The Mind Body Project
The Mind Body Project
Testing Habits Off the "Future You" Treadmill
What if you could step off the treadmill of your current habits and truly move toward the future self you envision?
This episode of the MindBody Project uncovers the transformative concept of the "future you" and the metaphorical "future you treadmill." By visualizing the person you aim to be in one, two, or five years, we uncover how to start adopting the essential habits today. We'll show you how small, manageable steps can align your present actions with the life you want to create. Using the treadmill versus outdoor running analogy, we highlight the difference between seeming progress and actual change, encouraging you to ensure your efforts lead to real movement toward your future goals.
Facing challenges in future planning and habit formation?
We've got you covered. This episode dives into effective strategies to break free from the monotonous "future you" treadmill, ensuring that your habits remain strong and adaptive, regardless of where or what you're doing. We aim to provide actionable insights that help you stay on track toward becoming the best version of yourself.
Don't miss out on connecting with me at aarondegler.com or on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube under Aaron Degler. Together, let's make strides toward growing into the future you.
Welcome to the MindBody Project Podcast. After over a decade in the health and wellness industry, erin realized that our bodies change only short-term unless our mindset changes. For long-term success, both our mind and body are forever linked. We are continually building up new ideas and tearing down old ones in our construction zone we call our mind. After this podcast is over, make sure you give it a like and a share and please subscribe and review this podcast. I would now like to introduce you to your host, the man connecting your mind and body to create a limitless life, aaron Degler.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the MindBodyProject. Thanks for taking a little time to join me today. Many times on the MindBodyProject I've talked about, even did a show, an episode about the future you and if you haven't heard that episode you might be wondering what is the future you and I've talked a lot about over the years, about the future you. It's really the future. You is kind of your vision for yourself. What goals, what do you see yourself doing, being like in the next year, two years, five years? And thinking about that person, think about that person that you want to become and then you begin to think about what does that person do? So you're thinking about your future you and you're wondering how did that person, how did I get to be that person in one, two, five years? And you start dissecting what that person does. Maybe you know the future. You wants a new career. So what did they do in that process to get the new career? Maybe it was to take more training, go back to college, learn a new skill. Maybe the future you wants to drop 30 pounds in the next year, next year and a half. What does that future you do that has lost the 30 pounds in the next year, next year and a half. What does that future you do that has lost the 30 pounds, and so we think about what does that person do? They exercise on a daily basis. They do cardio, they lift, they watch what they eat, all these different things. That's a future you. So how do we get to the future you? It's a future you. So how do we get to the future you, as I've talked about before, we start doing those things today that the future you, the future me, is already doing. So if we implement those habits now, we will become that future you. So if future you, future me, is going to the gym on a daily basis and they've lost the future you has lost 30 pounds, well, what if I might not go to the gym every day right now, but I start. If I'm not going at all, I might start going two days a week and then, a little bit later, I can go three days a week and then, after you know, six months now, I'm going four days a week. After seven, eight months, I'm going five days a week. So we start to gradually pick up those habits that the future you is doing. Now I want to share a new term with you, and you know I'm very passionate about the future you and I heard this term and I was like, huh, that's a good point, that's a. I had never thought about that. As I talked about the future years, I encouraged clients and my audience to how to achieve the future you and it's called the future you treadmill.
Speaker 2:When we get on a treadmill, what do we usually do? We usually are on the treadmill. It's a belt that goes around and around. Do we go anywhere? Yes, the miles. The distance keeps clicking off, the more rotations, revolutions that that belt makes. So we have walked or ran or jogged or sprinted a certain distance, because that belt has moved so many times that it says that we've gone this distance. But have we physically gone anywhere?
Speaker 2:I like the treadmill a lot of times because I can get on and I can get off. I don't have to worry about. Well, if I get tired here, then I still have to get back. If I'm outside, I have to get back to where I started. If I'm done my workout's 20 minutes, it doesn't matter where I'm at, I can be done, whereas if I'm outside I have to. Okay, if I want 20 minutes, I have to know I have to go here, because then I have to turn around after 10 minutes to be back to where I started. And so I really like the treadmill because it's an easy on, easy off, it's you know, it's just for me, it's I like it better.
Speaker 2:My wife Kim, on the other hand, she loves to be outside, she loves to you know, we may walk the same or run the same distance or go the same distance a particular day. I may go two miles, she may go two miles, but she actually changed locations with her two miles. Even if she went a mile down and turned around and came a mile back, she actually went to a different location than I did. I stayed on the same place, even though we did the same distance. And so I started thinking about that, about the future you, treadmill. I thought what does that mean if I'm on the treadmill and I've gone the distance but I never change locations, as opposed to Kim who has done the two miles, has gone the distance and changed locations? I thought about what does that mean for us? How does that relate to us when it comes to the future you? And the more I thought about it, because aren't we always?
Speaker 2:We can do a lot on the treadmill. Right, we can. I can go faster, I can work on picking up speed. I can, I can walk slower, I can add an incline. So there's ways that I can get better on the treadmill. But I never go anywhere. So I can get better and I, you know, I get on. I come on the treadmill, I get there every day and I'm getting on the treadmill, I'm increasing maybe my speed, my apply to my life.
Speaker 2:I think sometimes we get caught up on the future you treadmill. We're doing the things, we're doing the things. We're doing the things, but we're just doing those things. We're not applying them to the future you. So what are you talking about? Say before, you said if I start doing those habits, then that's going to get me to the future you. The future you treadmill is I apply those habits of going faster, doing the incline you know, might walk backwards, might jog, might run, might do all these different things. But if I don't apply it now, how would I apply that? I would apply it in.
Speaker 2:Am I going to do a race? Am I going to do a 5k? Am I going to do a 10k? Am I going to do a half marathon? Am I going to do a 10K? Am I going to do a half marathon? Am I going to do a triathlon? Am I going to do a trail run? All these different things? Am I going to take what I have done on the treadmill and apply it and it might not even be a race, it might be I'm going on a hike on vacation. Can I have the endurance from my training to do that? Have the endurance from my training to do that? Because really I've improved all these things but I haven't changed locations. How many times do we do that when we're chasing the future? You, we're doing all these things but we really haven't changed locations.
Speaker 2:Now, what do I mean? So let's say it's getting. You know you want a new career. So you do all these, all the skills you need to build for that new career. You learn the things, you make the connections, you do all those things and you are prepared 100% for a new career, but you never take the step to go out and get the new career. Yes, you followed all the things in the future you did to get that new career, but you missed one vital point was that you had to go out and get it, because sometimes it's easy for ourselves to do all those things. It's easy to you know, I want to read the Bible more so. So we're, every day we're doing a read the Bible. In a year we're. We do those things for the future you, but if we miss some of those vital points, we're still on the future you.
Speaker 2:Treadmill, I'm doing all the things. I'm reading my Bible, I'm doing a devotion, I'm spending the time I'm doing all those things, but I'm missing the application, just like I did all the things on the treadmill when I'm running, hiking, all those things, but I'm missing the application of in the real world. So we have to remember that it has to have the application. Kim walks and we get the same distance, but she applied it. She applied what she does in small group training and some of the other cardiovascular activities she does that maybe are on equipment. She's applied that to her outdoor walk. She has changed locations. Now there's times when I'll run outside so I can tell a difference. Because is the work I'm doing on the treadmill? Can I apply that to outdoor running and is it making a difference? I've applied it to gauge how my habits are going and I think we have to do that. Sometimes we have to step off the future.
Speaker 2:You treadmill that. We've been on those habits. We've been on those habits and it's, you know, the biggest loser. The biggest loser was on for years and it would show a group of overweight individuals going to the biggest loser compound. A couple of trainers would train them. They would have a competition every week to see who lost the most weight and then the one who lost the least would leave the compound. But they'd also follow up with those contestants and to see how, if they were able to maintain their weight loss and how they did. The interesting thing is they created habits. They created habits of exercising, eating better in a controlled environment and and when their location changed, even though they had those habits of getting in their strength, training, doing their mindful activities, doing their cardiovascular, making the right food choices, those things were in a controlled environment when they changed their location. Do you know what? When they went back home and all those outside influences start coming back, you know what happened to their habits? Almost all of them gained some weight, if not all of their weight, back. Why? Because their habits were great in a controlled environment.
Speaker 2:My habit of being on the treadmill is great in a controlled environment when I can hit slow down, speed up, incline, decline. It's great when we take that and we change locations to outside. I can't control a hill that I'm coming up to. I can't control a dog that's chasing me, I can't control, I'm in a different location. Dog that's chasing me, I can't control, I'm in a different location. So do my habits translate into that new location?
Speaker 2:And that's what we have to work on, because our future you not only are we putting in the work in our habits for the future you, but what environment is the future you in? We may be around different people. We may be around people that are way smarter than us. We may be around people that are different economic status than us. We may be in a more diverse environment. There's all these different things that we have to look not only what is the future me doing, but what is the environment? So are those habits going to sustain me as I transition into the future you? Because we can have habits, but doesn't our environment, our location, have an impact on those habits? What if those habits just like on the Biggest Loser Ranch? What happens if those habits aren't ingrained? What happens when they go home? They start listening to their family and friends oh, you can have that. You've lost so much weight. You can have that burger. Oh, you can skip the gym today. And now those start to compound and the future you goes back to the old self because the habits weren't strong enough and weren't ingrained enough, because they weren't applied along the way.
Speaker 2:The treadmill for me is a great training tool, but occasionally I still need to go outside and run. I still need to go do things to say, hey, is this training going to help me and sustain me in a different location, in a different environment? So we have to test those habits. What's the future you doing? And we have to start doing those habits. But we have to occasionally get off the future you treadmill and start applying those habits to say, can this withstand my current environment and location? Yes, great. Then I come back. I can keep getting those habits stronger. I keep doing adding some more things. Then, once I've added some more, can they withstand? Let me test it out again. So the treadmill the future you treadmill is a great training tool, but we have to get off of it and apply those things periodically to test them out. So we're periodically testing our way to our future you. So we know when we get there, when we get to our future you, no matter our location or environment, we're going to be able to survive and thrive because we tested those along the way.
Speaker 2:So I encourage you to step off the future you treadmill from time to time and put those habits in play.
Speaker 2:Do they hold up? Do they withstand? And I'd love to connect with you and talk more about habits and how you can apply those and how you get off the future you treadmill. You can connect with me on aarondeglercom. There's multiple ways on there through email, through, have a contact. You can just contact me, sign up for my daily text. You know other episodes of the MindBody Project, so there's a lot of ways that we can connect. There's also all my coaching programs that I'd love to help you. If you're having trouble with future you, if you're having trouble getting off the future you treadmill, if your habits aren't withstanding your location in your environment, then let's get together, let's talk about those, let's figure out how you can withstand those habits, can withstand your location in your environment, to keep moving you towards the future you. So I'd love to connect just erindeglercom. Look forward to connecting with you and grow you into the future. You, and as I tell my wife Kim every night before I go to bed, it's Bob on the 9th double A out.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to today's podcast. If you would like to connect with Aaron, you can do so by going to aarondeglercom or find him on social media as Aaron Degler on Instagram, facebook and YouTube. Once again, we greatly appreciate you tuning in. If you've enjoyed the show, please feel free to rate, subscribe and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. We greatly appreciate that effort and we'll catch you in the next episode of the MindBody Project Podcast.