The #1 Reason People Fail to Get Healthy (And How to Finally Get the Results You Want)
Too often people focus on the specifics of a fitness program and do not realize that there are some fundamentals that are much more important.
Things like consistency, having fun, and sustainability are far more important when it comes to getting healthy than how many days per week you should work out or which diet you should try.
And so, if you really want to get at the root cause of why so many people fail to get fit, we have to look at one of the fundamentals of success in fitness: Expectations!
Too many times I see people start on this journey….
You experience a trigger.
Put on a pair of pants and they don’t fit
See yourself in the mirror or photo and not happy with what you see
Wake up in pain and just sick of it
Go for a hike and can’t keep up
Whatever it may be.
You finally felt a pain and decide to take action.
You jump on google and search for “gyms near me”.
You find a place, enter your information, but then decide the pain isn’t bad enough yet to get started.
A month (or four) goes by, and now you are in the same position or worse.
This time you mean it.
You finally call a place and schedule a consultation and right then and there decided to start a program.
You are so excited!
A few days past and now you are nervous.
Scared of how hard it is going to be. Scared you can’t make the time for it.
You didn’t actually have a conversation with your coach around the expectations of your goal(s) and is it realistic and how long it will take.
We live in a world of instant gratification so we expect it from all parts of our life.
If we don’t get instant gratification we lose interest or switch to another program. We don’t set our expectations right from the start; we are telling ourselves that we aren’t committed to doing the hard work and self sabotage kicks in.
Your expectations will set you up for success or failure before you even start a program. To better understand how this works, let’s look at the difference between real and imagined failure.
If you have tried to get fit or loose weight before but have struggled to stick with it, you have probably thought that the failure was real.
When you start a new program you start with “excitement”. This is where you get yourself revved up to tackle your fitness once and for all!
Unfortunately, this often leads to overcommitting to your plan and then becoming overwhelmed when you start to fall off track. It’s the “all or nothing” mentality.
Once you fall off track, then you go through a combination of self-shaming (beating yourself up for not sticking to it) and blame (feeling angry at the world/others for getting in the way).
Inevitably, you rationalize (IMAGINED FAILURE) your current situation and move to a place of tolerance. Thinking about how things “could be worse” and “at least I’m not like _______”.
The problem with this thinking is that it robs you of actually creating the life you want. You do care about your health and fitness – you just need a better approach.
You need to change the way you think about your health and fitness journey.
How to Get On a Success Path
If you are sick of starting a program and not sticking with it, it’s time to learn how to change your behavior or thinking.
We all get excited and excitement is a good thing! But we also inevitably hit a wall and get overwhelmed. Work, children, parents, life. Things happen.
Here is where it’s a critical step…
And this is where your expectations can either hurt you or help you.
If you identify potential barriers up front, when they do surface you will be aware of them and be able to adjust your approach and behaviors.
That is where “awareness” comes in.
When things feel overwhelming, step back and recognize what is going on. That you are hitting a very natural and normal stage in the journey.
However, if you had expected to get results faster, or that things were going to “be better” this time, then you end up turning inward and see this as another example of why you cannot succeed (self-shame).
But fear not!
We all set unrealistic goals and are terrible at creating realistic expectations.
The point is less about how to better set expectations, but rather, being good at adjusting expectations as you go.
It’s about letting go of your previous expectations and creating new ones. It’s not about giving up on your goals, but rather, adjusting your behaviors to match your capacity in the current moment.
We are all going to fail!
Especially when we start something new.
BUT it’s the trying again, adjusting, and staying committed that will eventually lead to success.
By letting go of unrealistic expectations, it frees you to focus on what you CAN do, not on what you can’t do.
Success is a moving target, so it is critical to know that there will be things that come up that make it hard to stick with your current plan.
The key is to adapt and keep moving forward.
The Power of a Coach
This may be the greatest reason to get a coach...to have someone there to:
Bring awareness to when you are heading into the “overwhelm” stage.
Help provide options for what you can do regardless of your life situation.
Support you and keep you accountable to yourself and your health.
You know how important your health is, but are you really making it a priority?
If not, I want to challenge you to consider what will happen if you do NOT take action now.
We all would like to think that we will have more time, money, and motivation later, but the truth is, if you wait too long to focus on your health and fitness, it can be a real uphill battle.
So don’t wait. Start making your health a priority today. And if you need the help of a coach as you work through the challenges that are bound to arrive, we are here to step in!
Let’s Review…
Most people's failure is imagined. They tell themselves many things to make it OK to quit a program or to skip a day and they just plain give up on themselves too early.
That is why a coach is so important.
They will help you identify the imagined failures and help you stay motivated and committed to your goals.
Just as you would hire a financial advisor to help keep you on track and set the right expectations for your finances, a fitness coach will help keep you on track to hit your health goals.
Schedule a FREE Health and Fitness Success Session Today and we’ll actually take the time to talk about what’s getting in your way and help you identify how to get started and actually stick with it.
Studio ME Fitness is the leading fitness studio in Minneapolis for purpose-driven men and women to lose weight, get out of pain, and do more of the things that make life meaningful.