Alright, so 2014 is here and I’m sure you’ve made some sort of promise to yourself about your training and/ or nutrition program. I know that I sure have and that’s great, except I know that odds are very high we’ll never see them through unless we take some massive action.

Heading into the New Year we always hear people around us talking about what they want to accomplish in the next year. But here is the sad truth…most of those people will not make much progress on those goals.

The problem is that action is the only thing that brings results. Thinking about things doesn’t do it and neither does studying and learning more about it, “planning” your next move.

You have to act to see results.

But action is a tricky thing because it takes guts and the ability to be alright with making mistakes. It is so much easier to talk about what we would or want to do in the future than to actually act on them.

As my favorite 17^th century Samurai would put it –

“The warrior attitude is very simple. Focus your mind on your goal, constantly strive for perfection and don’t allow yourself to be sidetracked.” – Miyamoto Musashi

In other words, once you have a goal start taking action on it. Focus and commitment are easy words to say but putting them into action is a different story.

To do this it is very important that you don’t worry about doing everything “perfectly”. Figure it out as you go, making mistakes and seeing them as opportunities to learn.

And one of the best ways to do this is to commit to spending at least 20-30 minutes a day working towards your training goals for the next 28 days.

If you really want to see change then we need to take action on those goals and there is no better time to start than today.

At the end of the 28 days you’ll not only look and feel differently – not to mention rolling differently as well – but you’ll also have built some good habits and learned a lot about yourself and your body along the way.

This is one of the best ways to kick start your training program because it gets you into the habit of forcing yourself to make time to train. If you have to wake up a little earlier or turn off the TV a little sooner then you do it, no excuses.

You can’t make excuses, only work on finding solutions.

This puts you in a totally different mindset compared to the “we’ll see if I can find some time to train this week” mentality we usually take with our program. You start seeing opportunities to train when you can instead of obstacles to train like you think you should be training.

Like I tell my clients, there is optimal and then there is reality. In my experience this 28 Day Challenge is one of the best ways to learn how to deal with reality instead of stress over optimal.

Just to keep things simple I’d recommend shooting for 2-4 days of strength and conditioning and doing some mobility work on the other days. Whatever it is you choose to do you just need to punch the clock and put in your time each day.

So to help you with this challenge I’m giving you a free copy of the Accountability Log I’ve used with some of my clients in the past. It is a great way for you to see how you’re doing each week with your training goals plus, let’s face it – there is just something motivating about being able to check something off your list.

Click here to download the Accountability Log and instructions on how to use it.

Just remember that taking action can be a messy process and things often won’t go as planned. You may miss a few days over the course of the challenge but instead of worrying about how many you might miss because now isn’t the perfect time to start, think instead about how many you’ll miss if you don’t try.

Fortune favors the bold, my friend, and this 28 day Challenge is a bold way to start 2014.

I’d also like to mention that if you need a training program for this 28 Day Challenge the free 30 Day BJJ Bodyweight Workout Program would be perfect for you. With short, fun bodyweight only workouts it is exactly what you need to fit smart, effective strength training into your busy schedule.

That’s it for now, if you’re in for this 28 Day Challenge then post a comment below this blog post. I’ll be doing some check in posts over the course of the next 28 Days and we’ll see how many of us are still on track.

Until next time…

Roll Strong,

James Wilson

BJJ Strength Training Systems

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