Starting from Success

How many times have you started a new project, a new job, a new relationship, a new anything and felt overwhelmed immediately? If you're like most people, the answer is frequently.

Take starting an exercise routine. When I ask new members how many times they want to come into the gym each week, many respond by saying "5-6 times a week". These folks usually haven't exercised for months and sometimes for years previously. These folks sometimes took that long to decide to actually join a gym.

What chance will they have in achieving their goal? In the first week of exercising, the answer could be likely; the second week possibly; the third week unlikely; the fourth week no way. How will they feel after a month? Probably discouraged and defeated and their attempt to improve their health and fitness will fall by the wayside until the next time.
Does this scenario sound familiar?

Let's break this common cycle.
Stop confusing your desires with your reality.
Hmm, ponder that for a moment.

You may desire to work out for 5-6x a week but if your present reality is zero work-outs, well, then, Houston, we have a problem.

If you come to me and say, I haven't been exercising at all and I want to be working out 5-6x a week, I will say to you "let's start with having you exercise 1-2x a week for a month. If the expectation is low to start, you will feel successful for achieving that level rather than beating yourself up for what is an unreasonable goal. If you decide to come an extra time or two, terrific, good for you, that's gravy. Let's figure out, based on your schedule, what time of day and which days are realistic for you to come in to the gym. Not a morning person? No problem, come after work. Have bridge on Tuesday nights? Not an issue, come on Wednesdays instead. Rather exercise with people? Great, these are our group exercise classes. Need accountability? No sweat, hire me for a couple of personal training sessions and you'll be accountable to me for showing up for your appointment. Then after a month, we'll evaluate where you're at and see what's working for you and what's not".

One cornerstone to my philosophy of working with people (personal training as well as flute teaching) is to start from success. Don't tell me what you can't do, let's figure out what you can do and how great you'll feel when you accomplish that. Then we can build on your success over time. That's how you eat an elephant, remember? One bite at a time. By the way, what's up with that saying? Who wants to eat an elephant anyway?

Is this making sense?

If you have any desire, any dream, a big, b-i-g, B-I-G goal, keep breaking it down until you reach very small component parts. What's one thing you can do today to reach your goal? What baby step can you take to move in the direction of realizing your dream? This method works in lots of situations and circumstances, not only to initiate a successful, consistent work-out routine.

Now here's the rub: just make sure you really, really really want whatever it is that you're choosing. Passion is the secret ingredient to the recipe of success. Passion is an inside job. It is discovered, not manufactured. And you will never find passion from an external source.

In Health and With Passion!

Laura