Russell Solomon

The Moment Of Truth...
Grrrrrrrr…..Grrrrrrrr….Grrrrrrrrr….Grrrrrrrrr….
You have just been shocked out of your slumber by
the high pitched squeal of your alarm clock.
As you drearily rub your eyes and roll over to “face
the music” head-on you have a very important
decision to make…a decision that will change the
course of your life in an instant.
While on the surface it is a very simple choice, you
also realize that you have been down this road
many times before, and you know how the story
ends.
You intuitively realize that the decision you make
now will effectively “make-or-break” your Mission. It
really is in these moments of decision that your
destiny is shaped...
It’s 5:00AM on a cold, dark Winter morning. You are now
into the third week of your physique transformation
Mission.
In the days preceding the launch of your Mission you
were primed, pumped, focused and ready to “take on the
world.”
As a result, you kick-started your Mission with a near-
perfect Week 1 accountability compliance score after
getting in all your pre-scheduled workouts and only
missing one meal. You were filled with a silent
confidence and a steely resolve to “make this one count
like never before.”
By the time Friday came around on Week 2 you were
well and truly “on a roll.” You backed up your Week 1
performance with another great week by getting in every
single one of your scheduled workouts and meals.
Infused with a new-found zest for life stemming from the
success of your current Mission you were now
conducting your day-to-day affairs with a clarity and
focus you hadn’t experienced for a long time. You could
sense that you were standing on the precipice of
“something big!”

Then it happened…
On Saturday you missed your first workout. You were
scheduled for a cardio session in the afternoon but your
boss threw you a curve-ball early Saturday morning. He
requested that you come into work on your day off for a
few hours and help finish up a big project that was
running behind schedule.
As your boss is a forceful individual who doesn’t take
kindly to his “requests” not being fulfilled you
immediately decide to re-schedule your cardio workout
for Saturday evening and head into work.
To your “shock” and “amazement” the amount of work
still left to be completed before the rapidly-approaching
project deadline was substantial. What was initially
meant to be a short 5-hour work stint soon turned into a
marathon all-day affair.
Time flew by fast. The sheer amount of work that had to
be done required your constant focus and attention for
hours on end. By the time you completed your specified
tasks it was fast approaching 11:00 PM. Your heart sank
as you realized that your cardio session was no longer
on the “postponed list” , it was now on the “did not
happen list.” Your “perfect” record for the week was now
broken.
Even though the circumstances of your missed workout
were beyond your immediate control you felt a strong
sense of frustration and anxiety as you drove home. The
reason being that you had been “here” many times in the
past.

You had a long-established habit of “starting strong” for
the first couple of weeks of a body transformation
challenge only to engage in a coordinated campaign of
self-sabotage after a couple of missed workouts or
meals.
While it was obvious your “all or nothing” approach to
physique transformation had not served you well in the
past you still found it difficult to shake the “guilt” you
experienced after a single missed workout.
To compound matters Sunday was a “write-off” as far as
exercise and nutrition was concerned. Any thoughts you
had of re-scheduling your missed workout for Sunday
soon evaporated when you checked your calendar and
realized you had a family gathering to attend.
From past experience you knew that your family get-
togethers were not conducive to nutritional discipline due
to the vast array of food, beverages and sweets on offer.
While you did manage to control yourself and not go too
overboard on the enticing entrees you did feel obliged to
eat the 3-course meal and dessert that was served up at
lunch time.
Once you got back home later that night your feelings of
“guilt” further intensified when you realized “just how far”
you went off-track over the weekend. The final tally was
one missed workout, two missed meals on Saturday and
the equivalent of three “cheat” meals on Sunday.
On an intellectual level you knew that what happened
over the course of one weekend should not be enough to
derail two weeks of discipline, dedication and follow
through. However, on an emotional level you found it
hard to shake that ominous feeling of, “here we go
again…”
As your head hit the pillow that night you were filled with
a sense of unease about what tomorrow would bring.
Would you be able to “reset your accountability clock”
and get back on track? Or would you let these pangs of
“guilt” continue to dominate your psyche, thus rendering
you in a “state of paralysis” unable to take action?
Only time would tell…

Grrrr.….Grrrr….Grrrr….Grrrrr….Grrrrr….
...The moment of truth has now arrived.
Hit the snooze button and go back to sleep? Or get
up and go to the gym?
Then it happens...before you even have time to
contemplate hitting the snooze button you find
yourself ripping off the sheet covers and jumping
out of bed!
As you march headlong over to your wardrobe to
grab your workout clothes it almost feels like a
“force” beyond your control has overtaken your
body and moved you into action.  
But you know better, you know exactly what this
“force” is, it is the same “force” that propelled to
near-perfect compliance over the first 12 days of
your Mission.
Less than five minutes later you are out the door
and on your way to the gym. By the time you reach
the gym car-park it is 5:25 AM. You are now itching
to get into the gym and “go massive” on today’s
workout.
“The force” that propelled you out of bed just 20
minutes earlier has now intensified. You are
supremely focused, committed and determined to
crush your personal bests in today’s workout.  
As you enter the gym floor you feel like a caged
lion that has just been released into the wild. You
are hungry and on the prowl, nothing and no one is
going to stand in your way.
You proceed to devour your personal bests on each
body part exercise. You push yourself to the limit
and break through the “pain barrier” on every single
set.
As you pump out the reps on the final set of your
workout you feel a “rush” of primal energy surge
through your veins.