Sometimes it Takes a Startling Realization to Change

My story of transformation

As I stood naked from head to toe, I thought to myself “How did I get here?”

Christmas 2017. We’re staying at a hotel for a family party we do every year. I’m walking around and spot the gym.

I pop in and check it out. There’s a scale. I hadn’t been to the gym in a while and knew I had put on a few, so I was curious.

I stepped on it and the number appeared:

250 pounds

My normal walking-around weight is around 180–190 pounds and this was the most overweight I’d been in…ever.

Our child had just been born. I was working a lot both at my 9 to 5 and my side hustle. I stopped working out. Eating became a crutch.

And time just kinda just has a way of passing so quickly you don’t notice how deeply you’ve fallen into a groove of living below your potential.

Stepping on the scale startled me.

I knew I had to head into the new year with some sort of inspiration.

So I went back to the hotel room, got undressed, and stared at myself in the mirror.

I stared and stared and stared at the image of what I didn’t want to be so I’d be inspired to change.

When we got back from the party my plan kicked in immediately. I started working out daily. I couldn’t make it to the gym so I did P90X videos at home. I cooked all my food at home instead of eating out.

I made a decision. Once you decide, the goal will take care of itself as long as that decision is firm.

Roughly 90 days later, I was in much better shape.

I’ve had several moments in my life where I realized I needed to snap out of it, I do snap out of it, and then in about three months, I have amazing results and a bunch of momentum even though I was stuck.

The way you get unstuck is by doing the equivalent of staring at yourself naked in the mirror.

When you look at your life fully, without flinching, without glancing away, without distracting yourself from the reality of your situation, do you like what you see?

If the answer is no, you have to make a decision to change. For me, pausing and assessing where I am vs. where I want to be works quite well. I do it once per quarter. I’m doing it today. You should do it too.

Sometimes it takes those startling realizations to get you inspired, realizations like the fact that you’re 9 months into the year, and if you don’t change anything it’s gonna end just like 2022 even though you said this year you’d ‘put your foot down.’

Realizations like that ‘starter job’ you took five years ago is no longer a starter job and, if you don’t pivot fast, you’ll end up in this industry you don’t like in another five years.

It’s not like life is all bad, obviously. The point is to look at the one area where this advice might apply.

Maybe you need to focus on your health for the next 90 days.

Maybe you need to finally get that business off the ground.

Maybe it’s time to make a career change.

Maybe, you need to be more confident and start asking for what you want.

Maybe you just need to start searching, in general.

Here’s what I want you to do today.

Just think.

Think about how the last 9 months have gone.

Think about your current station in life, whether or not you like it, and what you should do depending on the answer.

Take some time in quiet contemplation. Journal. Find a way where you can be raw and vulnerable and look unflinchingly at your life.

After that, begin to think about how you can use the remainder of 2023 to get a full head of steam instead of reliving the cycle of waiting until the New Year.

The good news?

Life can change for the better. Fast. It only takes three months or so to get momentum.

Why not start 2024 ten steps ahead of everyone else?

This post comes from my weekly newsletter — The Monday Motivation Letter. Join here to make sure you start your weeks off with momentum.