Stretch Out Your Time Horizon of Success
Your mind is the #1 determining factor in whether you succeed at this fitness stuff or not.
Think incorrectly about your fitness journey and I can almost 100% guarantee you will fail.
Fix you thinking about your journey and I can almost 100% guarantee you will succeed!
What we believe determines what actions we take, and it’s those actions that make us successful.
One of the most important beliefs is your expectation of how long results will take.
In other words I’m telling you if you’re patient and in it for the long-haul…you WILL win!
Having Improper Expectations, Despite Great Results Leads to Frustration
The number 1 reason we see clients give up on themselves and their fitness journey is unmet expectations. I’ve found that how happy clients are with their success is only partially related to the actual progress they’re making. A lot of client happiness is determined by whether or not their expectations are met.
I’ve seen clients lose multiple inches off their waist in their first 3 months. Build tons of strength, drop a pant size, and feel way better. Only to get frustrated and quit because they wanted to lose 2 pant sizes in those first 3 months.
And look, I get it! I’m all about some fast progress. Let’s make progress as fast as we possibly can in a sustainable way.
But the reality is…they DID make fast progress!
At this rate, after 1 year they’d be down 4 pant sizes.
After 2 years they’d be down 8 pant sizes.
That’s crazy fast!
But I’ve seen this happen too often unfortunately. Despite making amazing progress, clients quit because they want the results faster.
And the ironic thing is they almost always take WAY longer to reach their goals by trying all kinds of different approaches in the name of speed. Sadly, many of them never even reach their goals.
Fix those expectations so you can get the amazing results you’re after!
Avoid Quick Fixes
There are a lot of quick fixes out there. And many of them work. Maybe of them work really well!
They can get you the fast results you’re looking for today. But there’s a big difference between getting results and keeping them.
I always want to take an approach with my clients that helps them get great results AND keep them.
Quick fixes get you results. But they don’t help you keep them.
I’ll give you an example from both my business journey and fitness journey.
Business example:
Early on in business, I just wanted to grow grow grow. I wasn’t thinking of any possible negative repercussions from growing too quickly or growing in a way that’s not healthy. I didn’t even know a business could grow in an unhealthy way.
Well, I found a way to add a bunch of high paying clients quickly. At first I was super pumped. But it turns out it was NOT a good thing. I didn’t have the systems or the staff to support the growth in clients. And truthfully, the majority of the clients weren’t a good culture fit.
In the end, growing too fast led us to hitting all time gross revenue records (with very little profit and tons of stress) but a few months later it led to declining membership numbers, unhappy clients, and a business I didn’t love walking into.
It was not pretty! But that’s because I was impatient!
Fitness Example:
10 years ago I decided to get as lean as I possibly could. And I wanted to do it as quickly as possible.
I cut my calories super low and was exhausted all the time. So I had to drink an energy drink just to feel like working out. That was, of course, in addition to all the coffee I was drinking. 1-1.5 pots of coffee per day. (Makes my 2-3 cups of coffee per day today seem like nothing!)
I hit my goal pretty quickly, but I had nothing to show for it. Not much anyway. I was super lean which was a cool accomplishment and it looked cool for a photo. But that’s about it.
I was exhausted. Cold all the time. Hungry all the time. And just unhappy. I was NOT healthy!
What I should have done in both scenarios is said I want to add as much revenue/get as lean as possible in a way that maintains or even improves the health of my business/body.
Had I put those restrictions on myself, it would have taken longer to get there but ultimately I would have been able to achieve those goals AND maintain them AND continue to make progress beyond that point.
THIS is the approach I take with business and my fitness today.
You Need to Be Honest About How Much Time and Energy You Can Devote to Your Fitness
The first thing we need to address is how much time, energy, and effort you’re able to pour into your fitness journey right now.
This will vary depending on the season of life you’re in.
I’m a busy business owner, husband, and father. I devote less time and energy to my fitness than I did when I was a 20 year old college student. That’s not a bad thing. It’s just a different season of my life.
Back then I wanted to be as strong as possible and as lean as possible.
Today, I want to be healthy and as lean and strong and fit as I can be within the allotted time I have set aside for my fitness.
Many of you have even less time than I do to devote to your fitness. Also not a bad thing. Just the season of life you’re in.
My advice to clients is to always be honest about the time, energy, and effort you’re able to pour into your fitness journey. Once you know what you can dedicate, give it your all within that window of time!
Strive to make progress AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE within your allotted window.
Then be realistic about what kind of results you can expect based on how much effort you can put in.
If you’re that young college kid or professional, you might be able to make some crazy progress in the coming months because you have plenty of time to dedicate to your fitness.
If you’re that busy parent or maybe you’re a caretaker for your parent or maybe you work a super stressful job or all of the above…you’ll be able to make some great progress. It’s just going to take you longer to reach your goals than people who have more time to dedicate to fitness. Accept this fact!
Which brings me to my next point:
With Enough Time…Success is Inevitable
Sure, the young, single, not as busy crowd is able to make some crazy impressive progress in a short amount of time.
But the truth is, given enough time anyone can make that kind of progress!
If you are dedicated to your fitness, even if it’s just a couple hours per week, you can make some incredible progress. It’s just going to take longer than the person dedicated 4-6 hours per week.
When people think about the kind of results they want to make, they often think in terms of weeks and months.
I’d rather talk in years and decades.
Sure, it’s not exactly a sexy selling point. But it’s true.
And it reminds me of a great quote I heard when I first started working as a Personal Trainer:
“Most people overestimate what can be done in a couple months. Those same people underestimate what can be done in a couple years.”
Do your best to see amazing progress in the next 3 months. Your efforts should always be aimed at getting the most out of your plan.
But your expectations and patience level should be thinking in terms of years.
And while that might not sound good to you, it’s often the truth about how long it will take to get where you want to go.
But here’s some more food for thought:
So what if it takes you 2 years?? Or even 3-4?
Let’s say you’re 45. You’ve been trying to get lean, strong, healthy, and fit for the last 20 years. What’s another 2, 3, or 4 years?
If you get to your final goal by 50, you get to maintain that the rest of your life. Which will hopefully be multiple more decades!
In the grand scheme of things, what’s the difference between you reaching your goal by 46, 48, or 50?
The important thing is you actually reach your goal.
Now what’s the difference between reaching your goal in 4 years vs. never reaching it at all?
The difference is everything. You do not want that to be your story.
The Summary
Here’s what you need to do:
Commit to fixing your thinking/expectations
Be honest about how much time, energy, and effort you can and will pour into your fitness journey
Be willing to keep at it for 2-4 years before reaching your ultimate destination
Work as hard as you can so you can get results as quickly as possible
Remember, I’m all about fast progress! I just want you to be patient!
Celebrate your wins along the way
Commit to never giving up
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