Fort Worth Personal Trainers: My Fathers Most Important Lesson

On this Fathers Day I wanted to share with you something I learned from my father.

If you’ve been with me for any length of time you may have heard this story before.

And it’s a story that illustrates the MOST POWERFUL secret to your success.

My Dad who was a unapologetic hardcore alcoholic most of his life.

Only after the Air Force threatened to end his career and my mom divorced him. Did he finally seek help and stopped drinking in his 40’s.

After he’d been sober for a few years,I asked him what the hardest part about giving up drinking had been?

He paused for a moment.

Then he told me “I had to get a new set of friends”.

He explained that when he was drinking. All he had were friends that drank. Everything revolved around that pastime. And he didn’t really associate with anyone who didn’t drink a lot.

When he stopped drinking.

He said he knew he couldn’t hang out with the same people or he’d get sucked back into his old habits pretty quick.

He had to get around new people that had what he wanted.

A full life that didn’t revolve around alcohol.

So he had to seek out new friends that even if they did drink socially, it didn’t consume their lives.

That was the hardest part for him and a good lesson for me.

You cannot out-perform your most persistent associations.

The “who” matters, a lot.

And you should carefully choose the who you want to be around based on productive association.

If you hang out with a bunch of people who don’t exercise, who do overeat, who don’t care about their health or their weight.

Then you’re going to have trouble out performing that on your own for any great length of time.

You’ll get sucked back into their habits and belief system quickly.

It’s going to take a hell of a lot more than “will power”

If you want to change your ingrained and strongest habits.

You’re going to need to actively seek out a different group of people.

Who want what you want.

Who are doing what you want to do.

Your most persistent associations will make or break you.

So on this special day…

From my father.

To me.

To you.

Remember it’s the “Who”

…that matters most.

Talk soon.
Dave