Everyone defines success differently.

Your mother, your uncle Gordon, even your dog Phil.

Your mom might think success is having a steady job, a family, and a vegetable garden in the back forty.

Uncle Gordon may think it’s having a lake house and a full liquor cabinet.

For Phil the dog, perhaps it’s walking on two legs.

I can’t help you define what success means for you.

I also am not highly skilled at growing gardens, stocking liquor cabinets, or teachings canines to walk on two legs, so I can’t really help your mom, Gordon, or Phil be successful in those areas.

What I can do is show you what will make you successful in your pursuit of health and fitness.

10 Things That Will Make You Successful in Fitness

1. Committing Yourself Long Term

Everyone has different goals that take various amounts of time, but being grounded in the fact that your health and fitness is a long term play will serve you well.

Sure, in a few months you can lose some body fat, get a bit stronger, and be more mobile, but making fitness a permanent part of your life will benefit you in every facet.

Do you want to feel good for the next 90 days or the rest of your life?

2. Not Worrying About Your Fears

Getting started in fitness is scary. Even if you aren’t brand new to it, coming back from a hiatus or trying something new can be nerve racking.

There can be a big fear of failure when you realize that fitness is a large commitment and thoughts of not being successful begin flooding your mind.

Sometimes it’s easier to just not start at all.

Or perhaps you don’t want to feel judged or embarrassed at the gym in case you do something “wrong” or are seen not working “hard enough”.

Here’s a little secret: The majority of folks at the gym feel the exact same way you do.

You have to remember why you started in the first place and although you may not do things perfectly all the time, you are doing the best you can.

3. Plan Your Workouts and Show Up

A surefire way to have a mediocre workout is to show up to the gym having no idea what you are going to do. Even worse, you don’t show up at all.

Have a plan of both when you are going to workout and what you are going to do and stick to it. Period.

4. Be Prepared

It’s impossible to eat on plan and do your workouts if you don’t have things prepped.

Have your meals planned for the week and make certain you have all the food already purchased beforehand. If cooking every day is too time challenging for you, batch cooking on the weekend will be a must. Nothing derails an eating plan faster than not having the right food on hand with ease.

As for the gym, make sure your car is always packed with everything you will need. Nothing wrecks a training session like showing up to the gym, popping the trunk, and finding no gym clothes or shoes.

5. Be Patient

Your body didn’t get to the way it is overnight and it will not make the changes you desire overnight either.

Very rarely do specific fitness goals take under six months to attain. Often times closer to a few years.

Being patient with fitness is quite possibly the best attribute someone can possess. If you consistently work hard on the right program, overtime you WILL succeed.

6. Dedicate Yourself To Mastering Form and Lifting Without Ego

People waste years not making progress and getting injured by doing exercises incorrectly.

What may seem like a small adjustment in form can be the difference between hitting all the muscles intended and hitting none of the muscles intended compounded with a high threat of injury.

Going heavier with bad form will NEVER be the best choice.

You will make far better progress doing every exercise correctly and with a weight that allows you to keep strict form.

7. Do Not Hesitate To Ask For Help

Many people spend years going through the motions at the gym either not doing the best exercises for their specific body or doing them incorrectly.

This often is the same with their nutrition as they eat what they perceive as “healthy” not knowing that they will never change if they continue in that manner.

More often than not there are large aspects of training and nutrition that people do wrong or leave out because they simply don’t know any better.

Fitness is too big of a time and money investment to eat and train wrong.

8. Avoid Group-Think

Do not make decisions about your training or nutrition based on what is perceived as “normal” by those around you. This is exponentially so if they are not involved with fitness themselves.

Working out multiple days per week and eating on plan 95% of the time will not be taken well by the folks around you who don’t understand.

You must leave any comments and opinions of those individuals out of your fitness lifestyle if you are going to successfully stay on plan.

Even if there are people around you who are involved in fitness themselves, they may not understand or agree with your goals or how you train and eat.

9. Endure Hardship

Over the course of your fitness journey you WILL have setbacks.

This is not a matter of if, but when.

You may get sick, break your arm, lose your job, have your significant other leave you, or even spend time in the hospital.

Something is going to happen that makes you say “screw this, I’m done”.

You will ask yourself, “if I can’t perform at 100%, what’s the point?”

THIS is the moment where people who are truly successful push on while the others are left behind.

Doing things 70% on plan, 50%, or even 20% is better than 0%.

When you feel like giving up, just remember, things can ALWAYS get worse. Be grateful for what you do have.

10. Reinvent Yourself

Quite possibly the most overlooked piece of fitness transformations.

Understand this: You will NOT be the same person as you evolve into a healthier, stronger, fitter, and more confident you.

You have broken many old habits and patterns that were hurting you and have left them behind for a better life. Unfortunately, there will be people in your life that will have a difficult time accepting this.

They are used to seeing you in a certain way — weight, size, eating habits, laziness, mood, etc.

Oftentimes these people will continue treating you in the same way they always have and will not recognize the changes you have made. Surrounding yourself with people who are not stuck on thinking of you as the “old you” will be important.

Becoming a healthy, energetic, and capable person is a wonderful thing. Take the time to find out how to best live your life to enjoy all aspects of it.

In Closing

I have watched many people go through fitness transformations.

Each and every one of them different in almost every way.

Your journey will not be the same as your best friends’, your co-worker’s, or the person in the fitness magazine you read in a waiting room.

We each have our own challenges specific to us and the road map to success will be different no matter who you are.

However, if you stick to these 10 things, I can promise you that the road will be much easier traveled.

If you have any questions at all, email me at: JwaltersPT@gmail.com