Everything is a matter of "Choice"

It's not often that I post on LinkedIn, but I wanted to share the following true-life story with you all.

The 26th Feb 2020 sticks firmly in my mind. It's the doorway that put me on a new pathway. Let me explain. 

On the 26th Feb last year, I was with some friends. It was a few days prior to my 38th birthday, and in Qatar, the weather was beautiful and I was having a great time, even if my friends and I were having what you might call a "cliché conversation". It revolved around the impact of COVID-19, as it was called back then. I'm sure you too had the very same conversation with your friends and family. How would Covid impact our daily habits? Would it have an impact on what we ate? On our jobs? On the world? Questions, questions, questions!

During this conversation, I remember sitting back and thinking to myself... "how can I change?" It was at that very moment that I made a promise to myself. I laid down a commitment, and one that I knew would be hard. I promised myself that for my 39th birthday, I would have a six pack. That's right, a six pack by 16th March 2021. I decided to share my promise with the group of friends I was with, which of course made them all laugh. In fact, I still recall their laughter, especially (they are laughing now as well...:)

I understood their laughter, but without wanting to sound silly, I knew what was a stake here. You see, the obsession wasn't about gaining a six pack. I simply wanted to create a super-hard challenge for myself. The very next day, I started to jot down what I would need to successfully accomplish my challenge. Diet, sleep, more dieting, gym, plenty of sit-ups, and of course, more dieting.

I started my challenge by dieting for 60 days. This was a great start, but I knew a diet wasn't enough. I needed a lifestyle change. You see, with a diet, bad habits can still creep into the picture. With a complete lifestyle change, it's difficult to let unwanted things break what you're building. This meant that habits such as me enjoying eating at night, while consuming soft drinks and sweets had to be stopped; no scratch that; they had to be completely eradicated!

Towards the end of my 60-day lifestyle change, or "journey" as I like to call it, I got into the habit of eating healthy food. I didn't view it as a chore or a diet any longer. I was on a pathway to success and Pepsi and Twix weren't going to sway me! Next on the agenda was exercise. I had enjoyed sports previously, so I knew I could get back into it. I gradually got back into the swing of things exercise-wise. Unfortunately I experienced an accident, which saw me fracture four bones in my right hand. This meant a complete stop of all physical exercise which involved using my hands.

They say there's a silver lining in everything, and I saw the gold at the end of the rainbow even though my hand fracture had put a dent in my challenge. What I couldn't do in sports, I would do in the way I ate. This meant that I controlled and focused more on my diet. I then put more effort into cardio, and you know what, that's when things really took off. You could say that breaking my hand was a blessing! 

It took me 3 months to recover from my fracture, but as soon as I was able, I was back at it in the gym. I worked even harder, and worked out 6 days a week! Of course there was no room for a "cheat day", but I did relax a bit on Friday's. 

In Dec 2020, I officially joined the Six Pack Club and I've been smiling ever since.

So, when I look back at the last twelve months, what do I see? I see that it's 100% true that anyone can completely reverse their life around. I built a completely new lifestyle, trained into myself a series of new habits, and reduced my body fat percentage from 33% to 15%. There are, of course, areas in which I still need to improve, but you see, that's the fun part. I now don't view this as a chore of a difficult hurdle, but as a joy that I want to embrace. Now I see a challenge and I say "bring it on!"

The moral of the story is that everything is a matter of "Choice". Once you understand the choice, you can make the "Decision". Once the decision has been made, you have your "Motive". "Focus" isn't too far behind its friend, "Motive". What follows Motive and Focus? "Determination!" Thing is, these three friends, as I like to call them, need their best friend or "constant" to join them; and that is "Time".

So, make the Choice and the Decision will come. Motive, Focus & Determination will join, but all of this will happen if you make the Time.

The challenge for my 40th birthday has been activated!

Stay tuned to LinkedIn and I will reveal all shortly!

Stay safe, stay awesome,

Nader Kassir