We have two choices for how we spend the rest of 2024:
- Path A: Coast and say “I’ll start back up in January.”
- Path B: Treat it like a Beta Test for 2025.
Our brains are going to try and convince us to pick Path A.
I want you to pick Path B.
Here’s how Beta Testing works:
We’re going to experiment with our lives and find out what we want to work on in 2025.
We’re not looking to stick with the perfect workout, or trying to build a flawless streak of running every day. We’re not trying to be 100% adherent to the optimized diet.
- Want to be “somebody who goes to Pilates or Yoga” but you’re worried about the ongoing commitment? Great! Sign up for ONE class this week or next week. Try it out! You’re not committing to a lifetime. You’re trying it out to see if you want to do this in 2025.
- Want to be somebody who gets really strong, because you want toned arms or you know getting stronger is important? You don’t need the perfect workout plan to follow. You need to work up the courage to go to the gym and pick up one weight.
- Want to be somebody who has a better relationship with food? You don’t need to plan out the next 40 days of meals. You don’t need to perfectly plan out each portion of your diet every day. You need to figure out which healthy meals you don’t hate preparing.
The fun part about beta testing is that you can stop doing things without feeling badly.
You’re an engineer, tinkering away at a project to see if it fits your lifestyle and schedule. You’re dabbling in different disciplines, sampling different foods from the buffet line, to see what works for you.
Your goal is to experiment and find a workout strategy and diet plan that work for you that you can implement more regularly by the end of the year. This way, instead of starting from a dead stop on January 1st, you get to start with momentum and knowledge about what actually works for you.
Sign up for a class you’ve wanted to try.
Give yourself permission to try and fail a different diet.
Experiment with a different productivity strategy.
Let go of the strategies you keep trying and failing to implement. They don’t work for you.
Try new stuff.
After all, 2024 is just a beta test for 2025.
What are you going to test and try out this fall?
-Steve
The post This is a Test (Year) first appeared on Nerd Fitness.
