So many of you write me about getting in shape: 

"Juliana, I want to get in shape. I'm ready, I’m in. What do I need to do? I’m sick of these 15 pounds I’ve gained, I’ll do anything.” I love a good challenge and a motivated lady, and I am here to help coach and guide you to excellence.

So I thought we'd talk about your goals & how to achieve them. 

First, let’s get clear on your goals. Do you deeply and truly want to get in the best shape of your life? If you just nodded your head enthusiastically, I have a follow up question that deserves a more measured answer: Are you willing to work for it? Are you really willing to put in the effort, commitment and consistency to get that goal? Or are you just wishing to wake up one day, miraculously in the best shape of your life? 

I did a recent post (that’s since gone viral) about getting into the best shape of my life at 55 and so! many! people! commented “Not for me.” “No thanks, I can’t give up my donuts and m&ms.” “Life is too short, I’m going to pass on this and enjoy my nightly wine.” “You’re being extreme.”

And honestly? THAT’S TOTALLY COOL. 

It really is. We all have free will. No one is forcing you to get in shape. Maybe in this season, in this era of your life, it’s just not that important for you. Maybe there are other, more pressing things that require & deserve your attention, and that’s absolutely fine. 

I might suggest that you be clear about that with yourself, though, and to treat your decision with kindness and grace it deserves. Don’t beat yourself up for the results you have, if you aren’t willing to do the work. You can’t get a 4.0 GPA if you’re putting in B effort. 

BUT.

If you answered “YES” to being willing to do the work? Well, then. You’re onto something: you have a goal. Whatever that goal is, you are saying: “I’m committed to achieving this. It might take time, it might be hard, it might require some sacrifice, and I’m here for it. I’m all in.” 

Fabulous. Here’s what I’ve learned/ earned the hard way (e.g., stuff you don’t hear often): when you are trying to achieve your goals, it’s not just enough to have goals; you have to have a system in place. You have to buffer yourself with a plan, with a strategy for how to achieve those goals, complete with behaviors and actions and habits and a floor and a ceiling (I’ll explain these in a minute). Otherwise you’re just really excited for the results and waiting for motivation to kick in, and we all know motivation’s a flirtatious fair-weather friend. She’s great when she's around but she's also pretty sketchy when things get tough. And when you depend on her, you're often left wondering why you didn’t hit your goal. 

Wait- What? Juliana, What’s a System?

“You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.” - James Clear

A system is simply the habits and behaviors you follow on a regular basis to achieve your goals. If your goal is really the results you want (to lose 20 pounds, to lower your pre-diabetes risk, to sleep soundly through the night), the system is the daily behaviors and habits that lead to those results (your workout routine, managing your blood sugar levels, putting away screens after 8pm and building a solid wind-down routine.)

Your goals are about the destination. Systems are about the daily practices that get you there. Your goal might be to run a marathon, but your system is the actual training runs you do 4 times a week, how you recover, and what you eat.

And most people focus on the goal and ignore the system. Most people want the outcome but don't build the daily habits that make the outcome inevitable. Since I'm in the business of helping women thrive in midlife: let’s solve for that. Let’s design the system that makes the small behaviors automatic and the results you want have no choice but to follow.

Floor & Ceiling

Within your system, I *highly* recommend a Floor and a Ceiling. My ceiling is 3 hours of workout & prep time: meditation, morning walk, breakfast, strength training at the gym, cardio, sauna, cold plunge, breathwork. 3 hours, all in. I finish and I feel like I’m truly a new human being. My state is ALTERED. 🤩🔥

Equally as important: my floor. My floor is 20 pushups and a 15-minute walk. Because some days, that’s all I have to give. But: both are valid. Both work. Both keep me committed to achieving my goals, to making progress and chipping away at Future Me and the version of me I want to become. 

And these frameworks are so important because life happens: things come up. We get stressed, there are family / work/ life pressures, and we have to have some flexibility built into our system to accommodate.  If you don’t have that buffer, it becomes increasingly difficult to stay on track. 

Especially as women, we are wired for achievement and perfection: everything’s fine so long as we can hit our plan, but if we can’t, well then, screw it, it’s all insane anyway and suddenly we find ourselves on the sofa with an empty pint of Ben & Jerry’s and a drained bottle of wine, questioning our life choices. 

A floor and a ceiling, friends. Spend some time today thinking through what your floor and ceiling looks like. What can you give on your best days? And what can you eke out your worst days? Do the work and develop your floor and ceiling, such that you live in that in-between zone, you never cheat on yourself and you are always moving forward toward your goals. 

The Comfort Trap

“Comfort is the Enemy of Greatness.” - Naval Ravikant

Let’s call it what it is: we’re lousy Stoics. We’re wired for comfort. It’s just human nature. Try as we’d like to fight against it, but we all love indoor plumbing and air conditioning. We all choose the comfy sofa over the standing desk. We default to the easiest way out, the most comfortable path forward. 

And the sticky wicket is that comfort works against us. It doesn’t help us evolve into our most resilient, strong, and unapologetic versions. Comfort sabotages us from achieving our possibilities. 

It’s also psychology: we are expert negotiators with ourselves. “Well, I worked hard today, so I deserve this glass of wine.” “That handful of m&ms won’t derail me. Everything in moderation.”  We want our cake and to eat it, too, and then we blame everyone (including and especially ourselves) for the inevitable misses and failed attempts. Let alone the power of sabotage: backstabbing Russian spies have nothing on us. We’re all brilliant at self-sabotage in the name of YOLO (you only live once). I speak from personal experience, here.

So, it’s best to default to a system that challenges and pushes us to achieve our goals. 

(The irony is palpable: we’ve spent millennia in survival, trying to achieve a means to buffer us from the unapologetic cruelty of nature. And exactly at the point when we’ve seemingly achieved that, comfort is paradoxically the very thing that sets us back and limits us from our potential.)

Knowing that motivation is fair-weathered and that we’re wired for comfort means it’s even more important to have the right systems in place. How are you structuring your life such that your goals become a reality? What habits and behaviors are you implementing consistently, how are you defining your ceiling and your floor for each facet of your life? Because comfort comes for every dimension of our lives. 

How do I get started, Juliana?

You can start by determining the version of Future You that you want to become, and defining those goals. Who is she? How does she move through the world? What defines her? What are her boundaries? How is she different from Today You? Get specific about her; the more vivid you can make her the more you have a blueprint for how you want to be. (FYI this is *literally* the work we do in my Masterclass.)

Then, build the habits and behaviors around those goals, such that you have that system in place, and you don’t compromise or sabotage on the Future You you want to become. If your goal is to get in shape, this can literally look like: 

-laying out your workout clothes the night before you go to the gym, so in the morning, everything's all ready for you to go;

-pre-fueling before your workout so you don’t crash at the gym from low energy and scratch your workout;

-signing up with a trainer or an accountability buddy, so you’re obligated to go, even when it’s a cold and rainy morning and you don’t want to get out of bed;

-clearing out the sweets in the pantry so when the 9pm Version of You goes looking for the Oreos, they aren’t there;

-leaving yourself a post-it note on the TV remote control: “take 15 minute walk FIRST” such that there’s no Netflix-and-chill until you've gotten your steps in. 

Without a system you have hope and a prayer but you don’t have a strategy. You need a system that affects all the things that impact how you thrive in midlife and beyond: your nutrition (what foods are you prioritizing such that your meals help you thrive? What foods are you avoiding?), your movement (what does your strength training protocol look like? What about mobility and flexibility, so you build resiliency and reduce injuries?), your stress management (what steps are you taking to actively reduce stress in your life? What are you delegating or saying no to?), and so much more: you need a system for all of the facets of life, because we are interconnected beings, and collectively, when all areas of your life are balanced and firing optimally, they help you to thrive. 

This intentional system development is what my Aging Well Naturally Masterclass is built on: installing the mindset, and the daily habits and behaviors that create the systems that allow you to achieve your goals. We dive deep into developing systems around:

• Mindset - so you don’t compromise or sabotage your Future You
• Nutrition - so you know what to eat & drink to thrive, & what to avoid
• Timing & Sequencing of Food - so you avoid mindless eating and honor your body
• Strength Training - so you build strength and power for Future You
• Movement Resiliency (Mobility / Stability / Flexibility) - as well as resiliency!
• Sleep Optimization - so you recover and rebuild, such that you can thrive
• Stress Management - because you can’t thrive if your nervous system is disregulated
• Hormone Balancing - so you’re balanced and ready for what life serves you up
• Clean Beauty - so your skin and hair reflect a commitment to health 
• Lifestyle Upgrades - so your lifestyle mirrors your commitment to health & your inner work

Such that no stone is unturned and you aren't doing wishful thinking, you know exactly what your behaviors and habits are that will give you the results you want. And you understand and have the foundation for how to thrive. From here on out: it’s easy. It's literally rinse and repeat. Lock in, be consistent, and the results are inevitable. 

My Masterclass currently isn’t open for registration - we operate on a cohort basis and the next cohort won’t go live for a few months. But if you’re interested and want to learn more, you can register for the waitlist. I’ll continue to share elements of the program here, and all that my program offers to make your midlife transformation upgrade a reality, where the systems become an integrated part of you and results are inevitable. 

Final thought

FACT: if you have a goal, you need to want it badly enough such that you’re willing to do the work (see the first section of this blog post). If you're willing to do the work, and if you’re ready to lock in? You can absolutely achieve what you want.

You need to develop the right systems such that you won’t waver, you’ll have your strategy for how to achieve your goals, you’ll know your ceiling and your floor, and it’s simply a matter of time until your body catches up with your mind. And if you need a little structure with your systems, join the waitlist.

That's all for today; go be great~

x 

Juliana