Would you rather … be able to live in the body of your dreams for the rest of your life but die 7 years early OR live 7 years longer but have to continue to work on your body composition for that whole time?
Ahhh … decisions, decisions.
Who doesn’t love a fun game of Would You Rather? My family used to do family game nights for a period of time. We would play Taboo, Pictionary, Cranium, Apples to Apples, and we even found a card game of Would You Rather.
It’s all in good fun when you have to make those decisions hypothetically.
But what about when the decisions are real?
Where does the word ‘decision’ come from?
For example, Mel was faced with a major life decision recently and I watched how much she struggled to make it. As much as I tried to help, there’s only so much someone else can do.
It’s up to the individual to decide.
Have you ever looked into the origins of that word? It would be pretty random if you did lol. Someone mentioned it on a podcast recently and I had to confirm.
Sure enough, the word decision has Latin roots that literally mean to cut off or to kill off.
At first, I thought that was strange but upon further review (sorry, I’m in full blown NFL mode with the Super Bowl coming up), I realized how freaking accurate that definition is.
When you make a decision, you are quite literally cutting off or killing off every other option.
Mel made a choice. And in doing so, she killed off the other path she could’ve taken. Now, that door isn’t completely closed so if she decided to change her mind, she’d be killing off her current choice.
Am I the only one that’s mind-blown by this? Probably. But I’m ok with that.
When you make a decision, you’re choosing what to kill off.
When I decided to stop being a chronic dieter … I killed off that identity. I cut off that person.
If I went back to chronic dieting, I’d be killing off the current, healthy version of myself.
I find this to be incredibly empowering.
When faced with a decision, the answer isn’t always about which direction you want to go.
Because that opens you up to the manipulation of your own brain.
The fear. The uncertainty. The gravitation towards comfort.
What if you thought about it through the lens of what you’d rather kill off?
It makes things pretty simple, in my perspective.
Like when clients come to us with a slow metabolism because they’ve been under eating for decades. And they don’t want to feel sluggish and stuck.
And we tell them that they probably need to eat more and do less cardio and remove stress from their system. But they’re like … wait, I need to lose fat.
Your future is in your own hands.
The question becomes … do you want to kill off all hope of feeling and looking better? Or do you want to kill off your sluggish metabolism that is keeping you stuck and frustrated?
Doesn’t that paint a much more effective picture?
I have a feeling that you’re either nodding along in agreement or shaking your head like … what the hell is he talking about?
I hope it’s the former because this was a massive lightbulb moment for me.
I might even ask this question to anyone who considers joining our coaching program.
Do you want to kill off the struggle of not losing weight, the frustration of not achieving your goals, and the mental energy you’re spending trying to figure this out on your own …
Or would you rather kill off the solution to your problems?
What I like about the root and origins of the word decision … is that it removes any notion of good vs. bad or right vs. wrong.
If you choose to kill off the solution to your problems, at least you can stop wondering or complaining.
Because you’ll have total awareness that you cut that off.
So, if you find yourself thinking that you’d love to be 20 lbs. lighter, you can take a step back and remember that you cut off the solution. And simply live and be happy in your current body with the decision that you made.
No judgement, no right or wrong, no good vs. bad. Just a decision. An assassination of one thing or another.
The next time you’re faced with a tough decision, consider this frame.
Which thing would you rather kill off?
