I get a lot of people telling me that they’ve “tried everything”. They’re frustrated that nothing is working for them and maybe it seems like nothing will work.
There are two answers I have to this mindset:
1 – you still haven’t tried enough.
There are a million things out there you can be doing. Because you’ve tried 5, 10 maybe 15 of them isn’t enough. Likely a lot of the things you’ve tried are still within the same realm too and you need to step outside that. Try something completely new and different for you. Try martial arts, dance, a bootcamp, online workouts, group programs, running, swimming, basketball, rock climbing, gymnastics, roller blading, etc.
2 – you’ve tried many things but you’ve never really committed to any.
This is a tougher one for people to swallow sometimes because we feel like we’re doing our best but it’s not working. We tried hard and nothing. But if we really look, how hard did you try. Did you fully commit to the program in effort and duration? Results probably didn’t come because it wasn’t enough.
It wasn’t enough in the sense of the actual effort you put in or it wasn’t enough in the sense of the time you put in. You will never see changes overnight so if you tired something for a month, 2 or even 3 and then stopped, it probably wasn’t enough.
I see a lot of people failing to see success in their fitness changes not because they aren’t doing the right program, but because they are jumping around from program to program too often. Usually you just need to give it time to allow your body, mindset, intensity, and strength adapt.
I often use a restaurant as an example. How often do you make an evaluation as to whether or not a restaurant is good or not based on your first meal there? We try the new restaurant by going once, testing one meal, and then make our final decision as to whether or not we’ll go back. But what if it was just that one plate you didn’t like? What if there were other things you might like better? If you make your decision to go back or not without experiencing the full menu did you really try the restaurant?
My point here is that if you fall in the category of “I’ve tried everything” and you can’t seem to find anything that works, consider these thoughts. First, have you really tried these programs? Have you truly put in the effort AND the time to allow these programs to work? Secondly, if you can honestly answer yes to those then it’s just a matter of continuing to find more things.
There’s lots out there so keep searching, keep trying more and most importantly look for something that you actually enjoy doing it. If you like it, the effort and time pieces will be a lot easier to do!