Have you ever found yourself completely abandoning your workout routine because you missed a few days?
Or perhaps you’ve thrown in the towel on your nutrition plan after one “off” meal?
If so, you might be dealing with All-or-Nothing thinking.
I’ve seen this mentality derail hundreds of people over the years.
The perfectionist mindset that declares “if I can’t do it perfectly, why bother at all?” is perhaps the single greatest obstacle to long-term health and fitness success.
This mindset is painfully common.
Fortunately there’s a better way to approach this and it applies to almost every area of our lives.
But this is especially powerful as it relates to your fitness and nutrition.
Let’s dive in and see how to keep All or Nothing Thinking from wrecking your health and fitness.
Everything Above Zero Compounds
I heard this concept from Sahil Bloom (author of The 5 Types of Wealth).
Imagine your time spent improving your nutrition and fitness as a financial investment.
Naturally, you want to see your financial investments increase in value and compound with interest.
Zero doesn’t have the ability to appreciate in value.
But everything above zero compounds.
When you let a particular area of your life go to zero, you lose all momentum and value with your investment.
The Dimmer Switch Concept
Plenty of people approach fitness like a light switch—it’s either ON (perfect diet, daily workouts, optimal sleep) or OFF (Door Dash, zero movement and late night NetFlix binges).
In some areas of your life, if you leave the switch turned off for too long, you can never turn it back on.
Instead of the typical ON / OFF switch, what if you had a Dimmer Switch for your fitness?
A Dimmer Switch gives you a spectrum of options instead of All or Nothing.
You can turn things up when you choose and dim the intensity when life gets hectic.
With the Dimmer Switch, you can reduce the intensity without letting it go to zero.
This applies beautifully to your fitness:
Can’t spend 90 minutes in the gym? A 30 minute garage workout is better than zero.
Work travel wrecking your routine? Our Ultimate Hotel Workout can be completed anywhere.
Don’t have time to prep all your meals? A meal prep service saves time and is less expensive than take-out.
The concept of a Dimmer Switch helps you adjust the intensity and eliminate the All or Nothing thinking.
Good, Better and Best
When you take the time to clearly identify what Good, Better and Best looks like in terms of your fitness and nutrition, you’re prepared for the curveballs life throws your way.
It may help to think of Good, Better and Best as spots along your Dimmer Switch.
When it comes to your nutrition, Good might have you dining out with healthy choices multiple times per week.
Better might be only dining out once or twice per week.
Best would be preparing all of your meals in advance.
For your fitness, Good might be 2 or 3 workouts at home or in the hotel gym.
Better would be 2 strength training sessions and 1 conditioning workout.
Best might be 2 strength training sessions, 2 conditioning sessions and perfectly timed recovery periods.
Reducing the intensity from Best to Good on your Dimmer Switch is still a win.
Everything above zero compounds and this keeps you in the game.
Seasons of Life
There are seasons to your life.
What you prioritize or focus on can (and should) change in the different seasons of your life.
Furthering your education is often a season of life.
You may have another season where your career becomes the focal point.
If you have children, their formative years are a season in life.
As a parent, you would never consider flipping an On / Off switch to the Off position for your children during this time.
This season of life won’t come back around so this isn’t an option.
This is why the concept of a Dimmer Switch is so powerful.
As the seasons of your life change, you’ve developed the skill of adjusting your Dimmer Switch which keep secondary items in play as your focus changes.
Everything above zero compounds.
