Weight loss is a struggle for millions of American’s. We try multiple diets, exercise routines, supplements, and strategies. We invest in personal training, cold plunges, fat camps, dieticians, doctors, and drugs. Is the problem that we don’t know how to lose weight or that we just want a quick fix. This article will seek to explore if weight loss is a knowledge gap or a decision gap.
How Do You Know If It’s a Knowledge Gap
My career has been centered around training people in the workplace. One of my greatest pet peeves is managers who want me to deliver training when there is no knowledge gap. Case in point, employees aren’t performing the way leaders want them to so they scream, “We need training!” If they took the time to dig a little deeper, they’d likely find people aren’t performing NOT because they lack the knowledge to do so. They are often doing it because there are competing demands and they get more rewards for doing it fast than for doing it right. Or the leader hasn’t communicated their expectations appropriately.
I worked long and hard on trying to help leaders understand training won’t fix a process, reward, or lack of communication. And since I like analogies, I sometimes used this one “If you put a gun to their head, could they do it right?” If you ask me that question relative to can I speak Japanese, the answer would still be no. A gun wouldn’t make any difference, I do not have the knowledge to speak Japanese. So, that would be a knowledge gap that warrants training. But if the answer is yes when a gun is put to my head, I am an amazing bilingual individual, then no, training is not needed.
How Uncomfortable Are You?
I think you know where I’m headed with this approach and my weight loss journey. Like many people, I’ve spent a fair amount of time researching (and even trying) different diets and exercise programs with mixed results. I could have a Ph.D. in diet and exercise based on all the years of reading, testing, and observation. Today, however, I was thinking about this concept.
Actually, I was thinking of doing something massively uncomfortable like walking across the United States with my dog. I thought if I was walking all day and didn’t have a cupboard of food at the ready, surely I could lose the weight. And then I got pretty nervous about the safety of it all and damn, really, sleep in a tent for like 6 months and walk regardless of the weather! Ughhh. I do love a good adventure but those are some seriously drastic steps (pun intended)! And that led me to the concept of something I learned from Tony Robbins about how change only happens when you become so uncomfortable with the current state that you just refuse to do it anymore. According to this approach, I have to become so massively uncomfortable with being overweight that nothing makes me waiver from my goal.
Back to the “If you put a gun to my head . . . ” The thing is, I know how to lose weight. It comes off slower than I like at my current age (over 50) but I know eating less and being more active results in weight loss. We’ve really complicated this as a society.
I’ve lost weight being vegan and I’ve lost weight eating meat.
Related Article: My Personal Transformation Journey
Related Article: How I Lost 40 lbs in Menopause
Related Article: 10 Things That Changed When I Lost 50 lbs.
If you haven’t checked out my YouTube Channel, maybe start here. There’s lots of Personal and Professional content and I upload 2 new videos per week. If you like what you see, please subscribe!
Perspectives
To answer the question, Yes, I could lose the weight if someone had a gun to my head each day. Maybe that’s the visual image it’s going to take to get me there. I mean, a gun to my head would be massively uncomfortable (and violent). But maybe it would be less threatening than walking across the United States with my dog. How sad is it that? As I woman I so expect some sort of violence that I’d literally rather have someone hold a gun to my head each day.
But let’s unpack the psychology around that another day.
For today, I’m looking for something massively uncomfortable to keep me focused on the goal. Because, hey, it’s obviously not a training issue.
Article: Success Rule: Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
