One of my athletes asked me the other day what I thought about the “5-hour energy” drinks (insert eye roll here). I am sure that his question was due to the fact that their new ad campaign features a number of different professional athletes promoting the product on TV commercials. A little piece of me dies whenever I see one of these commercials and what it is teaching the viewers!
Anyhow, I proceeded to inform him of the fact that yes the drink will work – BUT, and no one can put this better than Coach Mike Boyle, “You are really just mopping up the puddle instead of fixing the leak”. It’s true, most energy supplements will work, but you must try and find out what is causing the drag in energy in the first place. Start thinking in terms of the CAUSE first, try to fix that before you start to rely on the supplement.
As soon as I tell him this, he looks at me and says “You always think like that, dont you!” – I then proceeded to tell him how “Yes I do, I rock!” and then had him superset Spiderman Pushups and Bulgarian Split Squats for his comment.
So now in 2009 many people create resolutions, and many never follow through. This can possibly be because they are looking at mopping up the puddle instead of fixing the leak. In order to reach success, the decision making process for accomplishing your resolutions have to be made on fixing the leak, in other words the real source of the problem. Most people focus all their energy on just the puddle.
Of course, being a fitness professional, I hear many many New Years resolutioners talk to me about their goals, and 2 months later, most of them always fall off. They do so because they are thinking about the puddle, they come to me talking about how they want to finally lose weight and get in shape. And that this is the year that it will be done – by looking at the puddle, they are usually watching what they eat, and start to exercise more. And that is great – but it is not the leak.
Usually people start out with the best of intentions, but they lack the planning to follow through. Instead of living meal to meal, or workout to workout, start planning and thinking ahead. Make it a point this year to focus on long-term solutions instead of short-term fixes to your goals whatever they may be, and you will find yourself coming that much closer to achieving them.
Stay focused!
Joey
