Encompass Fitness

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"Trusting the Process"

pa·tience
ˈpāSHəns/ noun 1. the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.

As you're well aware, commitment to a goal takes work. Particularly when the goal involves altering the body in any way, shape, or size.  Whether the goal is fat loss, building lean muscle, or being able to complete a pull-up, your goal is going to take commitment, consistency, and a whole lot of patience. 

This is where I see most people get stuck, and then fall off the wagon. They follow the program, they put in the work, and the minute they fail to see quick enough progress, or have a lack of patience, they believe the "program" has stopped working, or is faulty, and they stop. Usually falling back into their old ways and habits, which led them to seek out a program in the first place. 

The trouble with progress, is it takes plenty of consistency and plenty of patience. When it seems as though the program "isn't working", it is really a matter of the program not working, ask yourself, is it really just a matter of the program not working fast enough, or as fast as you would like? When you quit the program, or continuously jump from one program to another, to try and find what works "best", you are actually just seeing what works the fastest. And the problem with the "fastest", is that it usually doesn't work long term, providing you with short term results that are not realistic or maintainable. 

When we say "Trust the Process", we mean... trust the process! Trust it when it is going really well, and trust it when your fat loss, or strength gains, are slow, or nearly non-existent. Slow progress is still progress. And there are times when no progress is still progress because you have made a commitment to the process, to the specific action, which is important because you're doing something, and therefore you are not regressing. 

And in the case of regression, if you're 100% committed, and after 28 days (4 weeks), you don't see the change you're desiring, then it is okay to question the process. Only then is it okay to manipulate the program or alter it. Not every body is going to respond the same, and not everybody is going to have the same timeline when it comes to reaching goals. 

Your "process" is your own process. While it is important to trust the process, it is also important to respect your process. Be proud of the steps you are taking; did you eat 4 good meals today? Then great! You did your body good, regardless of what the scale says. I often witness slow progress on the scale lead to a binge or a cheat with the mindset "I wasn't seeing progress, so what's it matter anyways?". The problem with this is, that it does matter! Treating your body like junk, because it's not doing what you want it to do, is punishing your body for your own lack of patience. 

So I ask you, when it comes to your goals, be patient, be persistent, be consistent in your efforts, and trust the dang process. More often than not, when you can fall in love with the process, you will reap a harvest of results immeasurably larger than you would have expected, simply because you stuck to a single method. You let it run it's course, and prove it's reliability. 

Where in your own life have you become impatient? Do you jump from diet to diet, hoping to find the miracle solution? Do you speed through a workout or movement hoping to get the fastest time rather than completing every repetition for success? Do you start a million things and then fail to follow them through to completion? Whatever your current goal is, do not give up. Commit to it 100% for 28 days, and then re-evaluate. Then, you may consider a different route, keeping in mind that ANY progress, is progress.