The Ultimate Life Hack in Only Two Steps

In my life, I’m always looking to cut corners? Right? The day-to-day is so busy, at times, stressful. So what’s wrong with looking for the easy way out? Nothing! 

I have two life-hacking rules to achieve anything you want. 

Rule #1 - Focus on what is most important to you (right now) - Look, this doesn’t have to be the ultimate answer to the question, what’s the meaning of life? We aren’t trying to find your purpose or solve some existential crisis. We are just trying to put one foot in front of the other and take action toward SOMETHING! That action is what produces results. It produces MOTIVATION! So decide what is important to you right now? Is it losing some weight? Making more money? Being a better parent? Just choose ONE thing that has been gnawing on you for a while. 

Rule #2 - Now that you have your “thing,” what is the grandiose-aha-moment-idea-tip-secret to make it transpire? Nothing. Absolutely nothing EXCEPT meeting yourself where you are. You have to FOCUS on how you FUNCTION. That’s the secret, the “easy” way….the cutting corners way. FOCUS on how you FUNCTION. 

Let's take an example, losing 20 lbs. That’s easy enough to dissect. Many of us want to lose weight, it's not everybody's plight, but this is a common goal for the general population. We know we need to eat right, and we know we need to work out? But HOW do we get started? It’s fucking boring, right? It’s not fun, and it sucks. (Okay, not for everyone, but I’m talking about the general population here i.e., ME!) This is what's important to me right now—losing 20 lbs. Got it, there's my goal! 

It's all in trial and error as long as you don’t give up! I've tried many things that were supposed to be the magic, right? And it made things so easy...for someone else. Not for me. Hell, I’m an Exercise Physiologist, I know what I’m doing, and it's still hard! What I have found, the only thing I’ve found, is to meet myself where I am. 

First, I am not a morning person! I don’t function well, so I do not schedule morning workouts. No matter how many rainbows it farts out of someone else's ass, it's not for me! I don’t work out as hard as I'd like, I can't get my body moving first thing, and I hate it. I know this about myself, so what is the quickest way to set myself up to fail? Morning workouts! Even today, I'm trying to get up earlier in the mornings because I enjoy quiet mornings and, like my me time, the get-stuff-done time, but workouts just ain’t it. And it doesn’t have to be for you either. Schedule when it's convenient and ENJOYABLE for you. 

The keyword being enjoyable. There are times we all have to “embrace the suck” (one of my favorite mottos), but embracing the suck should be temporary. To get you through a difficult moment, to complete your assignment by the deadline, to push through your last ten reps. Embracing the suck shouldn’t be a lifestyle. We have to step out of survival mode and into “OUR” mode. When was the last time you saw someone that lost weight and asked, “what did you do?” Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work for us. 

Second, Meal planning - I love to meal plan because, without a guide, I'm not good at winging it. Also, I HATE to grocery shop. So I meal plan, so I know what I’m doing, what I’m eating, and I can order my groceries and be done with it. But I HATE meal prepping….no matter how hard I try, I can’t stand to spend a glorious weekend day cooking up for the week ahead, and I don’t know what I do wrong, but somehow it never works out either. Lol! I either don’t have enough food or waste food. The key here for me is I HATE cooking….I’m a great cook, but I do not enjoy it at all. So my solutions? I eat prep snacks that are quick and easy, so they are readily available if I don’t feel like cooking. I also meal prep every few days instead of one lump. For instance, I embrace the suck of cooking, right? Because I know I have to eat healthier. So I cook a nice meal and then, maybe I go ahead and cook the next day's meal, or we do a lot of leftovers. I'll cook a lot and eat it again. Sometimes, if I have some extra time, I’ll cook in the mornings when I have more downtime, so I don’t have to spend my evening cooking when the family is home. But I always stick to my meal plan (except when I cheat and give in to my dark side. Look,  everybody does it, BUT it gets better over time. Restart and move on. Does this system work well for my family? I don’t care!! It's for me, and if they want something else, they are more than capable of preparing it. And they're lazy too, so it forces them to eat healthier. lol So just start….start where you are and meet yourself there. Keep a journal as you try different options and see what you do like or don't like, what works and what doesn’t. Throw it at the wall and see what sticks (except your food, don’t do that).