Overcoming Obstacles

It’s time to talk about obstacles.

So you took my pop quiz yesterday and it turns out you answered “yes” to many of my questions.

That’s a good sign!

But maybe you still have doubts. Maybe you think you don’t know enough to actually be responsible for getting someone else in shape. Maybe all you’ve ever done is wash dishes or walk dogs and training seems like a giant step up from that. Maybe you think you need to get in better shape first. Maybe you should get a degree in exercise science first.

Maybe a lot of things.

Listen, there’s two key ingredients to success as a trainer:

1. a strong work ethic

2. a desire to learn

That’s what it really boils down to. If you have these two things, you can do it. In fact, the more of each of those traits you have, the more likely you are to succeed.

I've been doing this training thing for a while. I've seen a lot of new trainers come and go-- my club has more than 50 trainers!-- and it’s never obvious who will succeed and who will lose.

Some guys come in with a college degree from a good school, they're in great shape, maybe even a Division I athlete, but they're not quite hungry enough, they’re not quite eager enough to learn, and so they don't succeed.

On the flip side, I've seen young brothers come in with no advantages at all. Some of them even had a prison record, and felonies at that! They grew up in tough neighborhoods and had been through some tough times. It didn't matter. They made up their mind to succeed. They were determined, they worked hard and studied hard and quickly became successful. One minute they're broke, then a few months later they’re bringing home $5,000 a month, which is nothing to sneeze at.

And the difference was just what I said above: determination and a willingness to learn.

So before we continue I want you to really think about this: is this something you are serious about? It’s going to take hard work. Are you up for it? There’s a lot of new concepts to learn. You need to learn anatomy and physiology and even a little physics. It sounds hard, and it is, but I've never seen anyone fail who really had an earnest desire to learn. It’s just a matter of tenacity and putting in the work.

Sit and think about it a little while; make sure you're head is where it needs to be and that you really want this. If you're sure you're good to go, check out my next blog and I'll tell you the next step.