As you guys may have noticed, on the Passion Design Project, I love bringing you big ideas and bold strategies for creating the life you want.

Today's topic might not be your absolute favorite, but listen, achieving big results isn't always gonna be a walk in the park, SO, if you aren't waking up absolutely amped about the day ahead, stick with me because this is important stuff!

We're talking fitness. Moving that bod. Gettin off your booty and maybe just maybe working up a sweat!

Maybe this is your thing, or maybe you're totally cringing like I occasionally do when it comes to workouts. I love playing sports, but when it comes to working out just for the heck of it, gosh, it just doesn't appeal to me! How does it appeal to anybody? You guys, why is it fun to sweat and hurt?!

Okay okay, all the benefits, I get it. And soooo, that's what we're going to talk about today! But not in just the generic "exercise to get in shape" context. I want to dig in a little further.

Because that's what I needed to get me to workout. I know that it can give me abs, I know that I can knock off a few pounds, I know that it can create a good instagram selfie. But I needed something more. Maybe you do too?

That's why I'm digging into the good stuff - I'm not training for a marathon and not thinking about losing weight, so besides the good endorphins, love those, why should I exercise?

Well, well, well, glad you asked!

Recently I was questioning the end results of my productivity. I was noticing that I'd take a lot of action and start a lot of new things, but once I got to the hard part or the edge of the cliff it felt like, I would sit down instead of taking the massive leap of action that could actually produce the results I want.

Now, the view from the edge of the cliff is really good, I can see possibilities for miles. However, if you've ever stood on the edge of something before jumping, you know that if you stand for more than 5 seconds, you start to think of a million reasons why you can't jump or shouldn't jump. You slowly back away and decide it's easier to go work on something else and you'll come back and jump later.

I call this the "feel good" strategy. You get far enough that you feel good about what you accomplished, but don't go so far that it would hurt. Cuz that's uncomfortable!

As I was sitting around wondering why some things I was doing weren't taking off, I thought about this. This thought just so happened to be right before I was going to either go for a run or do a workout circuit.

Like I mentioned previously, I don't exactly look forward to workouts. I actually occasionally, probably more often than I should, think of an excuse in my head why I need to condense it or cut it short that day. I'm talking embarrassing excuses like, my joints were cracking and I want to let them rest, or you know the one: you don't want to go so hard that you have to wash your hair.

Okay so during this moment, a little lightbulb of correlation went off in my head. I stop on my workouts when the going gets too tough, and I stop taking action in my biz when things get tough or uncomfortable. Maybe this connection is really obvious to you, but it took until that moment for me to really get it. I didn't have the toned body I wanted and I didn't have the killer biz I wanted, but I felt so close in both.

What I realized I needed to improve on was my simple mentality behind doing both of these things. It wasn't that I didn't have the skills or knowledge, I was just mentally weak.

An article I read on this subject on elitefts.com mentioned that "The problem is there isn't any easy way or shortcut to teaching toughness. Mental toughness is not for sale. The only way to get mentally tougher is by earning it."