Breaking the Cycle of Comfort - Chris Chandler part 4

Commitment is the cornerstone of transformation—whether you're naturally driven or need structured support. Ariel and Lucas dive deep into how even those without intrinsic motivation can achieve remarkable change through simple time-bound commitments, like walking 10,000 steps daily for 90 consecutive days.

The conversation explores a fascinating warehouse analogy for personal growth: you enter a vast space where your ultimate goal beckons from a distance, but your journey consists of opening countless doors, one after another. Each door represents a mini-goal or action, visible only when you're standing right in front of it. This perfectly captures why success is simultaneously everything and nothing—meaningful in the moment but quickly replaced by the next challenge, echoing the Zen wisdom: "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water."

Age emerges as a critical factor in our ability to transform. The hosts contrast the dramatic life changes that naturally occur between ages 14-24 with the increasing resistance to change after 30, when most people have crystallized their identities. This creates a poignant paradox: older adults who value their remaining time most highly often find it hardest to implement meaningful change. For fitness professionals, this presents unique challenges—Lucas even admits he rarely takes clients over 60 because the physical and mental barriers to change become so formidable. This conversation offers valuable perspective on how we can harness time while it remains on our side, rather than waiting until transformation becomes exponentially more difficult. Subscribe to Lifestyle Strength for more insights on navigating health and wellness at every life stage!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Lifestyle Strength

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Lifestyle Strength, your guide to mastering health and well-being in the real world.

Speaker 2: 0:05

I'm Ariel, a massage therapist with over a decade of experience in holistic health, and I'm here with Lucas, a seasoned fitness coach, who's transformed the lives of hundreds in Northwest Arkansas.

Speaker 1: 0:14

We're here to share real stories and expert insights about embracing a healthy lifestyle while balancing the everyday hustle.

Speaker 2: 0:21

Join us as we explore practical ways to achieve wellness and thrive amidst life's challenges.

Speaker 1: 0:26

Let's dive in. I think, for somebody who might be just a little bit more of like a lamb personality or be personality where they're not really goal-driven, they can't figure out, like they don't have the motivation to go go to a mud ride or go to a lifting event like, or or even the confidence necessarily to do that. Um, you still have to find commitment somewhere. So it might just be something as simple as like, can I'll, can I'll walk? Can I just prove to myself that I can walk 10,000 steps a day for 90 days in a row? No breaks, right, absolutely no, no reason not to. For 90 days in a row, no breaks, absolutely no reason not to. Figuring it out just for yourself.

Speaker 1: 1:11

That could be something simpler, which, again, this kind of goes back to that time-based goal. So that might you know, I mean, that is something that I initially do with all my clients, like, everybody has to work with me for three months. So, yeah, it's kind of why it's there. It's like we have an end point that we're aiming to reach for, but it's not real. It's not a real end point, it's just something we're setting, yeah, for for you to like, have some of that pressure. Yeah, well, for the person to have some of that pressure. That's like what we did. I mean, it was it was 90 days and at the end of it I was like, oh, this is permanent, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:46

I'm changed my life Like this, changed my life completely, like and like. But I mean I definitely the personality side. It's like you can't teach hunger, like we talked about that in our, in our business a lot. Like some people are just hungry all the time. They're just hungry. They're hungry for willing to give up everything to get to their goals. Those people are definitely self-motivated. You don't have to teach them anything, but it's like how does you know? That's not the entire world, though. How do you get everyone to be a healthier group of people? And you know that's what America needs? You can't get everyone to dare. You can't. That's the problem. No, you can't. But how do you? I mean we can motivate one by one, and that's you know. I hope that. I hope that you know.

Speaker 1: 2:31

Morgan talked about just something that she posted the other day that made such a huge impact on her is that she was able to help people. You know like she had people reach out to her and talk about it, how I was, like that that's a proud moment, that's like such a like you know I was. I was just just be proud of yourself for that. So yeah, you know, so so awesome that you know you can help someone else, even if it's one person, it's like the best feeling in the world. That's, um, uh, you know, I I never always heard the golden rule growing up. And then I remember one day, uh, my wife and I we live in a tiny little 800 square foot house first house we lived in there and rented and like one day I was sitting on my computer and it just like it hit me, like we were still wearing masks. I was like, wow. I was like treat other people the way you want to be treated. That literally means that like if everybody helped out their neighbor, it would be spider web, it would extend to the whole world and everybody would get some support. It wouldn't solve everyone's problems, but it would be like, hey, I have a hand here if you need it. And it never hit me the same way that it did that day. I saw it from a broad scale, rather than just when people tell you you get in a fight with your brother. You treat them the way you want to be treated. Yeah, you know, in regards to people, I think we don't.

Speaker 1: 3:56

People fight change, especially the older they get, and that's a theme that I've seen over and over in fitness is that it doesn't get easier, right? It never get easier, right, it never gets easier. Right, Does not matter if you're busy this week. It's not going to be easy, because you're going to be older next week and you're busy this week is way less important than you getting a week older. Yeah, I get that.

Speaker 1: 4:22

I wish I would have started when I was 20. You know, to go back on time it can't, so I'm starting now. Yes, and it's, we're here, and it's crazy how fast really it's happened, because it's like you know, time moves faster as we get older. Like a year blips by. So the fact that you had this transformation in what? 90 days, six months, it's like there's a brush, there's nothing.

Speaker 1: 4:46

I feel like there's a lot more to go, though. Well, there always is, there always is. There's not an end point, right. You know, I, I tell people when we, when people are very goal driven and they set very specific goals and then they hit those goals. You know, and I've talked about it on here before, I compare it to, I compare it to being in this massive warehouse. On one end, you've committed to becoming a better version in one form or aspect in your life, and so you decided to open the door to the warehouse and so there's all this open space and in front of you you can see somewhere far down there around a door there's like there's your goal way down there, yeah, but right in front of you is like a little mini, mini goal or an action or something and you're gonna open that door and then you're just gonna open it up and then there's gonna be another door right and then you have to open that door up and there's gonna be another door. You're not gonna be able to see anything else. That's going, it's just that door that's right in front of you, right. And you got to be willing just to keep walking through those doors and one day you're going to walk out of the warehouse and be like, oh, I got there, yeah, and then the next warehouse, that's right, that's right. Otherwise you just like you just kind of float in space.

Speaker 1: 5:59

Yeah, I remember one of my main sales guys for our business. He was just hired on and this was, gosh, 14, 15 years ago and he was wanting to celebrate this huge deal that he got and I was like, so pumped, everybody's so excited oh, my gosh, we got it. It's been working on so long and then we got done with the celebration. I said, what are we doing tomorrow? And he's like what I was, like, yeah, it starts over tomorrow. We start over every day. We end the day, we start tomorrow fresh. We're gonna do it again.

Speaker 1: 6:34

So it's almost like those goals are you refresh it all? Yeah, it just refreshes. It's weird because they're both. It both means everything to you and it's entirely meaningless at the same time. Right, because as soon as you accomplish it, it's like, okay, what do I get? A trophy, like a ribbon? Like, yeah, maybe More likely nothing, you know. Yeah, maybe your ribbon might be a paycheck. If it's a really awesome goal, right, and that can feel really good because that can open up a lot of things for you in your life. But outside of that, it's just well, it's not gonna last forever. The feeling is gonna go away. Yeah, so, like it's like if success is the expectation every time, then it just becomes an everyday object. You have to get over and be successful every day. So, yeah, I'm working towards success and I, once I hit it, it's the expectation. It's not, like, you know, going back to do I need the trophy or do I need to do it again tomorrow. Right, I'm gonna do it again tomorrow, right?

Speaker 1: 7:35

There's a saying um, before enlightenment, chop would carry water, and after enlightenment, chop would carry water. Yeah, and it's like what? Yep, because you still gotta. Still gotta drink water every day, that's right. Still gotta have fire and make food, that's right. Keep your family warm. That's how humans have lived for.

Speaker 1: 7:54

You know, we're at such a weird time now where things are in abundance and so surviving is not that hard. Surviving is relatively easy right On the day to day. So that makes us just want to come foot off the gas and kind of relax, just get comfortable, yeah, yeah, and, and there's nothing wrong with enjoying comfort every now and then, sure, but, but it's really easy to get comfy and just to kind of get here. Yeah, but then, like times on our side, that's the biggest thing that I've come to realize doing all this. And then it's seeing people, you know, coach people in their teens. I coach people with seven over the age of 70.

Speaker 1: 8:38

Yeah, and it's very interesting the different perspectives of time that people have and what they're willing to, what they're willing to do or they're willing to put their energy right, and, uh, it's, it's funny because the the younger people. People on the younger side have an easier time changing, naturally, because either their body's still changing or like they're discovering who they are. So it's like, even if they have hard habits, that they're on a break. It's like life has, like forces change to happen. Yeah, inevitably Right, because just think about you know the difference between when you were, you know, 14 and the difference between you were 18 and the difference between when you were 18 and the difference between you were 24. Like, those are big shifts in life. Yet 14 to 24 is only a 10 year gap versus the difference between when you were 24 and 34. Yeah, it's not. That's where you've pretty much decided who you are.

Speaker 1: 9:43

Yeah, and then every decade after that, it's really hard to change, right, and so it's really funny because the older people, people in their 60s and their 70s they value their time so much that have the hardest time to change. Yeah, it's very difficult to change, both physically and also mentally. Right, it's really hard to change Right. Like I almost don't even take clients anymore that are over 60. Because it's just hard. It's a waste of both of our times. Yeah, thank you so much for listening to today's episode. We want to invite you back next week as we continue the conversation, and be sure to follow us on social media to get all of our content and clips and anything you might've missed. Again, thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.