#4 Successful Personal Trainers Have a Business Vision

“As you climb the ladder of success, make sure it’s leaning against the right building.” – ? I can’t remember who said that, but it is the truth. In order to know if you’re doing the right things for your future, you need to define what you want that future to be.

What’s your business vision of where you want to be 5 years down the road? 10 years? 20 years? What’s your end game? We all have a balance of things that we want. Financial security, family, influence, enjoyment, fulfillment, recognition, etc. are all possible ingredients of our ideal life. What’s important to you?

Exercise: take 30 seconds (no more) and list the top five things that are important to achieve in your life. Ready… START. With a timed test, we don’t have time to debate in our head what and why things are important. It’s a gut reaction, and a lot can be learned from that. What did you come up with? Did any of those surprise you? In example, let’s say financial freedom is one of those. What does that mean to you? Do you want to build a business, sell it for huge money, and never have to work again? Or, do you want to make “X” amount of dollars per year as long as you chose to work? By when do you want to achieve this goal? How does it fit in with your other goals? Where’s the overlap and the balance?

It’s sort of like periodizing your life. Define when and what you want the results to be. Then you can back track and label the timeline with the steps that will take you to your goal.

Successful Personal Trainers have a clear vision of where they are going, when they want to be there, and what steps are necessary to get them there.

Check out the full series.

Top 10 Traits of Successful Personal Trainers (Series)

Top 10 Traits of Successful Personal Trainers #1

Top 10 Traits of Successful Personal Trainers #2

Top 10 Traits of Successful Personal Trainers #3

P.S. Also, follow my Business of Personal Training page on Facebook.

I’ve been thinking about how many people are satified just to survive. Club members that you see doing the same thing day in, day out and they never seem to lose the weight or progress in abilities. I know that there are challanges/difficulties that can hold us back. Sometimes they are greater than others, but they’re always there in some way, shape, or form. My concern is that those people become trapped in a frame of mind that locks them into mediocrity. Whether we’re talking about fitness, business, or life, some people seem to set their ceilings too low.

How long have you been plugging away and not really getting any closer to your goal? Have you given up on achieving it and are accepting not getting any worse as being good enough?

It’s about your mindset. Reevaluate your goals. Think about what it is that you truly want to achieve, not simply what is acceptable. How do you move forward? Well, first you have to care enough to step out of comfort zone of “same old, same old”. Does losing the weight mean enough to you to do something higher intensity than just coming in and walking on the treadmill? (not that that isn’t OK to start there, but you need to build to doing more) Analyze your obstacles. Is it lack of information, accountablity, time, or support that’s holding you back? Define it and take the steps to change it. If you need help, get it. What is it worth to reach your dreams? It starts with a little extra effort, a little extra planning, a little extra believing that you can achieve what it is that you truly want.

Amazing things can happen with a little extra effort, but you have to care enough to break out of the status quo. Watch this video for a little extra motivation! 212 the extra degree

We’re into the new year and how are you doing with all of those resolutions you made? Are you sticking to your plans or are you already not doing as well as you had hoped?

The problem with a New Year’s resolution is that we see January 1st as the ultimate fresh start and make those larger than life promises to ourselves. “This is it. I’m going to do everything right. Nothing is going to stop me.” And there’s the issue. You’ve just set the bar too high without giving yourself permission to not be perfect. So, when you do fall off the proverbial wagon (and we all do), it’s likely to leave you feeling like a failure and could stop you in your tracks, preventing you from reaching your goals.

So, as you evaluate your progress, look at the percent of success that you have achieved. If you achieve 20% of your goals, that’s 20% better than you have done in the past and that’s great. Accept it for the success that it is. Allow yourself to make changes gradually, adjust your expectations, have small successes, rejoice in them, and then build on them.

This is a time for you to make changes that you can sustain for a lifetime. Making the necessary changes in smaller percentages will keep you feeling positive and motivated to continue.

It’s that time when everyone comes up with a top 10 list and I didn’t want to get left out. So, here’s my top 10 weight loss tips for the coming year.

1) Know and Write Down Your Goal – Yes, you want to have an idea of what you want to lose, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Know what you will feel like, what you will be able to do, how your life will be better when you reach your ideal weight. The weight amount you want to lose will not keep you motivated. The “why it’s important to you” will help keep you on task. The extra bit is to write it down. People that write down their goals are far more likely to attain them. more…

2) Get Help From a Professional – So much time, effort, and self-esteem is wasted on failed attempts because we rely on what we think we know about losing weight. The weight loss industry is a multi-billion dollar industry because people spend tons of money on useless supplements, gadgets, and fad diets. Spend your money more wisely. Get started right with the advise from an RD and a Personal Trainer that can tailor a program just for you. more…

3) Commit to Lifestyle Changes – Quick fixes may help you to lose weight in short term, but in the long run will leave you heavier and frustrated. Look to making healthy lifestyle changes that you can sustain for the rest of your life.

4) Baby Steps- With a committment of making changes for your life, comes the decrease in pressure to change everything all at once. If you try to make it all perfect tomorrow, you will crash and burn, leaving you defeated and depressed. Plan on making one or two small changes at a time. When you master them, pick one or two more to work on. i.e. At least 3 days this week I will eat a healthy breakfast.

5) Journal – The biggest pain for most people and yet one of the most beneficial things you can do. Keeping a food journal can not only help you keep track of calories, protein, carbohydrates, and fat, but will also make you aware of your habitual behaviors, such as meal timing, how often you eat out, and times/situations that are problematic. As you become more aware of these issues, you can add them to your list of baby steps to be addressed in the future. If you don’t keep a journal, you may never fully understand what you are doing. If you find that a really detailed journal is too hard to do at this time, journal light. Just write down the names of what you ate, the time you ate it, where, and why (you were hungry, bored, sad…). more…

6) Use Diet and Exercise Approach- You have to address your nutritional life, absolutely. But, if that’s all you’re doing you will either never lose the weight, or if you do lose it, you will never be able to sustain it. The same is true for exercise alone. To combine diet and exercise is key in weight loss. Additionally, while tradition has led us to believe that cardio exercise was best for losing fat, when, in  fact, high intensity weight training is really the element of change. (Another reason to consult a professional.)

7) Be a More Active Person- Now, even though high intensity weight training is the most effective activity for weight loss, everything you do burns calories, and the more you do, the more calories you burn. Too often people will exercise for 30-60 minutes and then sit on their backside for the rest of the day. Get up, get out, and find ways to be a more active person. End the slothdom. Ways to be more active at work can be found here. 

8) Plan Ahead - Nothing beats planning out the next day ahead of time. If I go into a day knowing what I will eat, when, and have written in my exercise time as an appointment, sticking with it is far easier than if I try to “wing” good behavior. Even the unexpected can be planned for once you recognize what types of things can happen to throw you for a loop.

9) Clean House- Set up your environment to help you with your goals. Get rid of the foods/treats around you at home and work that make it hard to stay on track.

10) Confront Your Frenemies -  Frenemies are those that sabotage your efforts to lose weight.  You need to have a heart-to-heart talk with them and, without mincing words, explain what you’re doing and why it’s so important to you. Then make them aware of how they are making that hard for you to accomplish your goals. Ask them if they can help you by refraining from those things that make it more difficult than it already is. more… 

Of course there are more. But these are my top 10 to carry you to success in 2009.

Best wishes, Mark 

I was talking with a Personal Trainer the other day about selling training. He was experiencing an inability to close sales after new members went through their introductory session. What I realized in talking with him was that, while he was doing a great job getting them set to start on their health/fitness journey, he was failing to paint the picture of what to expect in the future and how training with you is the natural next step.

You should have just finished covering a medical health history, discoved their goals, past successes and obstacles. Now, paint the picture. Describe the importance of needing to start simple, how the body will soon adapt, and that greater challenges will need to be placed on it for it to continue to make progress. Illustrate specifically how working with you will help them to overcome the obstacles they’ve faced in the past and how it allows you to make adjustments in the program as needed to keep them on the fastest, safest path to reaching their goals. Point out the importance of keeping them accountable and how you can be that voice for them.

The better you paint the picture, the better they can see themselves succeeding by working with you.

There was a column piece in the business magazine Fast Company titled “With Frenemies Like These” that spoke to the love/hate relationships with competitors. I’m completely ignoring that. I just like the terms, a combination of friend/enemy and friend/foe and the concept of friends/family not being what they seem.

OK, what am I getting at? Well, I’m not suggesting that your family and friends don’t really love you, but sometimes they can and do sabotage your efforts to lose weight. How can you succeed when they lay guilt on you for taking time out of your schedule to exercise, or for eating different foods than they do. They goad you into splurging or taking time off. They give you or bring into your space foods that are your “weakness”.

Why do they do that? Don’t they get it? Don’t they know how that makes you feel? It’s simple, really. Your friends and family get something they want from you NOT succeeding. It’s selfishness, plain and simple. I know that sounds harsh, but it’s the truth. It may be that the lack of self esteem you have, puts them in a position of power. It may be that if you succeed, they will feel even worse about themselves for not being able to do as well as you. Or, it may be something else, but, be assured, it’s about them.

So what can you do about this? Have a heart-to-heart talk with them and, without mincing words, explain what you’re doing and why it’s so important to you. Then make them aware of how they are making that hard for you to accomplish your goals. Ask them if they can help you by refraining from those things that make it more difficult than it already is. Hopefully, when confronted frankly, they will agree to try and support you more. You will then have to remind them when they are “doing it again”.

“I Can Do It On My Own.” Many of us believe that we can figure out how to get in shape by ourselves. How hard can it be? You walk or run, lift weights, and stop eating garbage, right? Piece of cake (oooh…cake). And the truth is you can absolutely do it, but will you? Will you find the fastest, safest, most effect way possible? Will you break the habits that have lead you to where you are now? Do you keep up with the latest science and theories on strength, conditioning, and fat loss?

There is a time to hire a professional to help us achieve our goals and it’s not after we’ve floundered around wasted a lot of time (although it’s better late than never). It’s as you begin, get the guidance to get started right and stay on track. Also, many people don’t know what they don’t know. In example, did you know that standard, steady state cardio does not help you lose fat to any real extent? Many people still don’t. How would you unless you were keeping up on the research?

There’s no substitute for professional assistance. Go hire a Personal Trainer, a coach, or RD and make your dreams happen. The saved time and effort is well worth it.