The Keys to Success in Health and Fitness Week 8: Review Your Road Map

-Brigid Lossing

Wow! It's been a huge eight weeks for me, and I hope you can say the same! Sharing these Keys with you has been great for my own health and fitness because doing this has reminded me of the ways the Keys have helped me become a healthier person. Teaching you has also deepened my understanding of them – and, frankly, forced me to undergo the process I'm going to suggest to you today.

That process is called Reviewing Your Road Map.

When we're in the process of making huge life changes, it's necessary to go back periodically to take a look at the map we drew for ourselves in the beginning. Now that you've been traveling your personal road to greater health and fitness for eight weeks you can bring the things you've learned on the road to this review. The result? A revised road map that will serve you even better.

When we started this journey I urged you to consider a few questions: what did your destination look like, and what mile markers were you going to choose to help measure your progress? I also recommended that you create your road map with the goal of making your destination a permanent one.

As you look at the map you created for yourself at the beginning of our process you may be noticing a number of things. You might be much closer to your ultimate destination than you imagined two months ago, or you might be farther away than you'd hoped. If either of these things are true, now is the time to modify your mile markers so that you continue to be challenged without feeling discouraged.

For example, if your original destination was to be able to run a mile at the end of RydeOn! U and you find yourself eight weeks in still struggling to run half that distance, it's time to ask yourself a few questions: Are there health issues you need to address to help you reach your goal? Do you need to add to your exercise routine? Are you running into roadblocks – anything from a challenging work schedule to less-than-supportive family and friends – and if so what do you need to do to go over, around, or through them?

But what if you're already at your destination and running that mile without breaking a sweat? Congratulations – you get to revise your road map completely and pick a new destination! Maybe this time your destination will be running even further, or maybe you'll pick something else entirely; a strength goal or a clothing size or whatever else will keep you motivated.

The point here is that while the Keys to Health and Fitness are pretty much the same for all of us, the exact road each of us chooses to follow is an individual one. We don't create our road maps to please anyone else – we create them out of our own hopes and dreams for greater health and fitness. As you review your road map, remember to congratulate yourself for the work you've done so far – and make sure that the choices you make in revising your road map reflect your unique desires for your health and fitness journey.

RydeOn!

Brigid & Christina