BugDude
New member
We all have certain characteristic tendencies which at times may have seemed like obstacles. For me, I have OCD tendencies. I wouldn't go as far as to call it a disorder, but my personality is very "All or Nothing." I get into something, and I'm all in focused. But I'm also easily discouraged at times too. In years past, this has worked against me in many things, but has also worked in my favor for many things too. For example, golf. I became a very good self-taught golfer due to my ability to focus and concentrate on it and dedicate time and practice in a very OCD-ish manner. Same with learning to play musical instruments by ear without being able to read music. My attention to detail and ability to focus on a task for long periods of time and be meticulously perfectionistic has been very successful in my hobby of restoring cars and taking them to car shows.
So, I've used this negative to my advantage to find ways to engage it in a positive way. Now I'm using those tendencies to help me with weight loss and fitness. In years past I was able to do the same thing with running and detailed nutrition planning. I was all in. But I got distracted and discouraged (injuries, surgeries, anxiety, depression) and completely fell off the wagon. The negative side of the coin...being all out (the second part of all or nothing).
So I found bicycling and fell in love with it. Granted I have jumped "all in" quickly and am somewhat OCD about it, I am recognizing the need to keep it balanced, take rest days, have easier days, and push myself incrementally. Same with nutrition. I'm not as detailed in planning and shape my nutrition on the fly keeping it within total calories but not as OCD about percentages. And I'm not being OCD about the scales. I'm only weighing once a month and not getting OCD about a number (which tended to get me discouraged if I didn't see a result that corresponded with how much work and effort I put in).
So I'm learning to use my OCD tendencies to my advantage while at the same time learning to moderate the extremes. And I know how I get when I weight often, so I'm committed to only weighing once a month. It's taken me a long time to learn how to channel negative aspects of my tendencies to work to my advantage while at the same time toning them down to have a healthy balance and avoid things that could get me discouraged (scales!!!).
So no matter what you believe your negative tendencies are or how you perceive they may hurt your efforts, you can learn to utilize them and shape them in a way that is advantageous. It took me a lot of time and experience to figure it out, but hopefully others will be a much quicker study.
I hope this helps.
So, I've used this negative to my advantage to find ways to engage it in a positive way. Now I'm using those tendencies to help me with weight loss and fitness. In years past I was able to do the same thing with running and detailed nutrition planning. I was all in. But I got distracted and discouraged (injuries, surgeries, anxiety, depression) and completely fell off the wagon. The negative side of the coin...being all out (the second part of all or nothing).
So I found bicycling and fell in love with it. Granted I have jumped "all in" quickly and am somewhat OCD about it, I am recognizing the need to keep it balanced, take rest days, have easier days, and push myself incrementally. Same with nutrition. I'm not as detailed in planning and shape my nutrition on the fly keeping it within total calories but not as OCD about percentages. And I'm not being OCD about the scales. I'm only weighing once a month and not getting OCD about a number (which tended to get me discouraged if I didn't see a result that corresponded with how much work and effort I put in).
So I'm learning to use my OCD tendencies to my advantage while at the same time learning to moderate the extremes. And I know how I get when I weight often, so I'm committed to only weighing once a month. It's taken me a long time to learn how to channel negative aspects of my tendencies to work to my advantage while at the same time toning them down to have a healthy balance and avoid things that could get me discouraged (scales!!!).
So no matter what you believe your negative tendencies are or how you perceive they may hurt your efforts, you can learn to utilize them and shape them in a way that is advantageous. It took me a lot of time and experience to figure it out, but hopefully others will be a much quicker study.
I hope this helps.