FITNEXT

When it comes to buying a gym membership, personal training, or even exercise equipment for your home, there are factors to consider.  Among all of the factors that we could spend days naming, which one is the single most important when it comes to spending, whether you’re a multi millionaire or a poor college student?  Yes, i gave it away in the title, quality; the measurement of how efficiently a product or service is rendered.  Now when we employ a business to carry out a service for us, we’re immediately concerned with the quality at which they deliver the service.  We expect at least what they quote to us in terms of a completed service/finished product.  Why is it that when we’re the individuals mainly in control of quality, we slack the most on maintenance of quality?  You will probably have to look far and wide to find very many services offered that ultimately depend on the output of your effort.

 

Unfortunately many individuals tend to think of personal training in this mind frame…

 

“It’s hard for me to get in the gym a lot, I’ve got stuff going on, so I need accountability and I really just need someone to tell me what exercises to do and tell me that my favorite afternoon snack is an ok snack to have.  That way I can get my workout in and resume normal life as quickly as possible.”

 

This isn’t verbatim what people say, but this is where their mind is.

 

 

It’s the people with this mind frame that tend to make progress in large stride again, again and again…the people you see in the gym who’s bodies change, and keep changing, but one thing about them never seems to change, the intensity at which they pursue their goal.  It always tends to be the most noticeable thing about them (unless maybe they’re really loud).

 

“Ok awesome, I have my own fitness coach now, so I’ve got someone to be accountable to.  I’m going to take full advantage of this person’s knowledge and experience (which I’m paying for whether I use it or not) and do everything in my power to reach my goals.  If I need motivation, I’ve got it, if I need to learn how to eat to attain my goals more quickly, I’ve already got it.  I may have to work for a living whether I like it or not, but I don’t have to be in the gym, ever!  Since I choose to be though, every second I’m in their  is for me, so I’m gonna act like it and make it count.”

 

By the way, yes this person is human, this person still wants to meet up for happy hour, or have a couple drinks at lunch, or skip a meal when they don’t feel like eating, or even making it and yes this person has terribly crappy, long days at work that make them vomit in their mouth at the thought of the smell of the gym they’re going to afterward, compounded by their superior(s) barking orders at them, all day. Or perhaps just asking them very gingerly to do something, but with a sparkle in their eye that says ‘I own you until 5 p.m.’ every time it twinkles.

 

A client of mine made a very good point and I wanted to share it.  They told me they were spending X amount of dollars a month (X being quite a bit more than what you would consider a ‘negligible amount’) on training, but weren’t living as if they were doing so.  I believe they mentioned their diet wasn’t really where it needed to be, and maybe had a few too many drinks throughout the week to expect much to be happening in the mirror, they asked themselves “If I’m making this type of investment, why am I not making it work for me by giving it all I’ve got and doing it completely?

 

So the next time you’re heading into the gym, think about what you really want for yourself out of the whole experience.  It’s there; you may as well take it,

 

You’re already paying for it

 

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 16th, 2008 at 5:53 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.