Focus on Your Fitness: How to Succeed by Giving Up

Have you ever wondered why some people are able to achieve the healthy, attractive body they’ve always wanted while others – perhaps even you – struggle with the entire process? Is success really as simple as getting on the right exercise/eating program?

While deciding on the right exercise and eating program is critical to overall success, my years of experience as a personal trainer and physical therapist tell me that there’s something even more basic and fundamental at work in the lives of those who succeed at achieving their transformation. The problem, for me, was my inability to put my finger on exactly just what that success characteristic was.

That is, until a recent trip to the movies with my wife to see My Life in Ruins. While I really enjoyed the movie (we both give it two thumbs up) there was a particular scene that impacted me deeply. Briefly, the movie is about a female college professor who moved to Greece to teach, only to lose her faculty position. With no teaching jobs available she becomes a tour guide. She doesn’t enjoy her job mainly because the tourists she’s showing Greece have little to no interest in the rich history of that country – a history that she loves.

In the scene that provided me with my “Aha!” moment, the tour guide’s frustration becomes apparent to Richard Dreyfuss who, playing a widowed tourist on his first tour since losing his wife, challenges her to stop looking for all the obstacles in life and start looking for the magic. Right There. That’s when this fundamental transformation success characteristic became crystal clear to me.

Those who successfully achieve the healthy, attractive body they desire are, without exception, individuals who choose to look for the magic in the process of transforming their body instead of all the obstacles. And, make no mistake about it, they have plenty of opportunity to focus on the obstacles for there are many and they are real. Not enough time. Too much work. Family responsibility. Not enough money. Physical limitations. The list goes on and on and on.

My advice? It’s time to give up. That’s right, it’s time to give up focusing on the obstacles. It’s time to give up blaming yourself for past failures. It’s time to give up blaming others for your past failures. It’s time to give up talking about how difficult and hard it is. The truth is – and if you get nothing else out of this article, I hope you remember this – it doesn’t matter how many times you failed in the past, or even whose fault it was that you were unsuccessful. Your past doesn’t have to dictate your future.

Instead of focusing on the obstacles, focus on how good it’s going to feel to wear a pair of shorts again, or wear the two-piece bathing suit, or how great it’s going to feel to finally be proud of your appearance. Make a committed decision to keep your eyes on the prize and not the obstacles. Until you can make that commitment the exercise and eating program you choose won’t really matter.

An Update on the “Exercise is Medicine” Training Scholarships

I want to thank everyone who submitted an essay in the Exercise is Medicine scholarship contest. Choosing just three from all the essays received was no easy task. At the time of this article writing two of the three recipients are already hard at work transforming their bodies and their lives. They’ve decided to keep their eyes on the prize and focus on the magic, not the obstacles. What about you?

Article by Glenn Beard