WHAT COMES FIRST PASSION OR SUCCESS?

Most of us think its passion.

But is it?

If you read the feed that comes across your Facebook and Instagram every day you’ll believe it is. Every-where we are surrounded with the positivity & passion police! ‘You can’t succeed unless you’re passionate’, ‘find your passion’, ‘the only way to do a good job is to love what you do’ etc.

As well, probably the single most common thing that PT students tell me is that they are passionate about fitness and want to share their experience and help change lives. In fact, in a google search on what qualities a PT should possess, passion was the first characteristic listed.

But if passion led to success there would be more successful PT’s out there.

Why are less than 1% of personal trainers registered with Fitness Australia for longer than 10 years!! They were passionate but still failed in the dream.

They all thought PT would be a great. They could do what they love and share their passion with like-minded people. But the hours, the competition from fellow PT’s, the constant need to sell, the clients that cancel and the clients that just don’t get results!

So, they asked themselves. Is it me? Maybe, it is not really my passion, I’ll find something else.

BUT – It’s not just having a passion, you got to feed it that passion.

And what feeds passion? More than one thing - BUT success does.

Success often needs to come first, sometimes our passion dries up, but success can be fuel, it gives you the drive to continue, it fires up your belly in the morning and creates instant energy. When you get success, you believe you’re capable.

So, the real question is how can I get successful? And the answer is effort.

Effort feeds success and success feeds passion.

- Doing small things consistently do add up. And most PT’s have lots of spare time.

- When a client cancels, do you get a coffee, gossip with whoever is around, scroll Facebook or maybe read a science journal?

- It’s a choice and just like we want our clients to change habits so to do we.

Effort is just another way to say habit. Build constructive habits and eliminate destructive ones. Examine the way you spend your time and develop a growth mindset. A growth mindset praises EFFORT not outcome.

Success is the OUTCOME and when we focus on success we also focus on failure. And that is a sure way to kill repeated attempts at well, anything. So, put less emphasis on outcome and more on effort.

Start small. What is one thing you can do today that will make next week better?

It’s like training. You gotta do a body weight squat before you add load, you gotta crawl before you run so don’t expect 100% effort the minute you start doing something.

Be committed to your effort but be content with small changes, be content with effort. Sometimes the best thing about the training session with your clients is the fact they turned up.

We all have our dark days but don’t forget you make a difference.