Samson Fitness

When individuals come to me for coaching services, they typically know what they want to achieve. They want to lose body fat and tone up. They want to gain muscle mass. They want to up their performance in lifting weights, running, and/or in a specific sport. They want to have better relationships and/or get hired in a job they are passionate about. They can envision where they want to be. You may also be in this same spot and be able to envision where you want to be, whether that be a vision related to a body transformation, career promotion, or relationship status. However, you aren’t where you want to be right now.

Often times, when we notice a discrepancy in where we are right now and where we want to be, we try to change external things. If we want a relationship, we start a Tinder and try to create more opportunities for dating. If we want to feel more independent, we try to move out of a place with roommates to a place by ourselves. If we want a job promotion, we start applying for more jobs. If we want to lose body fat, we start exercising harder and more frequently. All of these may be external changes that need to happen, but without internal development, these changes are just superficial and may not be sustainable. That is why focusing on internal development first is important as this will naturally lead to the external development. So what do I mean by internal development? Internal development includes envisioning, awareness, education, and skill-building. It involves training your mindset.

Jim Carrey. Mohammed Ali. Oprah Winfrey. Will Smith.

What do all these people have in common?

For one, they are highly successful in their fields.

And two, they are all people who talk about the power of visualization. They know the power of envisioning where they want to be, believing in their ability to make that vision a reality, and taking action based off that belief.

You will likely hear from many who are successful in any field that they first envisioned where they wanted to be. They saw themselves being successful first. A motivational speaker first sees himself giving a powerful and inspiring speech to an audience. An athlete first sees herself being joyfully tackled by her teammates after she makes the game-winning shot. An artist first sees themself standing in a gallery surrounded by their work. Before proposing, a man first sees himself asking her and her saying yes.  Being able to know what you want is the first step to creating a mindset necessary for results. It doesn’t mean you will never have self-doubts or that you have to envision every detail of your journey, but what it does mean is that you allow yourself to believe in your ability to be successful. And when I say “successful”, I simply mean “getting the results you set out to achieve.”

Now, many of you who are reading this are already doing this first step. You know where you want to be and why you want to be there. You probably have pretty strong visualization skills already and can start focusing more on the skills talked about later in this article.

But don’t be discouraged if you don’t know what you want or can’t visualize it. Some of you reading this may feel a bit nomadic in life right now and not committed to any one direction or scared to commit in fear of losing other opportunities. While there is endless possibility in the uncertainty, this article is mainly geared to those who do know what they want because that provides direction on the things we need to be aware of, the education we need to seek out, and the skill-building we need to go through. But for those who are struggling with visualization or committing to a certain goal, utilize some of the links below for visualization practice.

Awareness

Okay, now that you can visualize where you want to be, you will need to build your awareness of where you are right now. Abraham Maslow said, “What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.” Awareness is a constant process and it focuses on the “whats” and “whys”. Here are some “What” and “Why” question that can help you build self-awareness.

• What do you want?
• Why do you want it?
• Why don’t you already have it?
• What needs to change in order for you to get there?
• What are behaviors/habits are helping you get where you want to be? What behaviors/habits are preventing you from getting where you want to be?
• What are some triggers that cause you to fall into old habits, habits that prevent you from getting where you want to be?

These are just some questions to get you started. Our self-awareness is built by questioning ourselves a bit. We all operate on basic assumptions and it is important that we take time to evaluate those assumptions and those habits. This doesn’t have to be journaling or taking quiet alone time, though those are great ways to build awareness; awareness can also be built through your interactions with other people, through events you go through, and through your continued education. I think in times of failure, we actually become the most self-aware and it allows for us to grow…if we use that moment for growth. Again, sometimes we try to change external factors when we want something different in life and this can be especially true when we feel failure. Remember that failure is part of the process. It is not the end…or maybe it is the end of something, but it is also a beginning of something else…and hopefully that something else is the change you’ve needed to make to get what you want.

Growing in our awareness of ourselves and the world we live in is vital to training a mindset for success. The education and skill-building that we focus on helps us grow in this awareness.

Education

I’m not going to be super wordy in this section. Educate yourself…be open to being educated. You possess a lot of knowledge and valuable perspective. This knowledge and perspective that you possess has been gained through own personal experiences, but also through the experiences that others have gone through and told you about. You should continue to learn from your experiences and should continue to seek out others and learn from theirs. This helps challenge your assumptions, thinking patterns, behaviors and again builds your own awareness. You can gain education through research and reading, talking with others, hands-on experiences, and/or using a coach/mentor/therapist/teacher/etc. If you want to go into a certain career field, talk with people who are in that field; read a book on what you need to do to go into that field; do an internship. If you want a healthy long term relationship, talk with people who have that relationship; date people and learn from the relationships that don’t work out. If you want to lose body fat, reach out to a trainer and get expert advice (click here for training services); join a group with others who also have that goal; read up on nutrition and programming. Simply put, education is key.

Skill-Building

Where education is about building your knowledge, skill-building is about training yourself to put your knowledge into practice. Skill-building helps build awareness and challenge yourself to build up strengths. In The Overcomer program and F.I.T. Programs, we do a lot of skill-building. Depending on your goals, you may need certain skills. For a career in retail, you may need to build up social and financial skills. For building stronger friendships, you may need to work on conflict resolution skills. For gaining muscle, you may need to build skills in weightlifting. But regardless of your goals, there are some key skills that are needed: (1) recognizing and replacing risky thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, (2) problem-solving, (3) self evaluation, and (4) the social skill of asking for help. The first piece of skill-building is introducing the skill. Introducing a new skill is exciting and uplifting as it automatically empowers people to see where they can make changes and have control in their situations. However, like with any skill, it takes practice and accountability before it becomes a habit. That is why you should start either the The Overcomer (if you have goals outside of fitness- relationships, career, etc.) and F.I.T. programs (for fitness related goals). You will build these skills faster and be able to accomplish your current goals quicker while also being able to take these skills into other areas of your life to see results. Okay…enough of the shameless plug! Through your self-awareness and your education, you probably are aware of certain specific skills you need to work on in order to get where you want to be. Make a plan to work these skills. Train hard and train smart.

To Sum it Up….

You can get what you want. But first, you need to know what you want. After you know what you want, you need to take the time to reflect on where hold power in getting what you want and building up your education and skills in those areas so that you can get there. And remember, success and failure are not opposites (at least not to me). Failure is part of success. Failure is where you learn. Failure is where you grow. Failure is not where you stop. And honestly, success isn’t where you stop either…but we can talk more about failure and success in another post. Right now, envision where you want to be; grow in your awareness; seek out education; and, build your skill set.

-Samson, 12/27/2020