Ante Up

Today's concept will be about buy-in, and its importance on achieving your goals and also staying motivated. I've often run into this issue with clients with good intentions with fairly healthy habits and lifestyles. The problem occurs where people fail to invest enough to get a measurable return.

I call this the ante. In poker, you need to pay the ante to get into the game, without knowing what the next cards will be. In health and fitness, you can't really get results unless you've have ante'd up.

How many times have you created a training routine or subjected yourself to a diet plan, only to run out of steam a few weeks in?

How often does life get in the way, causing you to lose momentum and all the improvements you have gained?

Why does it get so hard to stay motivated once the quick, easy results have been made?

At any stage in your fitness journey, you need to assess how big the ante is. Have you invested enough of a resource to keep motivated and force yourself to buy-in?

Resources can be monetary, time-based, or material. The key is that you have invested something into your pursuit.

I encourage you to reassess your ante and to increase the pot. The payoff will be much grander.

Here are a few ways to increase your ante.

1. Hire a personal trainer, life coach, nutritionist, or any other specialist. Sure, you can find anything you want on YouTube, and the information is endless online. However, actually paying an expert increases your accountability and the investment creates more adherence.

2. Block off specific time periods in the week to achieve your goals. This could be a specific time for food preparation, training, mobility, recovery, etc. If you don't have these blocks of time scheduled, it is so easy for the little things to get in the way.

3. Join a team or accountability group. The power of the social peer group for support is often untapped. Surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals is an effective emotional investment that certainly increases your ante.

We all know what to do to achieve our goals, and are often presented with great programs and strategies to do so. But how much have you actually invested in your personal program?

Ante up.