Perhaps because I have been working out consistently for most of my life I find it impossible to talk about my philosophy of fitness without discussing the rest of my life. I’m in my 35th year, I’m married, I have two beautiful daughters and have been working out for more than 20 years. I believe success in fitness is no different than success in sport, business, love or any other aspect of life.

1. Planning - You must make short and long term goals and plans to achieve them. Your goals may not only be physical like “I want to lose 10 pounds in the next month” Your goals may be to get to the grocery store every week so that you have the fridge and the cupboards filled with good nutritious choices. Your planning could be what you are going to have at your next three meals today or arranging your cardio sessions around your work schedule while arranging rides for the kids at the same time.

2. Practice - You cannot be a champion of anything without practice. To illustrate this point let me talk about a karate black belt. A white belt and a black belt learn the same front punch. It takes about 5-8 years to become a black belt in Karate. In those years of practice the black belt will rehearse and practice their front punch until they are able to punch through a board. The rehearsal develops and strengthens the neural pathways between the brain and the muscles required to create the punch. This is the mind muscle connection. The same thing occurs in the gym while curling a dumbbell or on the baseball field while throwing a pitch. Success, proper form and technique will not come without adequate practice. I suggest mental practice is just as important and necessary for success as physical practice. Your body cannot differentiate between what you are thinking and what you are actually doing. I recommend making time at least once a week to clear your mind of chatter and focus on your goals and your methods of achieving them.

3. Discipline - By definition discipline is: Training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character. It is orderly conduct or pattern of behavior. If practice and rehearsal are what create a black belt, then discipline is the power that gets you to practice. Developing a plan and sticking to the plan is what perfects the mental faculties and creates a successful body, business or marriage. It is not enough to just plan. You need to cultivate the discipline to follow through with your plan. Meditation is a core aspect of developing discipline.

4. Risk - All truly successful people have taken risks to get where they are. We have to risk failure, perhaps financial strain or maybe emotional or physical pain to be successful. If we can’t put it all on the line for the goal we probably won’t achieve it. Changing your life is not going to be easy. You are going to have to push yourself. Whether it’s a new exercise or a new way of dealing with an old problem, it may not be comfortable or natural for you. A true student of life must sometimes surrender their ego and risk trying to do things differently.

5. Effort - Often in the gym we say “No pain No gain.” Although I don’t believe this statement completely I think it does imply that effort is necessary. To be successful in the gym it is not good enough to go through the motions. Just because you have completed the action does not guarantee success. The action must be performed with focus or attention. The work being done must be done with adequate intensity to stimulate a change in the body. Further more effort is required to plan, organize and prepare the supporting nutrition for success.

6. Time - You are going to have to accept that you are not going to be an overnight success. Even if you are doing everything correctly, success in any endeavor will take time. The more attention you place on the details in each moment will dramatically affect the rate of change. By focusing on your form, technique and intensity in the gym you can maximize your workouts. The workouts are just the trigger to create physical changes in your body. For the body to change or adapt to the workouts, recuperation time is also required.

7. Sacrifice - I don’t believe you can be successful without sacrificing. Before you can begin creating success you must recognize your responsibility in creating the problems you have. All the things that you have done in your past and everything that you are currently doing, have contributed to the situation you are in. In order to change your situation you are going to have to give up or change some of your actions or habits. You cannot do it all. You will inevitably have to sacrifice something or things to create the body you want.

8. Recuperation - With our busy schedules, we tend to ignore this aspect of success. Be aware that to have the effort in the gym requires that you have had adequate rest and nutrition. The workout only stimulates the body to change. Changes and adaptations occur during our sleep. In order for our bodies to rebuild and repair from intense workouts requires a supportive nutrition program. Your diet must take care of all your vitamin, mineral and nutrient requirements. These ingredients are the materials that your body is made from. If your diet is missing aspects then your body will not be able to repair. Work as hard as you want. Without the rest and nutritional support you will never reach your goals.

9. Prayer - I believe that everything that we have has been granted to us from the universe. The universe is an all knowing and all forgiving father. He accepts things exactly as they are and encourages us to operate at higher frequency. In order to change what we have or get something more in our lives we first have to ask. Put your goals out into the universe in prayer. Ask and you will receive. Meditate on your goals. Visualize steps necessary to achieve short-term goals. See yourself accomplishing things step by step. Develop a habit of praying outwardly and inwardly.

10. Passion - The driving force behind every successful person and any successful endeavor is passion. You have to love what you are doing or where you are going. If you don’t love it yet, you have to learn how to love it. You have to accotiate your actions or your goal with all the positive emotions and opportunities you will have when you get there. There has to be a positive association between your actions and the eventual outcome. Keep focused on all those positives to keep repeating the proper actions until you have the desired outcome. “Keep your eyes on the prize.” Enjoy the process. When traveling from one point to another the road will always be filled with potholes. You have to learn to take these potholes as challenges. Enjoy each and every challenge one moment at a time. If you stay focused on loving the task at hand and remain in the moment you will achieve your goals effortlessly.

First Tip
Achieving success in the gym is no different than achieving success in any other aspect of life.

Focusing on your current body weight, self image or physical limitations will not serve to help you achieve success. You cannot control your present situation. The present is the result of your past organization or lack of. Focusing on the immediate problems will only bring you down.

Spend 20-30 minutes in quiet contemplative time or meditation at least once per week. Ultimately this should become a daily ritual. Spend your time focusing on how you would like things to be in your life physically, mentally spiritually. The more clearly you can define what you want the closer you will become to actualizing your goals.