What's going on, guys?
Sean Nalewanyj, SeanNal.com, RealScienceAthletics.com, and in this video here I want to talk about
an important mindset shift that a lot of people out there need to make, which is to stop expecting
perfection from your fitness program.
Before I jump into it, if you're new to the channel and you find this advice helpful,
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So this is something that I see so often.
Someone makes the decision that they're going to get into shape, they want to put on some
muscle, lose some fat.
They go ahead and do their research and map out a training and nutrition plan.
They get started and things are smooth sailing for maybe a few weeks or even a few months.
And then the second one thing goes off track, they basically just fall apart.
So maybe something comes up and they miss a week of training, or their diet goes off
course for a short term period for whatever reason, or they just feel a general dip in
their motivation levels, one or maybe two things happen and they get all discouraged
and start thinking they've ruined their progress.
You know, maybe the fitness thing just isn't for them.
They don't have what it takes to make it work and they ultimately just fizzle out and quit.
So two things to keep in mind here.
First off, perfection is flat out impossible no matter how dedicated and consistent you
are overall.
And secondly, perfection isn't even necessary in order to achieve your muscle building and
fat loss goals in the first place.
If you're going into things expecting perfection, or you've been at it for a while and things
have been more or less perfect so far and you're just expecting it to continue that
way, so you're expecting your training and nutrition and motivation to be 100% on point
all the time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all that's gonna do is A: stress you
out mentally and make your day to day life just a less enjoyable and more anxious experience
in general, and B: it's actually going to lower your chances for success in the longterm
because you'll be much more likely to get really discouraged anytime you slip up, which
will probably eventually cause you to resent your fitness plan and to burn out.
Obviously you need to work hard and you need to be consistent with things in the overall
picture if you want to achieve significant results, but I would say that getting things
right somewhere around 80 to 90% of the time is going to be good enough.
If you're putting in high quality workouts that are fully on point 80 to 90% of the time,
you're getting in your approximate calorie and macro needs, 80 to 90% of the time, you
know your sleep is up to par, 80 to 90% of the time, et cetera, you're going to achieve
great results over the long term.
And keep in mind that this 80 to 90% figure is talking about the longterm average over
the course of months and years, not In terms of individual days.
Okay, no matter what you do, you're going to have some days or even some weeks that
are 60%, 30% or even 10%, but what truly matters is how things look once you add up the month
and the year as a whole.
So stay on point with things as best as you reasonably can, be consistent with your training
and nutrition targets most of the time.
But when you do inevitably slip up for whatever reason, and trust me you will, everyone does,
when that happens, don't be too hard on yourself, especially if it's the result of something
that you had no control over.
Just say, "Okay, this is part of that 10 to 20% allowance that I get to have, this is
part of the process and it's to be expected," and then just get back on track the next day
or the next week or even the next month depending on what the situation is.
Sometimes really shitty things happen that you can't prevent, maybe an illness or a family
issue or something along those lines, and maybe it throws you off course over a longer
period, but just keep that bigger picture vision in mind.
The thing is, as long as you're making continued progress in the bigger picture and you don't
quit, then you're still going to hit your goal eventually and the simple fact that you
reach your fitness goal period is far more important than the specific timeframe that
it takes you to get there.
In the grand scheme, whether you reach your goal physique in two years or two years and
six months or three years and three months, it's really not going to make much difference
overall because remember that fitness is not some sort of short term program.
Okay, if you want to build a lean, strong, muscular body, then you're going to be training
and eating for that body not just for a year or two or three, but for the rest of your
life.
So a few months or even a year or two in terms of going from where you are now to that goal
physique, it's kind of trivial in the big picture.
So the bottom line here is to aim for consistent progress rather than perfection.
And when you adopt this type of mindset, when you stop expecting things to be perfect, when
you go into the process expecting that things are going to go off course from time to time,
not only will you just be less stressed out in general, but then when something doesn't
go as planned, it won't rattle you in the same way.
You'll understand that in a way there is no such thing as going off course in the absolute
sense because those slip-ups are part of the course itself.
And remember that it's the same way for everyone.
Okay?
For me, for every other fitness YouTuber you follow, for everyone you see at the gym, not
just for you, every single person out there deals with ups and downs along the way.
If you did find the information in this video helpful and you want to learn exactly how
to structure your training and diet in that the practical step-by-step sense, then make
sure to take my physique quiz over at Quiz.SeanNal.com because that will give you access to the proper
program that you need to gain muscle and lose fat optimally based on your specific goals,
body type and experience level.
You can click up here for that or use the link in the description box.
On the supplementation side of things, you can also visit RealScienceAthletics.com to
check out my research backed no BS supplements that I personally formulated to help fully
streamline your program and optimize your overall results, link is also in the description
and make sure to hit that like button, leave a comment down below, and subscribe if you
haven't already in order to stay in the loop on all of my future content.
Thanks for watching guys, and I'll see you in the next video.