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Summary
On episode 623 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan continues his six part series on building the best you with part two, the survey. Before you build anything, you have to know the ground you’re building on, and that means an honest look at your own physical and mental limitations.
Allan uses the story of a friend who designed his dream house before surveying the land, only to discover the lot couldn’t support it, to explain why self-awareness has to come before strategy.
He walks through physical limitations, mental limitations tied to your primary mindset, whether you’re an all-or-none person or a moderator, and what he calls your kryptonite, the specific foods, people, or situations that reliably knock you off track.
Links
- https://40plusfitness.com/quiz
Key Takeaways
- Do the survey before you build the plan. Allan’s friend Greg designed his dream house and started clearing land before surveying it, then discovered the lot couldn’t support the house as planned. Skipping self-awareness leads to the same wasted effort in health and fitness.
- Physical limitations are usually easy to identify, but they’re often tangled up with limiting beliefs. A bad shoulder might rule out pressing, but it doesn’t rule out pulling or leg work, so know the real limitation, not the story you’ve told yourself about it.
- Mental limitations are harder to see than physical ones. Allan points listeners to his free mindset quiz to help identify a primary mindset that may be quietly driving, or blocking, behavior.
- Know whether you’re an all-or-none person or a moderator. Someone who can’t stop at one cookie needs a different strategy than someone who genuinely can have just one, and knowing which you are shapes how you structure your plan.
- Identify your kryptonite. Just like Superman is weakened by a specific mineral, most people have specific foods, people, or situations, like stress-driven comfort food, that reliably undo their progress, and those need to be planned around.
- There are two common failure patterns. Some people overestimate what they can do and burn out trying to do it all at once, while others underestimate themselves and wait for things to “get back to normal,” which rarely happens.
- Ask for help when you don’t know what you don’t know. Allan compares this to hiring a surveyor. If you can’t objectively assess your own strengths and limits, bring in someone who can.
- Once the survey is done, you can build a plan that fits who you actually are. That means goals set just outside your comfort zone, sustainable enough to stick, instead of a program borrowed from someone else’s life.
“Is this a solid foundation? Am I building this on sand? Or is this going to last?”
Coach Allan
Another Episode You May Enjoy
Episode 624 – Building the best you – part 3 of 6
Episode Notes
Podcast: 40+ Fitness
Episode: 623
Published: 2024-01-02
Host: Allan Misner (aka Coach Allan), author of The Wellness Roadmap
Guest(s): —, our co-host, Coach Rachel
Listen & Subscribe: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube (audio only)