A lot of what keeps us from our goals is ourselves and our attitudes. This definition from Earl is a great one because even though attitude is mental, there’s no denying it affects your physical life a very real way. It’s time to stop holding yourself back.

“Attitude is the angle or bearing, including actions, feelings and moods, from which you approach a problem or situation.” – Earl Nightingale

Your perspective or attitude towards aspects of your life not only creates your environment and your level of happiness, but it also affects your body and your health. George Health is designed to help you have the right attitude towards your fitness endeavours and that is extremely important because a negative or destructive attitude can sabotage even the best nutrition and training.

Out of all of the limiting beliefs and contracting attitudes that have you holding yourself back, there is one attitude above all that destroys all hope of diet and exercise getting results each month, and subsequently, reduces their levels of health, fitness and vitality. In severe cases, it can even be the cause of more serious problems like eating disorders. I call it the “all or nothing” attitude.

Over my time in personal training and nutrition coaching, I’ve seen at least a half a dozen different varieties of the all or none attitude (but there are probably a lot more).

Have a look and see if you recognise any of these in your own life. Then use the suggestions in this article to exchange the unhelpful attitude for a new positive attitude. I use these techniques with my clients when we work on their motivation and accountability. It allows you to get out of your own way and start walking the path of progress. I’ve had some myself in the past too, so read below to learn how I overcame it.

Finally you will see how true it is what William James wrote:

“Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.”

Stop Holding yourself Back –  7 “All or Nothing” Attitudes

All or Northing Attitude 1. “I just don’t have time!”

“I don’t have time” is probably the most common excuse for why people stop progressing or don’t begin in the first place. It also creates an all or nothing attitude.

People think to themselves, “I’m just so busy at the moment, I won’t be able to follow the program completely, so why start now? I’ll start later when I have more time to devote to doing the whole thing right.”

The interesting point is that these people never will have more time to “do it right.” Your schedule is always 100% full at all times. You will never have time to invest in yourself until you create time for it right now by making your program a priority and creating a space for it.

Solution – How to Stop Holding Yourself Back:
The honest truth is you’ll never have enough time to do all the things you want to do in life, but the good news is you’ll always have time for the things that are highest on your priority list.

Make a space for exercise, preparing meals – or anything else – by finding something of a lower priority that is taking up space in your schedule and replacing it. That might be watching TV, reading magazines, gossiping with friends, surfing the web, taking a long lunch break or even sleeping. The best way to create time in the day is simply by setting your alarm clocks 30 minutes earlier and getting your workout done at the start of the day before it all kicks off.
To banish your “I have no time” all or nothing attitude, remember that any workout session is better than no workout at all. There are more training methods and resources available today than ever before which focus on time efficient training methods for busy people. My workout programs do exactly that, they get the job done in just 40 or so minutes and still stimulate awesome muscle growth (actually more growth than other online programs).
Schedule your day tightly, sort and schedule your time in smaller chunks. Visualise and schedule your day broken down into small 45 minute or even 30 minute blocks, and imagine slipping a short workout into one of those small time periods, then the task no longer seems so daunting.

What is ideal for maximum results and what is realistic in the real world may be very different and you may not be able to do the “ideal” amount of exercise for optimal results 100% of the time. But, if you don’t set aside at least a little time every day to take care of the greatest gift, asset and possession you own – your body – then you’d better take a very close look at your priorities in life.

Recommended Reading: Motivation – Reset your Mind (Stopping Self Sabotage)

All or Northing Attitude 2. “I’m injured / I don’t have enough gym equipment so I can’t workout”

I get this one a lot from people not sure if they can commit to the program. How can something like a foot injury lead someone to believe that they can’t do any exercise at all, or even more crazy, that they can’t follow a healthy meal plan either?

Of course, some injuries lay you up completely, and you should always follow the advice of your doctor. But, many common injuries localised around the knee, shoulder, ankle or elbow pain only prevent activity around those joints, and not necessarily around the rest of the body.

Local pain or injury often leads to an all or nothing generalization such as, “My right foot hurts so I can’t workout at all.” Provided your doctor hasn’t told you to avoid all exercise, then what about your abs and core? How about your upper body… shoulders, biceps, triceps. Upper back? How about your other leg?

Research has even shown that working the uninjured limb can help lead to strength increases and faster recovery in the injured limb! Yup, it’s true!

What’s even more damaging is the all or none attitude when all exercise truly is restricted (doctor’s orders) and you tell yourself, “Oh well, no sense in starting this diet since I can’t exercise for the next 6 weeks.”

The truth is, if you cannot exercise at all, then nutrition is even more important, isn’t it?

Solution – How to Stop Holding Yourself Back:

Turn your “Can’t do” attitude into a “Can Do” attitude. Ask yourself, “What CAN I do,” (or “what can I do INSTEAD”), rather than what can’t I do? If there is a health or medical issue involved, ask your doctor the same question: “Ok doctor, I know I can’t do some things, but what CAN I do instead?”

Just go online and you’ll see men and women in wheelchairs achieve remarkable success in every area of their lives, including outstanding health, low body fat and excellent upper body muscle development, so if they can do it, what’s stopping you?

Always do whatever you CAN do, with what you have, where you are, right now.

Recommended Reading: Motivation – Reset your Mind (No Excuses)

All or Northing Attitude 3.”If I can’t do my diet perfectly 100% clean, then I won’t even bother.”

This is a really common all-or-nothing attitude when it comes to nutrition and weight control. Nothing will sink you faster than buying into this crazy belief.

In a word, this attitude could be described as “perfectionism.” I’ll be honest here and say I had this one myself. It has the illusion of aiming high and getting faster progress, but the reality is it gets you no where fast.

The problem in striving to be 100% perfect on a nutrition program lies in the psychological tendency to crave what you cannot have. Therefore, trying to eat “clean” 100% of the time, or be “perfect” on your diet is a recipe for failure. Believe me, I know.

Solution – How to Stop Holding Yourself Back:

Depriving yourself of foods you enjoy is not productive to your long term success. What did I do? I set up a compliance rule that I can live with. For example, pledge to yourself that you will eat the foods that are part of your program 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time is for your “cheat meals”, except I call them “free meals” because that seems more like it’s actually planned.

Use this as your mental “release valve.” If you go for clean eating 100% of the time, that pressure will build up and you will eventually “explode” in the form of a binge or other inappropriate eating episode. Find yourself binging randomly in the evenings or weekends? Here is the attitude for you to address.

All or Northing Attitude 4. “I cheated on one meal so I’ll give up for today / this week!”

Here’s another classic and very common example of all or none attitude. See if this sounds familiar:

“Well, I already screwed up my diet in that last meal, so screw it, lets pig out the rest of the day!”

Strength coach Charles Staley often likes to use the flat tire analogy when confronting this attitude:

“If you cheat, get right back on track,” says Charles. “If you get a flat tire, do you get out of your car and slash the other three tires? Hey, you have one flat tire – might as well have four, right?”

Solution – How to Stop Holding Yourself Back:

Here’s the secret fix for the “fell off the wagon” all or nothing attitude – that is, give yourself permission for treats and reward meals by establishing a compliance rule. I recommend 90% compliance (see problem 3).

When you understand that you can get usually excellent results from a good nutrition program followed 90% of the time, then if you mess up a meal or two, you won’t feel guilty. In fact, you won’t even worry about it because you know you can just count that as one of your “free” meals (part of the 10%).

Eating whatever you want 10% of the time is actually part of the program, so you’ll realise that you never did fall off the wagon after all! Sticking with your 90% compliance rule is 100% success!

All or Northing Attitude 5. “I’ve messed up so I have to start the whole week over again!”

On other online 12 week transformations, many people drop out mid way through. Why? Because they weren’t doing the motivational training that I provide to my clients. They messed up a single weekend, a single day or even just a single meal (as we all do at some point), but in their minds, they believed that one bad day meant the program was shot and they had to start at day one again. As a result, no momentum, physiological or psychological, was ever developed. That’s why in my program, my clients get continuous support, motivation and accountability to keep this from happening.

Solution – How to Stop Holding Yourself Back:

We use mental tools and techniques to focus on exercise and nutrition as an ongoing process and part of your lifestyle rather than a “diet.” My 12 week program actually becomes a lifestyle program for my clients so they can maintain their new improved physique.

All or Northing Attitude 6. “I didn’t meet my goal, so I’m a total failure!”

This one is especially dangerous because some people will take a single negative event that could be viewed as an important learning experience, and not only call it a failure, but also generalize it to their entire life and self image.

One person might say, “I failed to reach my weight loss goal,” but another might say “I failed to reach my weight loss goal, so I am a failure.” If you’ve ever said that to yourself, then remember what sports psychologist Denis Waitley has been teaching for years,

Solution – How to Stop Holding Yourself Back:

“Failure is an event, not a person.” Failure is actually an essential part of success. Failure is feedback and the raw material for learning.

As a matter of fact, you don’t have to accept your results as failure at all. You can reframe your attitude like this:

“If you don’t reach your goal in the time frame you set for yourself – you didn’t fail, you just haven’t finished yet. It’s a delay, not a denial. Set a new completion date and keep going.”

It’s helpful and important to have 12 week goals, and we use it in our programs, but the minute these goals are achieved, you simply move on to the next goal. Your program doesn’t “end” at a specified time – it’s all part of a lifelong process of personal growth.

Another empowering way to tackle this type of all or nothing thinking is to say to yourself what a famous football coach once said to his team when the scoreboard showed them behind at the end of the fourth quarter,

“We didn’t lose, we just ran out of time.”

Recommended Reading: Motivation – Reprogram your Mind (Setting Goals)

 

All or Northing Attitude 7. “I can’t workout because ___________ so I won’t do my diet either. ”

OR “I can’t eat right this week because ______________ so there’s no point in working out.”

Some experts say “Bodybuilding is 80% nutrition” or “Fat loss is almost all about diet!” I think it’s a silly argument. The way I see it, building muscle and burning fat is 100% nutrition and 100% training. Without both in place, you certainly won’t get optimal results. This is why my complete transformation program gets the best results because we use motivation, nutrition, weights and fat burning all together to get synergistic results that compound each other.

Many people realize this fact and agree with me, which is a good thing, but it sometimes leads to a faulty all or nothing thought pattern. Suppose you can’t train due to an injury. If you’re a perfectionist thinker, and you believe that nutrition and training are both important to get optimal results, you might figure that there’s no reason to start or follow your diet if you can’t train at all because its all for nothing.

Alternatively, if you travel a lot or just had kids or have a school project taking hours of work per week for several weeks, etc. etc., you might figure you can’t follow your usual diet due to time or inconvenience constraints. That may be a faulty assumption itself, but to add insult to injury, you think that since you can’t follow your diet, there’s no point in training.

Solution – How to Stop Holding Yourself Back:

The truth is, if you truly can’t train, then nutrition is all the more important! And if you can’t follow your usual nutrition program, then the training is all the more important. Will your results be compromised without training and nutrition both at 100%? Almost certainly, but SOME results are better than ZERO results. Also consider that it doesn’t take all that much training or nutrition effort to simply maintain your current condition. But letting your nutrition slide AND completely stopping your training is sure to send you backward.

Recommended Reading: Workout Programs

 

Stop Holding yourself Back – Final Thoughts

Stop holding yourself back my friend. Your fitness journey is not a black or white, win or lose, pass or fail situation. Perfectionist thinking creates unnecessary stress and doesn’t allow you to give yourself any credit for what you DID do right or to learn from your mistakes and experiences.

With a simple shift in attitude you can change your entire world! I like to say that attitude is a pair of sunglasses through which you view and perceive your world.

Two people can produce the same result or be faced with the same challenges and circumstances, yet each person can see something completely different, feel differently, react differently and attach totally different meanings to that same event. It all depends on your attitude… and your attitude is a choice that only you can make.