The Five Principles to Guide Your Training (And Life)
With the internet you’ll never run out of training or diet information. It’s easy to get sidetracked from your goals and get sucked into the eternal void of the next best plan, diet or program. The truth is that most of us don’t need a better plan or the latest training “hack”.
What we need is a set of principles that act as a compass guiding our decisions. Principles help you to avoid the shiny object syndrome so you can focus on what really matters: results.
At Plant Strength, we use the following five principles to guide all our coaching, training and business decisions.
Five Plant Strength Principles for Better Results
Use the 80:20 Rule
“Don’t spend major time on minor things.” - Jim Rohn
The Pareto principle states that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your actions. 20% of the exercises (i.e. big compound lifts) and diet changes (i.e. eat your vegetables) gives you 80% of the results. So get uncomfortable, eliminate the dirt and focus on what’s important.
Keep it simple
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” - Leonardo da Vinci
Your life is already complicated and busy as it is. The last thing you’ll need is a stressful and complex training program and various diet cartwheels added to the mix. Keep it simple and focus on living.
Shape your environment
“It’s not the strongest of the species that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change,” - Charles Darwin
A negative environment will shape you and sabotage even your best efforts. You need to create the conditions that will support you in achieving and maintaining your goal.
If all your friends throw their healthy habits out of the window and get fat, your odds of gaining weight spikes dramatically. And you won’t even realize it. Your willpower is limited, use it wisely.
Think long term
“If you are not willing to own a stock for 10 years, do not even think about owning it for 10 minutes.” - Warren Buffett
The real key to long lasting success is to only change what you can sustain forever. It’s relatively easy to get a six pack in 12 weeks, but the changes you have to endure are hardly sustainable. Most people forget that there is a week 13.
Perform frequent self-reflection
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again but expecting different results.” - Albert Einstein (but not really)
If you want to improve a certain aspect of yourself you need to understand where you currently stand. Step back and frequently reflect on your life. Not only in regards to health and fitness, but life as a whole. People like to play the blame-game, but a majority of the time it’s our own mistakes we can’t see, or ignore to see, that are holding us back.
Summary
It is not the latest training “hack” that’s missing from your program. You don’t need a new eating plan or a trendy diet to follow. I mean, they can have their place. But tips, tricks and hacks are useless without a solid set of principles acting as your compass.
Here’s ours:
Use the 80:20 Rule
Keep it simple
Shape your environment
Think long term
Perform frequent self-reflection