Starting with New Year’s Resolutions, we spend the first six months of the year being bombarded with fitness goals and “fitspirations”. Summer is only a few months away, we are relentlessly reminded. Bathing Suit Season will be here before we know it. Many of us attach to fitness goals out of a desire for how we appear on the outside. By bathing suit season, we proclaim, we will have that body- the body that’s hot, toned, bulked up, lean, attractive, and strong. We will have the body that looks good in a bathing suit, the kind of body that every other man wishes he had when he throws his swim trunks on and takes his shirt off. The pressure is immense and the goal is ambiguous. Every year, millions of men fail to meet the ambitious expectations of their New Year’s Resolutions to have the “perfect” bathing suit body by summer.
Men who make it to summer with a body they are happy with took an entirely different route. Instead of aiming for perfection, they developed consistency by creating a lifestyle change which took them through progressions. Rather than put all the value of their confidence in the accomplishment of an end goal, these men build confidence and esteem by being present in the journey and reaping the rewards of progress. The two approaches are different and yield different results for a reason. One is conditional and one is living.
Living in a progression of fitness accomplishments does not have to be exclusive with accomplishing goals. You can get to that bathing suit body you want through the lifestyle change and the journey and feel accomplished. What most men face is a dilemma: do they stop after they have accomplished their goals or do they keep going toward more progress? Many men choose to stop and find that their lack of maintenance and consistency brings them right back to where they started- far away from their goals and struggling to feel confident.
Don’t stop at bathing suit season. In fact, don’t stop at any season at all. Make your life a season of progress, growth, confidence, and change. At Tree House Recovery in Orange County, California we are helping men discover life without limitations through innovative treatment and adventurous recovery from addiction. For information on our treatment programs, call to speak with one of our graduates: (855) 202-2138
