17 Dec Goals Series #5 – The Sacred Art of Biting the Bullet on Keto, Banting or Anything

Taking the plunge. Biting the bullet. Choose your fate. Jump in with both feet. Leave a crossroads. 

All of these things involve deciding to do something difficult or unpleasant that you have been putting off or hesitating over.

This is a trick I apply when it comes to making tough decisions. I got it from Tony Robbins, but it is a skill that most great leaders use to become more decisive. The better you get at using it, the faster you will get at pulling off the plaster, or making tough decisions. 

Context

I’m training to break a 90 minute half marathon. My previous best is 113 minutes, so that is a MASSIVE jump. I’m writing about it to demonstrate how coaches at RMR put all of our tools to work in real life situations. 

For the full scoop read this, but the long story short is that I ruptured the knuckle capsule in my big left toe two years ago and I’ve been avoiding getting it fixed since. I was convinced it would need surgery. 

This is exactly the same thing a lot of our keto and Banting coaching clients experience while they’re avoiding getting started.

How did I bite the bullet (and what makes Banting and Keto clients do it too)?

I ran on it for two years. The pain in my knuckle got worse. I started overcompensating in my running form which led to other injuries and niggles. I reached a point where the pain of running on the toe outweighs the pain I will go through during surgery and recovery. 

I went and got an MRI. My surgeon phoned me and told me I needed to come in for a cortisone injection in the knuckle. I did it. And now I’m on running rest for two weeks. After all of that delay, there is no surgery. And now I’m on the mend. 

We end procrastination when the pain of staying the same is worse than the pain of taking action.

The pain of not Banting or Keto is worse than the pain of doing it (if you think it’s painful at all).

Why did it take so long?

We procrastinate when we lose touch with what the cost or pain we will endure by not doing something will be. We all have a limit of the maximum pain we are willing to bear. And, when we sense that not doing something for a minute longer will cause more pain than the pain of actually doing it, we all of sudden click into gear. 

My toe could have been fixed two years ago, but the thought of surgery or an injection into the knuckle was way more painful than just leaving it. Only when the pain of leaving it got super clear did I decide to do something. 

That’s obvious. Right?

So How can we be better at biting the bullet sooner?

Have you ever been in a relationship that you stayed in too long?

I have. 

There are a lot of reasons we stay in relationships, but often the pain of leaving them feels like it will be more painful than the pain of just staying, even though it is truly painful. So we stay. Sound familiar?

When you’re angry, you remember the good times in the past to cheer yourself up. Or, you look forward to the future, with hope, for when times might be better. Either way, when the present sucks, you time-travel to a time when things are less painful, and worth waiting for, or reminiscing over.

You do it as a reflex.  

The true moment of clarity arrives when you realise that things were bad in the past, they are bad now, and the really tough one to accept – they are going to be bad in the future. 

The moment you realise that there is pain in every direction, you are forced to change, and that change can happen in an instant. 

You can use this theory and apply it to anything you are procrastinating over. The key is to stop that time-travel defense reflex and use it as a weapon. You will need some imagination and a few minutes for the first few times. This is not golf. Once you’ve done it once or twice, your decision-making will improve dramatically, and forever (unless you take your eye off the ball like I did with my toe) 

Do this right now

1. Close your eyes (you will have to read this and then close your eyes, obviously)
2. Think about something you really want to get done – firing someone, pulling the plaster on a relationship, cleaning out your kitchen of all junk food, or something nice that you really want.
3. Think about all of the pain, discomfort, stress, worry, bad vibes – anything negative – you can think of that is a result of you not doing this thing, or not having this thing in the past. Imagine it. Feel it. Feel the pain and all that negativity as a result. And sit with it for a bit.
4. Then, think about all of the pain, discomfort, stress, worry, bad vibes – all things negative – you can feel as a result of you not doing this thing, or not having this thing in right now, in the present. Sit with it. Take a few deep breaths and really take in those feelings and frustrations, the anger and the discomfort. Really connect those emotions to the absence of the thing you want.
5. Finally, think forward to the future. As far into the future as you can imagine. Keep going. Now, imagine this behaviour, or relationship is still alive – or you still don’t have this thing you wanted, or you still haven’t done this thing you wanted to do. Sit in that future and look back on the last year, five years, ten years, all the way back to the present day and look at all of the life you lived at a standard less that you wanted for yourself. Feel all of that regret and disappointment that you are dealing with in the future for not taking action immediately. Feel that sadness you feel for the substandard life that you settled for by not acting. Keep your eyes closed and use your mind to really connect that sadness and disappointment with the act of not acting, not having what you want and not serving yourself better.
6. Now you can say to yourself – This has sucked in the past, it sucks right now, and if I don’t act right now, my future will suck. There is no time on this line that this situation does not suck, and I refuse to suck.
7. Now don’t wait another moment – pull the plaster. Take action. Refuse to suck for another minute.

Make the words your own. But the theory remains – created a direct association between staying the same, and immense pain. And the sooner you can create clarity for your own mind, you will not be able to procrastinate for another minute.

If you like that, share it with some friends.

With power,

Jonno