Russian Waiters, Getting Started, and Weight-loss Success

Consistency is key to getting the results you want from any weight-loss and fitness program.

Consistency of diet and getting to your training regularly is going to go a long way to getting you the look you want. Quickly.

Staying on schedule with your training program can be challenging especially if you don’t know the mental tricks of the training game.

One that has stood the test of time to keep you consistent is this-

The 10 Minute Rule: Sounds like this. “I have a workout scheduled. I don’t feel like working out today, but I need to. I’ll start my workout and if after 10 minutes I’m still not feeling motivated I’ll call it a day.” No one ever stops after 10 minutes.

Over 25 years of training and this mental trick has never failed to get me started and I’ve never called it early.Never.

You should use it too.

Here’s the question. How and why does this work?

I pulled this from the book  59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman.

I think you’ll find it revealing.

“According to research lore, in the 1920’s a young Russian psychology graduate named Bluma Zeigarnik found herself in a Viennese cafe, taking tea with her supervisor. Being students of human nature, they were watching how the waiters and customers behaved, and they happened to notice a curious phenomenon. When a customer asked for the check, the waiter could easily remember the food that had been ordered. However, if the customer paid the check and then queried it a few moments later, the waiters had to struggle to remember anything about the order. It seemed that the act of paying for the meal brought a sense of closure as far as the waiters were concerned, and erased the order from their memories.”

“Zeignarik was curious, and she returned to the laboratory to test an idea. She asked people to do a number of simple tasks (such as stacking wooden blocks or placing toys in a box), but sometimes she stopped the participants before they had finished the assigned task. At the end of the experiment, the participants were told to describe all of the tasks. As with her observations of waiters, Zeigarnik found that the unfinished tasks stuck in people’s minds and so were far easier to remember.”

“According to Zeigarnik, starting any activity causes your mind to experience a kind of psychic anxiety. Once the activity is completed, your mind breathes an unconscious sigh of relief, and all is forgotten. However, if you are somehow thwarted from completing the activity, your anxious mind quietly nags away until you finish what you started.

“What has this got to do with procrastination? Procrastinators frequently put off starting certain activities because they are overwhelmed by the size of the job in front of them. However, if they can be persuaded, or can persuade themselves, to work on the activity for “just a few minutes,” they often feel an urge to see it through to completion. Research shows that the “just a few minutes” rule is highly effective way of beating procrastination and could help people finish the most arduous of tasks. It is also a perfect application of Zeigarnik’s work- those few minutes of initial activity create an anxious brain that refuses to rest until the job is finished.”

The take-away is to use the 10 Minute Rule to keep yourself  consistent.

Once you start you can’t stop. Just like your results.

Dedicated to Your Success,

Dave

P.S. Speaking of just showing up. You and a friend are invited to the Rapid Results Nutrition Crash Course. Discover the single factor all successful weight loss clients have in common and how you can make this work for you!  Happening this Saturday at 11am in Fort Worth and 2pm in Hurst-Colleyville. Call Jennifer at 817.320.3845 to reserve your seats!