Actually use your failure

[AlexDep89]

Failure is something that is a bit glorified in the world of entrepreneurs. Don't be afraid to fail, you learn from your failures, failing is fertilizer for success.

And it is. But do you actually use your failure? Or do you fail and just start again without taking some time to learn? The glorification of failure has led me to believe that failure is only worthy if you fail in doing something big. Wrong!

I tried to transform my body from fat to fit since I was a teenager. And never with success. So last year I had written up a diet and exercise program to restart the whole cycle of dieting for a few weeks followed by relapsing in unhealthy eating and being lazy. This time - and no idea why this didn't pop into my head earlier - I asked myself the question: how will this time be any different then the past decade of trying?

For the first time in a decade of trying to become fit and healthy I actually looked at all the things I had done and why I failed, or why sometimes I stuck to a program/diet. And with all this information, of even the smallest of failures, I build a new program. Today I'm 50 lbs lighter, dropped my body fat from over 30% to 15%. I can run 10k, I'm stronger and more muscular then ever,....

My point: Look back on your failures - don't fool yourself that things will be different if you plan to do exactly the same. Actually really learn from your failures.


For those interested, here is my look on my failures and successes:

• Fancy stuff (Insanity, P90x,....) and high rep workouts never showed allot of results. Best results I got was when I did Stronglift 5x5 ==> Conclusion: Do stronglift 5x5
  • I stopped doing stronglift 5x5 when I went to live in another city and had no good gyms nearby. At the closest gym, there is only one squat rack that people also use to bench in => Conclusion: invest in a power rack at home (was true gold for me, since starting is the hardest, and starting was now something I could do in a matter of seconds when at home)
• I lost most fat when I also was running but I ran to much to fast, didn't know what I was doing and now I'm much fatter ==> Conclusion: Follow a running program that builds up from zero to 5k (I did, then I did 5k to 10k) + invest in material to make it more fun (good running gear and quality headphones)
• Of all the diets, I liked the Keto diet the most but its got boring and I don't think I can do it forever => Conclusion: before starting build a menu with recipes I actually enjoy + have a plan to lose the first 50 lbs with keto and then have a meal plan for going back to "regular - healthy" eating. (I must give credit to dietdoctor, since I got all my recipies from their site + the simple but brilliant concept of cooking once in the evening but enough so you can split it in two for the evening and for next day lunch. )
• Most common reason I skipped a workout (which led to more skipping and finally giving up) was being to tired from work. ==> Conclusion: do it in the morning. I became a real morning person. At first I just wanted to train, but now I use the morning to to all my important stuff. So when I get home now, i can just eat, relax and go to bed.

 

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