Last week I shared that in my experience, in order to ‘Move Up Faster’, we need to be authentic in four areas of our life: Self, Family, Community and Business.

Today I would like to talk only about myself, i.e. my Self ‘life’.

For me, 90% of my mental health is a direct outcome of how I take care of my body.

Why? Action absorbs anxiety. Healthy body, healthy mind.

When it comes to my physical health, what do I wish that I had embraced 20+ years ago?

I wish I’d focussed on the daily process, rather than on measurable outcomes.

Nowadays I just want to show up to a workout. That’s all.

As an example, I have been in Calgary for the last two days, on business. I woke up at 6am both days to work out for 45 minutes. I did not want to wake up. I did not want to get dressed. I did not feel like sweating and lifting weights at 6am! But, I leaned into the process, because for me, just showing up to the gym is a win.

Am I lowering my expectations? Yes, it does feel like I am. And yet, the impact that I see from defining success as ‘I win when I just show up’, has been transformational for my physical health.

When I ‘just show up’, I have ALREADY won. I feel an immediate sense of accomplishment. How long do I work out for? How much do I push myself? What is the workout exactly? That’s all a bonus.

‘Just showing up’ to a workout, five or six days a week is what matters most. Mountain biking in the summer, alpine touring or alpine skiing in the winter, doing Peloton, rowing on my Concept2, or just lifting more and more weights. It doesn’t matter how long or how far.

(Now, here is a secret. What happens when I ‘just show up’, and lower my expectations for each workout? My workouts end up being longer and harder! But that’s a ‘hidden’ side effect. The main goal is always ‘just showing up’.) 

‘Just showing up’ would have seemed like such a ‘lame’ measure of success to myself when I was in my 20s or 30s. I was all about outcomes back then. And yet, I actually didn’t work out that often.

I’m in much better shape, cardio-wise and fat-to-muscle ratio-wise, today at 50, than when I was in my 30s.

What changed? I took the pressure down. And I redefined success.

I leaned into the power of Small. Consistent. Incremental. Steps.

Is leaning into the process of small, incremental steps ‘boring’? For me, hell, it is, yes.

But, do small, incremental consistent steps deliver results? For me, yes they absolutely do.

Small, consistent incremental steps are authentic. They are true to how our bodies work, how we are constructed, physically. Our muscles, hearts and tendons stretch, grow, and strengthen – incrementally. Applying gradual consistent pressure to our bodies is what our bodies are ‘designed’ to accept.

What counts as small? This will sound ridiculous, but yes, how about just walking into the gym, and walking out? Less ridiculous? How about walking outside for 15 minutes, during a lunch break?

What is consistent? Walking outside for 15 minutes, every day from Monday to Friday. Or walking on a treadmill, at my desk, for those 15 minutes every working day.

What is incremental? Walking 16 minutes in week two – outside or on a treadmill. Walking 17 minutes in week three. And so on.

All of a sudden, doesn’t this seem doable and believable? (Unlike classic ‘New Year’s’ resolutions). 

(But, I think you’re also starting to see how hard this is to actually maintain.)

Why are small, consistent, incremental steps ultimately effective? They enable me to build up THE PRIDE in my ability to get to my ultimate objective. And, they also take DOWN the pressure.

If I win by ‘just showing up’, then everything else – how long I workout, how much I lift, how far I ride, or how much I push myself – is a bonus.

So, redefine success. Success is leaning into the Process.

Follow the Process. To move up faster, in all areas of life – Self, Community, Family, and Business.

Here is how I think about how to align my actions around my Self in 2025, with my ‘Fire in the Belly’ as my North Star:

(Btw, this framework follows my Return on Marketing Career Post – yes, this RoMC framework isn’t just about my Business ‘life’, it also directly relates to my Personal, my Family and my Community ‘lives’ too.)

Step 1, Get Out of your Comfort Zone: What if you redefined success at working out, and didn’t focus on the outcome – but on the process of ‘just showing up’ itself.

Step 2, Develop a New Skill: Redefine what success means to you. We all give up on our stupid New Year’s resolutions, because we create big, hairy, unachievable and unbelievable goals for ourselves. We are asking ourselves to do too much. When the goal is achievable and believable – e.g. “I will show up to a five minute workout three days a week” – that’s actually the first small step towards lasting and transformative change.

Step 3, Create more Value: Once you have ‘shown up’ consistently, then start to increase the amount you do by a small step every week. Walk for one minute longer every day. Add five pounds to your dumbbells. Row on a rowing machine for two more minutes. Do a 20-minute Peloton ride, up from 15 minutes. But, be careful – do NOT move up too fast.

Step 4: Move Up Faster: Small, consistent steps can help you go much further. They can make your progress relentless and unstoppable. I promise: slow is fast.

What does my ‘Fire in the Belly’ point me towards in the context of my Self ‘life’ in 2025?

Step 1, Where will I Get Out of MY Comfort Zone? In the last couple of years I have been pushing myself to go on longer mountain bike rides (30 miles vs 20 miles), or do more challenging back-country skiing (extreme off-piste terrain vs double black diamond on-piste). But with age, I am starting to accept that maintaining strong muscles is becoming more important, and as my cardio unavoidably declines, what I can still control is my strength, my muscle mass.

Step 2, How will I Develop a New Skill? When I a) set small, incremental and consistent goals for myself AND b) define success as ‘just showing up’ to a workout – that will turn eventually into an ‘atomic belief’. In this context, a ‘new skill’ is about retraining myself to truly believe that ‘just showing up’, regularly, is the goal. What do I actually do once I ‘show up’? That’s all a bonus. And the great news is that just by showing up I’m creating neural pathways that make it easier for me to do it tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.

Step 3, How will I Create More Value? Today, I do weight training twice a week, 30 to 45 minutes each time. On other days I ride a mountain bike or ski, do Peloton, hike in the mountains next to our house, or row my Concept2 rower (a leftover from doing crew in college). In 2025 I want to create more value in my Self ‘life’, by sacrificing one of the cardio workouts, and being more obsessed about strength training, by taking it up to three times a week. That will give me between 1 hour and 30 minutes and 2 hours and 15 minutes of strength training per week, total, across three workouts.

Step 4: How can I Move Up Faster? I’m going to allocate more within the 95 hours that are available to me every week on strength training. Moving the dial up by one notch on strength and down by one notch on cardio, for me, offers an opportunity to ‘always get better’ physically. Is that ‘Moving Up Faster’? I think so. When my physical strength increases, that is a reflection of faster growth and movement forward, in my Self ‘life’. And that improvement in my physical health makes it easier for me to keep on top of my mental health. Which in turn means I have more room to focus on my Business, Family and Community ‘lives’.

The Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University has carried out a great deal of work into how repeating the same actions on a regular basis can help our brain build neural pathways that reinforce that process. Based on the work of the Lab’s founder, B J Fogg PhD, author of Tiny Habits, this approach proves that making small, consistent alterations to the things we do can build powerful habits that have the potential to transform our whole lives.

If you’d like to discuss your career journey with me one-to-one, please feel free to email me at [email protected] or message me on LinkedIn.

Thank you for reading.

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