I’ve been working with clients as a Long Island personal trainer for almost 20 years helping them lose body fat and get into their ideal shape. If there is one thing that separates the winners from the losers, it’s mindset. The losers are doomed from the beginning. They are setting themselves up for failure with a negative mindset. They aren’t expecting to succeed so they don’t. Controlling our mind is imperative.
Winners on the other hand have a vision. They know where they want to go and it’s simply a matter of taking the right steps.
Don’t look at the wall
Famed race car driver Mario Andretti was asked how he manages to avoid crashing into the wall when turning at such high speeds. His response was eye opening. He said that he didn’t look at the wall. He looked past it. If he focused on the wall itself he would be more likely to crash into it. And crashing into things at 200 mph generally isn’t a good idea.
What a great analogy for life and goals. Andretti discussed two different options. Focus on the wall and stand a greater chance of crashing into it or avoid looking at the wall (as hard as that may be) and wind up past it in the open road. It’s the same with us. We get what we focus on. If we see ourselves as fat, we’ll make the choices of a fat person. But if we can see ourselves in the ideal shape that we want, we’ll make positive choices that will ultimately lead us closer to our goal. The good book says that without vision the people perish. Here are my top 5 mindset tips. Don’t skip the mindset stuff. It’s the most important step.
- Know Your Why – Nazi concentration camp survivor Viktor Frankl wrote in his classic Man’s Search for Meaning that if we know our why we can endure any, how. What’s going to keep you going when the going gets tough? Because it will.
- Don’t dwell on the past – Successful people do very little thinking about the past except to learn from it. They wisely realize that what has happened is unchangeable but they can quite literally design their future.
- Don’t hang out with turkeys – Turkeys will drag you down. Hang out with eagles so you can soar. Be intentional about who you associate with. It has a great impact on your attitude.
- Be prepared. Life has a way of knocking us down occasionally. There’s no way around this. What we can do is decide the attitude we take regarding the problem. Focus on that.
- Ask yourself the right questions – The wrong questions start with why and who. They shift responsibility. The right questions start with what or how. For example, “What can I do to help out?” or “How can I help this situation?
Billy Hofacker B.S., CSCS, FMS LEVEL 1
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