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The Dream You Haven’t Touched Yet
Today, over 50,000 runners took to the streets for the Pittsburgh Marathon and crossed the finish line. Some of today's runners have trained for months. Many will doubt themselves and find a way to finish. Some will almost quit and dig a little deeper to still cross the line. But today, they finished their race.
As I was down on S. Highland cheering them on, it got me to thinking about the goals I've had in my life that I didn't even begin to work on. And that raises a powerful question:
What’s Your Marathon?
Not the race. The dream. The one you’ve thought about, talked about, but haven’t fully committed to.
- Losing the weight and getting your health back
- Starting that business or side income
- Writing the book
- Climbing that mountain
- Becoming the person you know you’re capable of being
Take a second to first think about it. It doesn't matter how big or small it is in scale. It matters how big the dream is for you personally.
Now, write it down. Writing it down makes it real. It puts that goal into motion energetically and it stimulates the body and mind into constructing pathways to making it happen.
Energetically, writing out our goals creates a sort of coherence in our thoughts, emotions and even our intentions when we move from vague thoughts towards a defined vision. Basically, your attention becomes selective. You literally start noticing opportunities, people, and ideas to help you acheive your goal.
Physiologically, this is where it really becomes interesting (especially for a nerd like me).
- The pre-frontal cortex becomes activated. Clarity, decision making and planning all improve.
- The Reticular activating system filters your environment. You begin to see what supports your goal more often.
- Dopamine pathways engage and motivation increases. This helps with follow-through.
- Neural pathways strengthen and helps to develop habits which will align with goal achievement.
The minute you write a goal down with clarity, keep it realistic, assign a date to it, your body and the universe begins to align with you to see it through. Simply put, a written goal tells your brain what matters, and your brain starts organizing your world around it.
But it doesn't end with writing it down.
See It Before You Live It
Every runner today saw the finish line before they ever got there. They imagined it, felt it, and they believed it was possible.
Now it’s your turn. Close your eyes for a moment and picture this:
- What do you look like when you succeed?
- How do you feel in your body?
- What changes in your life?
- Who notices? What do they say?
Make it vivid and make it real. Your brain doesn’t just respond to reality, it responds to the images you repeatedly give it and the emotion you feel when you imagine it. Look, if you can replay an argument over in your head to think of a snappier comeback, (I'm thinking of: "They ran outta YOU at the Jerk store" - Seinfeld) you can see your dream through. This is where belief starts.
The Strategy That Gets You There (Proven & Practical)
Dreaming is a powerful tool in creating the pathway and setting the energies into motion for you. But execution is everything. Here’s a simple, proven framework you can start using today:
Step 1: Shrink the Goal
Don’t focus on the whole race, focus on just the next mile.
- 10 pounds → start with 2
- A business → start with one offer
- A book → start with one page
Progress builds belief. Also, some time ago, I wrote a newsletter where I talked about motivation. Well, action, is the key to motivation. Action sets the momentum for motivation. Not perfect action. ANY action. Sound too simple? Try it. Seriously! Look at your goal. What is the simplest first step you can think of? Do it and tell me how it feels after you do.
Step 2: Build Daily Non-Negotiables
Success is not an event. It’s a pattern of event taking.
Choose 3 daily actions that move you forward:
- Walk 10 minutes after meals
- Drink half your bodyweight in ounces of water
- 15 minutes of focused work on your goal
A strategy based on small wins stack fast. What actions, and even benchmarks, can you set up that excite you, and build that momentum towards your goal?
Step 3: Remove Friction
Make success easier, and failure harder. Think of the actions you can take to make it feel like you're cheating to get to that win. What will make this look and feel easier for you?
- Prep your meals ahead of time
- Make conditioning feel like play instead of work
- Lay out your workout clothes
- Schedule your actions like appointments
Environment beats motivation.
Step 4: Track & Adjust
What gets measured, improves.
- Weekly check-ins
- Simple tracking (weight, steps, progress markers)
- Adjust but you do not quit
Feedback fuels progress. Set everything up around you as environment to win in. Eliminate junk foods. Remove distractions. Fuel success. Look around you and find those things that you know are holding you back. For me, right now, it's a very messy office space. It sounds simple, but that is the most distracting thing for me with a few business goals I have.
Step 5: Don’t Go Alone
Every runner today had support. It could have been a coach, a conditioning program, family, and certainly the community coming out to cheer and encourage them to keep going. You need it also. The hardest thing I can do is ask for help. I'll do it stealthily though. I use AI to review, proofread and help edit programs I'm creating, how to market them, write strategies, etc.
I have a friend to help keep me accountable as well. We develop due dates for projects, launch dates etc. Accountability accelerates results. Do we have to adjust to account for pop-up emergencies or get-in-the-way crap? Sure, but the idea is to keep going in spite of those distractions. Not quit.
Someone finished a marathon today who once doubted they could. They weren’t more talented, they just started and they didn’t stop. Now it’s your turn.
So, I'll ask again: What’s your marathon?
Hit Email Coach Fred and tell me. And if you’re ready to stop thinking about it, and start building it. I’ll help you map it out step-by-step.
Coach Fred
PS - Last week I posted a prompt for AI to help write a meal plan for 7 days. I hope you tried it. I've since done some editing on it, and am posting it again here to optimize that query.
Remove Meal Planning Stress (Use This!)
You don’t need to guess what to eat.
Use this prompt in ChatGPT (go to www.chatgpt.com) to create your own meal plan. For even better results, in ChatGPT, click on the + sign in the space for your query and upload your Zyto wellness scan(s) report(s) that was(were) emailed to you.
Copy & Paste This: Do NOT include text in red as part of the query into ChatGPT. Delete before entering. This is personal information used to customize your query.)
My current weight is (XXX lbs.) and my goal weight is (XXX lbs.) My height is (XX ft.) (XX inches). Limitations to be aware of: (Be sure to add any important personal information such as peanut allergies, or medical conditions. The more information you provide, the better a response you'll receive.)
Acting as a functional nutritionist, create a 7-day anti-inflammatory meal plan based on the following: (Client: delete any of the criteria you will want to include in the diet. For example, delete “No Dairy” before you enter it into the query at ChatGPT.
Include any specific diet you want to model your meal plan after. For example, type in
“Base the meal plan on the Mediterranean Diet. or Keto Diet. or Paleo Diet. etc.)
- Base my meal plan on _________diet
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If you did a Zyto scan, and have the report(s) Add this line: Use my Zyto Scan report to fine-tune my meal plan so that the meals will help me achieve my wellness goals as well as balance my out-of range stressors identified by this scan.
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State your goal: e.g. Meets my personal daily caloric needs to aid in losing (10 pounds in 30 - 60 days)
- For each meal, provide me a calorie range and break down the macros per meal
- Macros should break down into ounces for each: Proteins, Carbohydrates, Fats
- Gluten-free
- No Wheat
- No alcohol
- No artificial sweeteners, flavors, or colors
- No processed foods
- No dairy
- No fried foods
- No added sugar, use only natural sweeteners or fruits
- Focus on whole, organic foods when possible
- Budget-friendly meals using simple ingredients
- Include breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 1 snack
- Meals should be easy to prepare (under 30 minutes)
- Emphasize high protein, healthy fats, and fiber
- Avoid seed oils; use butter, olive oil, avocado oil, or coconut oil
- Minimize pesticide exposure
Also include:
- Grocery list
- Meal prep tips
- Simple substitutions
Make meals flavorful but simple.
No guessing. Use only data driven information to create my personalized meal pan.
Ask 3 qualifying questions to help dial the diet in for my personal needs/goals.
Run that once and refine your results by asking for corrections. After week 1, repeat the query for weeks 2, 3, and 4.
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