Thank you for reading this week’s Operation Melt update.
Operation Melt started as a blog to share my personal transformation and weight loss story. After achieving success with that goal, Operation Melt has evolved into a platform to help inspire, motivate and equip people to achieve their own personal and professional goals so they can live their best lives.
I am trying to build a world where no goal ever dies of loneliness.
Amuse Bouche
My amuse bouche for you today is a light “dad joke” to entertain your mind before we get down to business.
I was walking past a farm and noticed a sign that said “Duck, eggs”
I thought: “that’s an unnecessary comma” … then it hit me!
Like any other amuse bouche, you may have hated it, but it was worth every penny that you paid for it, right?
Goal Success by Choice
Do you have dreams that you are trying to make come true? Do you have a goal that you are trying to crush? Success doesn’t happen by chance. You don’t have to get lucky or win the lottery to live the life of your dreams.
You just have to choose to be successful. If you make the right daily choices, adopt good habits and behaviors, and approach life with the right mindset, you can make your dreams come true.
Goal Success by Choice helps you make the choices that will move you closer to your goals and keep you from holding yourself back.
I hope this post helps you get a little closer to crushing your goals.
Don’t Leave Hungry
The most valuable land in the world is the graveyard. In the graveyard are buried all of the unwritten novels, never-launched businesses, unreconciled relationships, and all of the other things that people thought, ‘I’ll get around to that tomorrow.’ One day, however, their tomorrows ran out.
Todd Henry
Happy Labor Day weekend!
When is the last time that you reflected on what Labor Day is? Yes, it is a day off and a three-day weekend that usually marks the unofficial end of summer. But, Labor Day is much bigger than that. Labor Day is an annual celebration of American workers recognizing the many contributions workers have made to America’s strength, prosperity, and well-being.
In short, Labor Day is a celebration of hard work.
In Hard Work I Trust
Based on last week’s post (Does It Have To Be Hard?), you may think I am not a fan of hard work. I assure you that I am a fan of working hard on the right things. Hard work has resulted in far more successes than talent or luck ever have or ever will. Over the past few years, I have built a greater appreciation for hard work than ever before.
I have worked hard on many things throughout my life and have achieved many successes because of it. But, the past four years have been some of the hardest physical and mental work that I have ever put into anything. And that thing I have been working on is me.
My hard work started, but didn’t end with my fitness journey. It took a lot of hard physical work to drop over one hundred pounds in under a year. But, I had no idea that the weight loss would just be the start of lots of hard fitness work. Fast-forward several half marathons, dozens of shorter races, hours of weight training, and four years of tracking every piece of data related to my diet and exercise later, and the reality of the hard work has become clear.
The hard work of the past four years has not all been physical. Going through a personal transformation, seeing your body go through such change, and having so many of your day-to-day habits and beliefs altered after forty years requires hard mental work too. I started off as the type of person who gets referred to as “a total piece of shit” in secret (see A bit of a rant…), now I am a source of inspiration for fitness and life goals. That requires a lot of internal work to wrap your mind around that reality.
The part of hard work that I have learned to appreciate most is that, with some hard work and belief in yourself, you can accomplish almost anything. I am proof of this! I could give you a long list of the ways that my life has changed significantly in just four years.
Die Empty
I was listening to an interview with Todd Henry, the author of Die Empty, this week; it was a good reminder of just how important it is to try and work hard. In this interview, Todd shared the quote at the top of today’s post and challenged the listeners not to go to their grave without giving life to your ideas.
In short, don’t let your goals die of loneliness!
Our lives are very short. My dad died when he was just fifty-nine years old. His mother died when she was sixty-three and his father was in his seventies. I have taken steps to get physically and mentally healthier than they were, but longevity is not in my genes. I am turning forty-five in just a couple of months which likely means that my life is at least half over. I have lots more that I want to accomplish if I am going to die empty.
Hard work is the key to making the most of our short lives if we want to die empty and not take our goals and dreams with us.
Buffet Of Life
As I grew up, buffet restaurants were a fixture in my life. Most buffets include a plethora of options from salad to snacks, to main dishes, side dishes, dessert and more. There are a ton of things you can choose from. Rather than loading a whole plate with one or two things, it is usually best to try a little bit of a lot of things. Plus, you usually will go back for seconds, or thirds… or tenths. I do not recommend this; as I said earlier, weight loss is hard work!
Life is very similar to a buffet restaurant. Each of us has infinite options of things we can try and experiences that are available to us. If we choose to load up on just one option, all other things go untouched and are ultimately wasted.
Like eating at a buffet, the secret to getting full of life is to sample a little bit of a lot of things. Some of them will be awful, and you won’t ever want to try them again. Some things will be bland and may need a bit of spice added to be delicious. Some things will be amazing from the start, and you will want to have more. But, if you don’t sample lots of things, you will never know which are ones you love and which are just going to get spit into your napkin.
Your path through life is up to you; there are no rules. Try a little bit of everything and figure out what you love and what you don’t care for. Just have a little faith in yourself, put in some hard work and you will be able to live life to its fullest.
When dining at life’s buffet, just don’t leave hungry.
Are you ready to crush some goals? Let me help. Click Here to learn more about my Operation Melt coaching services.
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