Mindset

Accountability

You need to hold yourself accountable. I can't possibly overstate this aspect. No matter what advice I give you, no matter what tips or tricks you get, nothing will succeed without accountability.

When I see family and friends failing to reach their goals, this is often a big contributor. They make excuses, they delay what they need to do, and in the end, nothing gets done. This may seem harsh, but it's absolutely fundamental that you keep yourself accountable.

A coach greatly helps with accountability, but it should be viewed as a boost to your own accountability, not a pillar. At the end of the day, it's your journey, shaped by your actions.

Goals

If you signed up for coaching, you have goals to achieve. Remember those goals. Write them down.

I mean it, write them down on pen and paper. Describe what you want to achieve and why you want to achieve them.

Keep that paper as visible as possible, and read it often.

Scarcity and abundance

Most people frame fitness in the wrong way. When trying to achieve a goal, that often requires sacrifices, and we focus on those sacrifices.

I am on a diet, and someone just offered me cookies. I can't accept it because of my diet. I am being deprived. It's a mindset of scarcity.

Instead, we want a mindset of abundance. We want to focus on what we are gaining. Yes, you have to make sacrifices, but what are those sacrifices for? To make yourselves better. To improve and enhance our lives.

Seeing ahead

Don't just blindly follow a plan and wait for obstacles to come your way. Predict how you may fail, and then try to come up with a plan on how to prevent it before it happens.

This may seem trivial, but it's super important. Obstacles are inevitable, but if you have a mindset of trying to adjust ahead of time, your chance of success is exponentially higher. Most people never do this, and then they have to try to fix the problem once it has already happened, and without having any idea on how to do so because it never crossed their mind.

Acceptance

This is an underappreciated part of fitness, not talked about enough. It's normal to be hungry, to have cravings, and to lack motivation. However, most people freak out when they feel that way, like it's inherently a failure. It's not.

It's part of the process, and you should accept it. Don't suppress it. It doesn't work, and it often backfires. Accept the feeling, it's OK. It's OK to be hungry, it's OK to have cravings. You don't have to act upon it. If you encounter it with a mindset of acceptance, you will find that it's much easier to manage rather than being hostile or feeling depressed about it.

Furthermore, feelings pass. When we feel something negative, we have the tendency to act like it's going to feel like this forever, that it's unavoidable, and that it somehow needs to be "fixed". But none of that is true. You will find that very often, they will pass quickly. And the more accepting you are of it, the faster and easier it passes.