So I have an amazing 6 year old boy named Carter and something happened with him recently that made me want to write to you because it is a lesson that we can all learn from.  So Carter has been doing Taekwondo pretty seriously for almost two years (he also loves designing Novato Adventure Boot Camp workouts BTW).  For his age, he is REALLY good and gets admired from his peers and their parents.  About three months ago he got one of the crazy flu’s that were going around and when he got better he had no interest in doing Taekwondo. He had completely lost his motivation to go.  After several fits and complaints we all decided that he should take a break.  After several weeks off he made the decision to go back yet he wasn’t the same as he used to be.  He was going through the motions but just didn’t have the “pop” that he used to have.

After a couple of weeks of going to class the entire group of kids were asked to do their entire form (42 different moves all combined together).  Everyone started and six moves into it, Carter looked at me and said under his breath, “I don’t know it”.  Now I knew that he didn’t know it because I hadn’t seen him practice even once since he had been back into class.  It was a really sad moment for me because I had seen over the last year and a half all of the other kids looking at Carter and how well he did.  Now Carter was looking at the other kids to try and figure out his form.

It was that class that things changed.  He knew that in order to be successful at Taekwondo, he had to practice DAILY.  Five days later, he tested for his blue belt and absolutely knocked it out of the park!  The next day he went to a tournament in Rocklin and came in first place!  My little kicking and punching kid was back!

Carter with the ATA Grand Master and Chief Master

So the reason I am telling you this story is because I saw similar things when I was a personal trainer in local gyms as well as right now at Novato Adventure Boot Camp.  Some people start out all gung ho just to fizzle out six months down the road.  Health and fitness isn’t a temporary thing.  It HAS to be a lifestyle.  It needs to be something that is part of your day, just like brushing your teeth and if and when you do fall down, pick yourself up and get your butt back moving.  Stop having a pity party and do what is right for you and your family, or as I like to say to my Novato boot camp members, “Suck it up princess, this is boot camp!”  If Carter can learn this lesson and change his habits at six years old, you can definitely do it!

Comment below and let me know what challenges have been holding you back from pulling the trigger and getting yourself back into shape.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 18th, 2011 at 5:00 am and is filed under Boot Camps, Fitness, Motivational, Results. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted by Carlos Payte | in Boot Camps, Fitness, Motivational, Results | 7 Comments