Today, I will share a personal story that I believe has value in the business world.
As a kid, I was super skinny and had all the dumb nicknames that kids come up with to go along with it. (Skinifer, string bean, toothpick, etc.) I stayed pretty thin well into adulthood, then, some things started happening, slowly but surely I began a transformation. In my late twenties, all those candy bar sales as a teacher started to catch up with me. (+10 pounds) Next, I went from a very active and physical job to a desk job. (+15 pounds) Then I had a baby. (+10 pounds) And another baby. (+15 pounds)
As you have figured out by now, those nicknames no longer apply. The interesting thing is that I didn’t really see myself too differently. I kept telling myself “you needed some meat on your bones” and “you’re tall, the extra weight doesn’t matter and is hardly noticeable.” As time went on, I kept on with the lies. Now also might be a good time to mention the family history of diabetes and heart disease. I lied to myself about that stuff too.
Occasionally, I would have moments of wanting to lose weight. I tried my share of fad diets. I have been a member of Weight Watchers several times only to fail at that too. I finally decided that I was just getting older and my body was different now; this is how things will be.
Finally, the moment of truth came. Going through another moment of wanting to try something else to lose some weight, I signed up for the
Louisville YMCA Weight Loss program
. In the 3
rd
class, we did a body fat test. Those few brief moments changed my life. I had never heard that horrible “O word” used to describe me. At first I didn’t believe it, but as the days went on and I looked up a ton of information online about body fat, I knew it was true. I was now obese.
This news made me start taking the class very seriously. I started writing down everything I ate and exercising. My eating was atrocious. Most days I was consuming over 100 grams of fat. My weekends were worse. From Friday night until Sunday night, I used to consume about 350 grams of fat and well over 12,000 calories. I had no idea I was eating so much. Even when I thought I was making healthy choices at restaurants by getting a salad, most of the salads I got were terrible in terms of calories and fat.
The diet was just part of it, I needed to start exercising regularly. This was hard. I’m not super enthusiastic about working out, it was a slow start. As weeks went on in the program, I learned that my intensity of my workouts really mattered. I had to learn how to exercise to get my heart rate up to a certain level. I was shocked at how much this has helped with my efforts. No one had talked to me about heart rate before.
I have now been in the YMCA program for almost 3 months. I have lost 10 pounds (equal to the two 5 pounds bags of potatoes pictured above) and will run in my first race ever on Thanksgiving morning. It has been slow going, but I now feel so much better.
So what does this have to do with business? Here’s the answer:
Blinders are bad. I wore blinders when it came to my weight and physical condition. I have worked with so many business owners who wear blinders when it comes to their businesses.
Take the blinders off! Sometimes we like looking at what used to be 10 years ago, we still see ourselves in that light. However, viewing the present as the past isn’t healthy. We have to see what is really there and what is really going on around us.
Don’t let blinders kill your business.
