I believe success comes from focusing on the small steps leading to the goals instead of the end goal. This couldn’t be more true for the fitness field (personal training, sports performance training, weight-loss etc…).
“If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.”
– Dale Carnegie
Personal Training
Dale Carnegie hit the nail right on the head. Unfortunately this method isn’t often accepted within the fitness field. All too often we hear the all too typical media ploy to hook you via- “the fastest way to ‘lose weight’, ‘gain strength’, ‘build muscle’, ‘run faster”, and so on.
If fitness enthusiasts were to take Dale Carnegie’s advice, the focus would NOT be on:
- How to lose weight quickly.
- What is the best cleanse for weight loss.
- Which diet is the best- “If It Fits Your Macros” IIFYM, Paleo, Mediterranean, Atkins, calorie cycling, carb cycling etc…
- What program do to- linear, undulating, concurrent, etc…
And so on…
The focus would be on simple things such as
- Having a healthy lunch- that means minimize fast food, eat fish instead of friend chicken, have a salad instead of fries, etc…
- Hit the gym- doesn’t matter what you do just go to the gym twice a week- run, lift, swim, take a fitness class. Whatever you do just GO, even if it’s 20 minutes. This is important because these small actions will eventually become a positive habit. Soon enough, instead of once every other week, you’re consistently hitting the gym twice a week!
- Minimize sodas- say you typically drink two sodas a day (280 total kcal) and we asked you to replace 5 sodas a week with sugar free flavored soda water. If the average soda is about 140k, that equates to 700 kcals lost in one week. In 5 weeks you’ll lose one pound just be doing this ONE single habit. Consistently do this for the year and you’ll lose 10lbs just by doing this ONE single habit. Who knows, by then you may even ween off all sodas and get in even better shape!
Successful Habit Building
As a personal trainer in NYC, we train a wide variety of clientele from weight-loss to professional athletes. Regardless of the goal, all success comes from focusing on habits that work well with their life style.
Focusing on ONE small habit that fits with your lifestyle not only makes it simple but it gives you a sense of accomplishment. While this may seem minimal or mundane to some, it’s far from it and very effective.
The problem we commonly see with personal training and performance training clients is that they want to do EVERYTHING all at once. When you take a trainee that’s not used to dieting and/or training and then place them into these extremes, what do you think will happen? It clearly will overwhelm them with all the new habits to focus on. This sets them up for failure and repeats the vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting or failing to complete the workouts.
This is basically what happens with New Years fitness resolutions. According to the University of Scranton Journal of Clinical Psychology, the #1 New Years resolution of 2012 was to “Lose Weight”. As you probably already can guess, it states that only 8% of the people actually achieve their goal.
We already know this though, there’s even memes making fun this same circumstance. So instead of doing the same thing over and over again, take of Dale Carnegie’s advice
“If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.”
Soon enough you’ll find that you’re well on your way to the goal that you worked so hard for.
If this is STILL not enough for you, listen to Chris Pratt about his transformation for his role in Guardians of the Galaxy:
“All you have to do is a few things everyday and remain consistent….Also seek the help of a coach- like a personal trainer or nutritionist, it might cost a little bit of money but it won’t cost as much as the crap that you’re not going to be eating over the next 6 months..”
“Also seek the help of somebody as a coach, like a personal trainer or nutritionist, it might cost you a little bit of money but it won’t cost as much as the crap that you’re not going to be eating over the next 6 months.”
-Chris Pratt
Full interview below:
Stay strong,
P.S. Don’t forget to sign up for email list right below!
About the Author
Speak Your Mind