The "Slow Bleed" of Compromise

One of the most memorable moments of my career as a fitness professional occurred recently when, during a brief conversation with a female client, she commented that I had “changed her life.”

That was a mind blowing thought for me.

Me? I had done this? How?

Although I will always cherish her sweet words and the joy it brought to my heart, I am going to attempt to break down and quantify what I believe she really intended.

That said, and with (hopefully) no disrespect to the woman in question, I believe she more accurately meant that I had “pointed the way” for her to achieve the success and goal attainment in fat loss, fitness and health transformation she had so long desired. She believed that I would give her correct information, encourage her and therefore she did not compromise herself in her efforts to obtain those goals.

Compromise is a killer. Sure, it may have some merit in a contextual parley, but in the average affairs of daily life, particularly in the fitness arena, it’s a suppressor of progress.

Here are 2 reasons why I say this:

1) “There, by the grace of God, go I.” At the risk of self-deprecation, many people give me way too much credit for being smarter than I really am. Don’t get me wrong, I believe I have more than the average share of intellectual capability. It’s just that I’m kind of lazy; sloppy if you will. More often than not I tend to let projects go half finished, don’t clean up as thoroughly as I should and “wing it” when it comes to tasks and jobs around the house.

However, when it comes to my professional ingestion of knowledge with regard to health, fitness, training, conditioning and fat loss I have a dogged determination and resolve to learn as much about these subjects as I can. The human body simply fascinates me and I am constantly striving to learn all that I can about how to better serve you.

I subscribe to several web sites and blogs that cater directly to fitness professionals. I get daily, weekly and monthly e-mail newsletters from medical, health and fitness professionals from around the world. I am a voracious reader and my personal library attests to as much. I listen to audio interviews and watch videos from various fitness authorities on many varieties of topics. I am not too proud to beg, borrow, pilfer and steal to get this information if I believe it will help me to help those with whom I am associated.

The bottom line, however, is that God has placed this desire for knowledge within me; I am simply an instrument of His choosing. Therefore it is He who is to be recognized and glorified. Without Him, I’m just another trainer. I will not compromise my faith and recognition of Him and the blessings He brings or those with which He allows me to be a blessing.

My growth and progress as a man of God, and subsequently my effectiveness as a communicator, I believe is based upon my willingness to either come alongside or compromise my obedience to God. In my mind, the more I align myself with Him, His Word and precepts, the better I am able to serve those who have entrusted themselves to me.

2) “Effort and Consistency” The cornerstone for successful fat loss in the Firestorm Fitness System is effort and consistency. An individual must understand that compromise on either of these two foundational principles will produce less than adequate or desirable results.

Imagine two people in dispute over a point of interest, perhaps the final price of a vehicle. The salesman suggests, “Let’s compromise; meet me halfway.” In the mind of the purchaser this may be a workable solution. But is it really? My guess is that the salesman has previously played this scenario out long before, calculated the transaction and had the actual final price in mind all along. It was never really a compromise at all, just a way to get to where he was already comfortable. I mean they both win…right?

Let’s envision another scenario: You’re at a nice restaurant. You know, the kind where they have cloth napkins and drink from REAL crystal. You’ve been following your eating regimen pretty well all week. According to your accountability chart and the 90 percent rule, you’ve already experienced all of the “cheat” meals you are allowed so as to remain on track. The end of the meal arrives and the nasty waiter announces, “We have a great selection of delicious desserts on the menu…would you like to see it?” What do you do?

Here’s one more: You have a desire to lose 25 pounds of body fat. You write down specific goals with a deadline for their achievement and enroll in a class such as the Firestorm Fitness System Fat Burning Fit Camps. The criteria are laid out and the command goes off to begin training. Do you “go all in” or do you simply go through the motions until it is time for the class to stop?

Compromised effort and consistency means that half of the work (or potential work) is done; half of the work means half of the results are achieved.

Is half ever good enough?

The lady I mentioned at the beginning of this piece is one of the few who “gets it”. She understands that a life of compromise is a life half lived. As I explained to her during that brief conversation we had, “I tell a lot of people how to succeed. Only a handful really apply what they hear and see truly extraordinary results.” I salute her because she is one of them. As I said, she “gets it.” I am very proud of her, as well as many others and I am blessed to have them as clients. Her comments brought me to tears of humility that warmed my heart.

I will never compromise in my learning efforts in order to get those kinds of feelings and blessings because they do so much to keep me striving to be the best in this business for you that I can be.

Consistency and effort + no compromise = much success.

Come get some.

God bless you,
Steve