If you’ve ever heard the saying, “If you believe it, you can achieve it.” you might not see how it has anything to do with fitness, but it does. When you think fitness, you become fit. That’s because it’s the core of your focus. Rather than thinking how fat you are, how out of shape you are or even how much you hate working out, focus on everything you do that helps you get fit. It will help you find new ways to improve your fitness. If you’ve worked out for a while, focus on your improvement.
The story of two wolves illustrates it better.
There’s a Cherokee fable of an old man telling a story of two wolves inside man, one good representing joy, kindness and good attributes and one evil representing greed, anger and other bad attributes. They’re inside everyone. They get in a fight and the old man asks his grandson, who will win the fight. The answer is the wolf you feed. Like any thought or emotion, the one you focus on and feed will prevail, which is why focusing on success in fitness is so important.
Your attitude makes the difference between giving up and succeeding.
When you focus on success in fitness, you’re giving yourself a head start. You’re eliminating the possibility of failure. Failure isn’t an option. You’ll start to see ways to get more exercise and be more aware of articles and stories about fitness. It creates a laser beam focus that shuts out any type of negativity. You still have to learn the workouts and be humble enough to follow instructions, but knowing you’re getting fit is the key.
Keep your eye on the prize.
Know what you want from your workout program. Is it weight loss? Is it being healthier, having more energy or just feeling good again? No matter what your goal, achieving it comes from believing it’s possible. You can use affirmations, write down your goals and review them or just believe your personal trainer that if you do the work you’ll reach your goal. That belief will keep you going when the going gets tough. That’s how thinking fitness can make you fit. It keeps you pushing on when you want to stop and helps you go to the gym when you’d rather stay home.
- Avoid toxic people that are negative or simply don’t share your goals with them. You may have negative people surrounding you that don’t like the change that can occur if you get fit. Don’t share your goals or progress with them. They can create self-doubt if you let them.
- Don’t even consider that getting fit is selfish. It’s one problem often faced by giving people. It helps you stay strong to help others and so others won’t have to take care of you.
- Check to see if you have any negative emotions about getting fit. If you were raised to believe it’s vain to want to look good, it’s not. Just as dressing in clean clothes isn’t vain. However, there are other reasons to get fit, like good health and more energy. Focus on those.
- Find people, like yourself, who are focused on getting fit and work with them. Your combined mental energy will help you both succeed.