Have You Had a "Harajuku Moment"?

I've been reading an interesting book lately called "The 4 hour Body", which as a fascinating take on how to achieve great results (in all sorts of areas, including reducing body fat) in the shortest amount of time.  The author, Timothy Ferriss is often asked by some high achieving people to "just tell me what to do and I will do it"  Which he does, and as he expects, they fail.  Here's his take on why, and why you need a Harajuko Moment:

"People suck at following advice.  Even the most effective people in the world are terrible at it.  There are two reasons:

1. Most people have an insufficient reason for action. The pain isn't painful enough.  Its a nice-to-have, not a must-have.  There has been no "Harajuku Moment".
2. There are no reminders.  No consistent tracking=no awareness=no behavioural change.  Consistent tracking, even if you have no knowledge of fat-loss or exercise, will often beat advice from world class trainers.

But what is this all important "Harajuku Moment"?

Its an epiphany that turns a nice-to-have into a must-have.  There is no point getting started until it happens.  It applies to fat loss as much as strength gain, to endurance as much as sex.  No matter how many bullet points and recipes I provide you, you will need a Harajuku Moment to fuel the change itself.

Chad Fowler knows this......

.. He'd recently lost 5+stone (32+kgs) in less than 12 months.  It wasn't the amount of weight I found fascinating, it was the timing.  He'd been obese for more than a decade, and hte change seemed to come out of no-where.......I wanted to know what the defining moment was....

The Harajuko Moment
"Why had I gone 10 years getting more and more out of shape (starting off pretty unhealthy in the first place) only to finally fix it now?
I actually remember the exact moment I decided to do something.
I was in Tokyo with a group of friends.  We all went down to Harajuku to see if we could see some artistically dressed youngsters and also to shop for fabulous clothing, which the area is famous for.  A couple of the people with us were pretty fashionable dressers adn had some specific things in mind that they wanted to buy.  After walking into shops several times and leaving without seriously considering buying anything, one of my friends and I gave up adn just waited outside while the others continued shopping.
We both lamented how unfashionable we were.
I then found myself saying the following to him "For me, it doesn't even matter what I wear; I'm not going to look good anyway"
I think he agreed with me.  I can't remember, but thats not the point.  The point was that, as I said those words, they hung in the air like you say something super-embarassing in a loud room but happen to catch the one randomly occuring slice of silence that happens all night long.  Everyone looks at you like you're an idiot.  But this time, I was looking at myself critically.  I heard myself say those words and I recognised them not for their content, but for their tone of helplessness.  I am, in most of my endeavours, a solidly successful person.  I decide I want thing to be in a certain way, and I make it happen.  I've done it with my career, my learning of music, understanding foreign languages and basically everything I've tried to do
For a long time, I've known that the key to getting started down the path of being remarkable in anything is to simply act with the intention of being remarkable.
If I want a better than average career, I can't simply "go with the flow" and get it.  Most people do that; they wish for an outcome but make no intention-driven action towards that outcome.  If they would just do something,  most people would find that they get some version of the outcome they're looking for.  That's been my secret.  Stop wishing and start doing.
Yet here I was, talking about arguably the most important part of my life - my health - as if it was somehting I had no control over.  I had been going with the flow for years.  Wishing for an outcome and waiting to see if it would come.  I was the limp, powerless ego I detest in other people."

The book goes on to describe how Chad slowly made changes, however the key thing was about the role of gathering data to keep track of progress.  Chad also described this insight:

"If you ask the average obese person: "If you could work out for ONE year and be considered "in shape" would you do it?  I'd guess that just about every single one would emphatically say "Hell yes!".  The problem is that for most normal people there is no clear path from fat to okay in a year.  For almost everyone, the path is there adn obvious if you know what you are doing, but its almost impossible to imagine an outcome like that so far in the distance.
The number-one realisation that led me to be able to keep doing it and make the right decision was  to use data."

Chad goes on to describe his use of a heart rate monitor, calorie and Basic Metabolic Rate (BMR)calculations, scales, measurements etc.

But it comes back to the author (Timothy Ferriss)'s two key points at the beginning - you need to have a Harajuku Moment that turns a nice-to-have into a must-have, and you need to have reminders and data that keep you accountable.

I had one of these momentsmyself  that lead to significant weight loss; have you?  How much do you want it?  If you really want it, its easy.  But you have to really want it, it has to be essential to you first.

And if you have, then the upcoming New Year Body Transformation is my way of helping you to be accountable, to have reminders, and to use data to track your progress, just like Timothy Ferris's second point.

I can guarantee you that it is possible to turn you're life around and change your body composition for ever, you just need to believe it, stop wishing, and start doing.

NB - For info on the Body Tranformation Challenge starting Feb 9, see the earlier post.
         Excerpts from The 4-Hour Body, by Timothy Ferriss - a great read