less “grinding” and suffering, and a whole lot more simplicity.
In this context, we’ll stick to health, but this lesson can easily apply to almost any area of life with a few tweaks.
To start simplifying your life in an effort to make the sustainable change you want, let’s start with these 10 areas to say NO to:
1) NO Snacking/Mindless Eating – Mouth pleasure is not worth the harm it causes our body. The extra effort to always be digesting food, the extra calories that we don’t even realize we are consuming, and the preservatives that are in these highly “snackable” foods have absolutely no benefit to us. A simple fix here is to put down the snacks and limit your eating to just at meal times. By making this a hard rule, you no longer have to deal with these temptations. This alone can result in quick weight loss while making no other changes.
2) NO TV/Mindless Screen Time – Much like the processed food that we snack on, the hours we spend sitting in front of a screen are like feeding our brain processed information. Sure, I love a good movie or show just as much as anyone else, but there is absolutely no reason to default to the TV every night. Read a book, spend time with a loved one, or go to sleep! Pick a night or two to watch TV each week, but choose something else. It’s a simple win every time.
3) NO Sitting for more than 2 hours straight – I get it, you’ve got to work or go to school. But the body doesn’t do well with the sedentary lifestyle. Even if you have a long day or sitting, there is no reason that you can’t break that up with a brief stretch, bathroom break, or walk every 60-90 minutes at the very least. Doing this will drastically decrease the amount of time you spend feeling stiff or painful.
4) NO Drinking Calories – There is no benefit to drinking calories UNLESS you’re trying to gain weight and are downing a protein shake. Apart from that, calories that you drink don’t give you the same level of satiety, they are digested very quickly, and they can easily distort the total consumption you think you’re getting daily. Stick to water, black coffee, and tea. You’ll live without sodas or juices, I promise.
5) NO Added Sugar – Sugar has no nutritional benefit. You’re not getting anything from eating it and it’s just extra calories that don’t fill you up. Plus, the stress on your blood glucose regulation system is pretty detrimental over the years. No more than 25g of added sugar (And no, that does not include fruit, though that’s best if limited a bit too) is a great place to start. If you’re really committed, then keeping things under 10g a day is even better.
6) NO smoking – I mean, come on. Cigarettes? Really? I think we all know enough to let this one go. The fact that people still do this blows my mind.
7) No Alcohol – I know what you’re thinking… “This guy is insane!” It’s your life so you can do what you want, but so far I’ve really struggled to find any benefit in alcohol. It’s a toxin, it messes with sleep, it has calories, it lowers inhibitions, and it’s a strain on your body. Pick 1-2 nights a week to enjoy a drink or two, but if this is your go to stress reliever then you need to find a different job!
8) NO Junk Food – By junk food I mean food that has little to no nutritional value, is highly processed, or does not serve a need for your body. Most snack foods fall into this category. Of course, you can plan for an off day each week to have this, but the issue comes when these foods are part of your daily diet. The goal is to get rid of foods that don’t benefit your body. Calories are valuable, so don’t waste them!
9) NO Complaining – You heard me. Stop whining. Stop complaining. Stop blaming other people for why things aren’t different. If you care enough about something, then go change it. Complaining does absolutely no good. It is defeating and it robs you of your purpose and power. People that complain bring in negative energy, and no one wants to be around that.
10) NO Excuses – Take ownership of what happened. Don’t blame, shift responsibility, or deny. You are the boss of you. You are responsible for your actions and choices in life. The longer you make excuses for your bad decisions and lack of progress in life, the longer you’ll feel stuck in this environment and situation. Stop making excuses and be brutally honest with yourself.
Now, I’m sure you’re thinking that this whole list sounds like a lot of difficult change and hard work. Which seems very counter to the narrative that I just talked about. But here is the thing, none of these decisions are intrinsically difficult. They don’t require any effort or challenge.
In fact, the decision to make these choices to say NO takes just as much effort to make the choice to say yes. All it takes is a slightly different perspective on the situation.
And when you no longer perceive these decisions as hard decisions that require sacrifice, you have truly reached success. When you stop identifying with your need for weak outlets then you will no longer be stuck under the power of these vices.
Now, I’m not saying to be draconian and give these up forever! But by sticking to this plan 5 or 6 days a week you can achieve amazing things. If you make this the norm for 6 days each week you will be healthier and more successful than 97% of the population, guaranteed.
At the end of the day it’s not about will power or work ethic. Success is created by working smart and having sustainable systems set up that will allow you to hit these goals consistently.
You don’t have to start with all 10 of these. Even just implementing 1 will get you moving in the right direction.
But another way to look at it is that if you’re not really even willing to make one change, then do you even care about the whole thing to begin with?
Either accept it or change it. The choice is yours. But don’t complain about it if you do choose to accept it! Sure, it’s harsh. But being honest with yourself will make your life a whole lot easier.
