“You’ve got boobs”

Not something you want to hear from your wife.

I was in the middle of folding the duvet back on the bed. 

As she was in the room, she grabbed the duvet on her side to help.

We finished and as I let go of the duvet & stood up, she looked at my naked chest, & it just fell out of her mouth.

I don’t think there was any judgment on her part. 

Just a simple observation.

She walked out of the room & I walked into the bathroom to look in the mirror.

Huh. I hadn’t really noticed but she was right.

And worse, my waistline stuck out farther than my “fleshy” boobs.

Sliding into mediocrity

How did this happen?

I’ve always exercised. I read books on health. I listen to podcasts, like Peter Attia, Rhonda patrick. It’s an area I have a huge interest in.

But clearly I had been kidding myself.

I’d got complacent.

What had worked in the past, was no longer going to cut it in the future.

And it wasn’t just my body. This was a wake-up call for other areas of my life.

Look, like a lot of guys, I had the usual checklist. I wanted to meet someone, fall in love, get married, have kids and build a life. 

Check, check, check, check & check.

But that was as far as my thinking went.

I hadn’t thought about what happens after that.

I hadn’t thought about “what’s next?”

So, it turns out if you don’t deliberately take charge of it, you just hit a plateau & stay there.

I call it “the mustn’t grumble life”

You know, when someone asks you, how’s things?

… Mustn’t grumble.

Not great. But not so bad either.

That’s the plateau. 

Boring.

You know what comes after that? More boring.

Boring, boring, boring… DEAD!

I didn’t sign up for that life.

In fact, this isn’t a life. It’s an existence.

So in that moment, I decided I wasn’t going to settle for it either.

Now, this wasn’t just about losing a couple of pounds & getting back into shape. 

This was about shaking off the complacency that had crept into every corner of my life. 

It was about refusing to let the “mustn’t grumble” be my mantra.

It was about fighting back against the plateau.

Because the only difference between a rut & a grave is a few feet.

Look. 

At the end of your life, sitting in your rocking chair, looking back, what will you remember?

If every day is the mundane same, what you’ll remember is a blob of mush. A feeling of “is that it?”.

To paraphrase a Jack Nicholas movie…

Was that as good as it gets?

But what do you want to remember?

I asked myself the same question:

What did I want to remember?

The great experiences. The standout events. 

I wanted to fill my memory banks with moments & experiences worth remembering.

I want to be able to remember a great life. 

If you leave a garden to the elements , the weeds will take over.

If you leave a life to chance, the plateau will take over.

I had a blinding flash of the obvious…

You have to direct it.

And you can’t neglect anything.

I wrote down all the areas which I felt were important.

Do you have a plan for each?

I didn’t

But I set about to change that.

Did I have to learn new skills?

Research new knowledge?

Of course I did.

Did I battle with my own thoughts? Yes.

More than once? Continuously.

What I now know is this.

The problems and solutions to living a great life are all down to your level of thinking.

Gear 1 thinking creates problems.

Gears 2 through10 is where you solve them and move forward.

How do you start?

Start by embracing the plateau and making a commitment to not living there.

Plateaus are a part of the mastery curve.

When you accept the mastery journey, you know you’ll face a continuous series of plateaus.

Each new plateau though, requires a breakthrough in your thinking.

Each breakthrough is progress.

Progress means you’ve improved in one or more areas of the 6 F’s. (Friends, Family, Finance, Fitness, Fun, Fulfilment)

Which means you have to think better. You have to develop new skills.

It requires growth over comfort.

You have to make mastery a lifestyle.

A Strategic Rebel lifestyle.

If this resonates with you, I welcome you to come on this journey with me (and get on my email list to be notified when I publish new content).