Last week didn’t go according to plan.
My wife ended up in the hospital and had to have her gallbladder removed. (She’s fine now ❤️.)
I wrote last week’s newsletter from a hospital room with…let’s call it optimistic WiFi.
When the email went out this week, I opened it and immediately noticed that there were strange typos at the bottom of the email. Only the first letters of the words were missing. Strange punctuation and line breaks. Things I know I didn’t put there.
And my first reaction is TOTALLY REASONABLE:
“Holy shit! How did this happen? This is such a disaster. I can’t believe I messed up.”
Cue the spiral.
Luckily, I had a trusted mentor to support me.
And it reminded me of advice I give to coaching clients all the time.
Not every workout is going to be great
Some workouts feel amazing.
Some feel clunky.
Some are shortened.
Some just don’t go according to plan at all.
And this is not a failure – this is normal!
The only unrealistic expectation is that everything always goes perfectly.
Somehow I got into that mindset The The newsletter had to be perfect. Every word. With every shipment. No exceptions.
Life (and the internet in the hospital) had other plans.
True success wasn’t in setting up a system that would be perfect forever.
It was choosing to move on instead of beating myself up.
It didn’t stop there
I was thrown back on my own advice for the second time this week. 😅
A few months ago I participated in a group coaching program that helps you share your story more effectively on podcasts.
Fun twist: The trainer leading this group is also one of my Nerd Fitness Coaching clients.
One of the things I helped him with was to create a sustainable fitness plan – something that didn’t require burning the candle at both ends, something he could actually stick to.
And it worked. He feels great. It becomes part of his life.
In the meantime, when it came to this My Podcast goals, my brain went straight to:
“Of course I have to give it my all. Hours every day. Full commitment. If I don’t do that…am I even trying?”
He gently reminded me:
“It’s exactly the same thing they teach in fitness.”
A little consistent work every week goes a long way.
Systems beat perfection.
Sustainability wins.
And guess what? Once he said that and I stopped placing unrealistic expectations on myself, I actually made MORE progress.
This is the exact same feedback I got from a reader a few weeks ago:
Hi Matt, thank you so much for this email – it literally arrived in my inbox at the perfect time. And it’s funny how feeling LESS pressured to get a workout in today probably makes it more likely to actually happen 😉
Why I share this
In fitness, I’m very good at trusting the process.
Because I’ve seen time and time again that it works.
Outside of fitness? Still learning. 😅
If you feel the pressure:
- Be perfect
- Don’t miss another week
- Go all out or don’t bother at all
…it’s usually a sign that we need to take a step back and reevaluate.
This is exactly what I’ll be going over in a live quick training session on Thursday at 3:00 PM PST.
I’ll answer some of the most common questions we receive from readers and help you zoom out and look at:
- This is how you can tell if your current plan is actually working
- How to build systems that survive busy weeks, low-energy days, and real life
- How to keep moving forward without everything having to be perfect
If this sounds helpful, I’d be happy to have you along.
Speak soon,
-Frosted
