The 3F’s of OS

Categories: Blog Jul 22, 2015

I love watching late night informercials. Or at least I used to before I had kids. And had a TV.

Point is, I love the way each product is portrayed, especially the fitness products, by young fit-bods, with big white smiles and deep, dark tans.

“New!”

“Easy!”

“FAST!”

They all exclaim, in the best radio announcer’s voice.

And then of course come all the life-changing testimonials showing you that you can do it too, for the low, low price of 3 easy payments of $39.95 plus shipping and handling.

One company, behind one of the best-selling late night TV fitness products, spends more than $100 million a year in advertising, so you know what their selling works. At least it “works” in terms of selling - meaning they have their advertising message right.

However, according to members of that particular company, 82% of the people who purchase their product never finish it. Some sources estimate the drop out number is as high as 93%.

So why do people fail to complete what they say they want to do?

And how can you learn from the mistakes of others to use Original Strength successfully?

That’s where the 3F’s come in to play.

F #1 - Faith

One definition of “faith” is “the assurance of things hoped for, the certainty of things unseen.”

What that means is, you must be 100% certain in your mind that the thing you are hoping for, the thing you cannot see, will come to pass, eventually, no matter what. Period. End of story. It’s really a heart issue.

Most people who fail to achieve their goals, myself included, aren’t settled internally, in their hearts, that what they’re believing for will come to pass.

And because that’s the case, they don’t see what they want come to pass.

They’re not fully persuaded.

OS is funny. You read it, and on the surface it looks so simple - TOO simple for many people - to actually believe that it’ll work - that it will restore the things your body is missing and make you resilient. Really, really, really resilient. (I was thinking this just last night while I was working out way later than I should’ve been, doing things that would make my orthopedic surgeon just shake her head.)

In fact, OS seems downright childish.

Because it is.

And when you think about faith, there is something “child-like” about it. My 4-year old son believes everything I tell him. Why would he not? I’m his dad. He trusts me. Implicitly.

However, we think as adults we need to cast aside childish things.

Playing Barbie and GI Joe, yes. Other things, not so much. We’d do well to watch and learn from our kids.

Case in point: When Tim and I first started this journey back in 2010, he went “all in.” He was fully convinced, fully persuaded this would work. I was not. So I “tinkered” and “experimented” by taking OS out of my training for periods and putting it back in, taking it out, putting it back in, kind of like the “Hokey-Pokey,” to see what impact it really had on the things I wanted to do. It took me about 2 years to become fully persuaded myself. Tim just kept going knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that he would see what he wanted to see come to pass. I wasn’t sure. Until I was.

Most people aren’t fully persuaded that what they’re about to embark on will actually work - they’re still in the “hope” stage - meaning - it’d be great if what they were about to do actually did what it said it would do - but they're still not sure it will.

Unfortunately, more often than not, that means, they lose -

F#2 - Focus

Focus is the ability to concentrate on a given task.

Focus is also the ability to concentrate on a given task until completion.

Because most people don’t have faith in what they’re doing, they can’t stay focused, and they’re distracted by something else that’s “new” - some other bright and shiny thing that “promises” whatever it is they think they want.

The good news about OS is that it literally is, in many cases, as simple as putting one foot in front of the other - repeatedly.

Staying focused on what you want and the process you’ve chosen to get you there, is well, what gets you “there.”

Again, back in the early days, my focus wasn’t really on doing OS - it was on doing just enough OS to do what it was I wanted to do. I failed to realize that I truly needed to make OS THE Foundation of all I did in order to get where I wanted to go - to do what I wanted to do. I shudder to think how much time I wasted by not staying focused.

Which brings us to -

F#3 - Frequency

Since Original Strength restores your body’s Operating System - your fundamental movement patterns upon which everything else is built - it makes good sense that if you’ve had a lifetime of abuse and injury, that doing OS as often as possible is a sure way to reach your goals faster.

In fact, all skill acquisition is based on frequency - specifically frequency without fatigue.

A tennis player looking to improve her serve isn’t going to pound away until her she can no longer move her arm. Fatigue interferes with skill acquisition.

OS is no different.

The fastest, “easiest” way to regain your youth is to not only “press reset” daily, but multiple times a day - maybe around meal times - breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Some breathing, rolling, and nods before breakfast for 5 minutes.

Cross crawls and a 20 minute walk before lunch.

And rolling, rocking and crawling after you get home, just before dinner, for 10 minutes, to shake off the day’s stresses.

That’s just one example.

There are many, many others that you can use.

At the end of the day, using the 3 F’s - Faith, Focus, and Frequency - with Original Strength - and indeed anything else - will go a long way to getting you back to - and beyond - where you want to be.

If you need more of a “vision” to help you with your “faith in” OS, many people find the Original Strength DVD incredibly helpful in making sure they’re doing the resets “right.” If you’re wired like that, you can get a copy here.

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