The Change You Want

Are You Ready To Take Action?

In my years as a personal trainer (way back in the 1990s), when I was busy showing up on people’s doorsteps to help them change their bodies and health, there was one lady I used to train two times a week, week in, and week out.

She was a younger lady, a stay at home mum, with an affluent life.

Her goal was to lose pregnancy weight gain, and get back to feeling more like herself.

She did a pretty good job of that too, staying with me for a number of years, training consistently, taking action, and reaping the results.

The thing that was really interesting to me about this woman, was that on one hand she was taking massive action to get healthier, fitter and more toned.

But on the other hand, she was almost blind to a very small situation in her life, that was causing her constant frustration, but that she seemed not to be able to take action to resolve at all.

That small situation related to her training sessions with me.

One of the key things I always did with clients who wanted to lose weight, was make sure resistance training was the biggest part of their workout routine.

I knew that training with weights was the sure fire way to get inches off those clients fast.

So it was core to my strategy as a personal trainer.

This particular client was no different. We had, by month four, got her dress size down from a 14-16, to a size 12. And she was delighted.

Part of her training sessions involved her wearing ankle weights, so that we could do a lot of lower body exercises using those weights.

Now as a PT (personal trainer), the two pieces of kit I always asked my clients to purchase themselves, was a floor mat and ankle weights. The simple reason behind this was hygiene. Floor mats and ankle weights were not the easiest pieces of kit to keep clean as I travelled from client to client.

So clients either used ones they already had, or they purchased some, ready for their sessions.

This lady already had a set of ankle weights, so she started to use those in her sessions.

And therein lay the small situation that became a major frustration. For her. Not me.

The ankle weights had clearly had some use. And the velcro straps that kept the weights on her ankles were no longer performing well.

That meant that multiple times during her training sessions, the ankle weights would fall off. And she would curse and become frustrated.

I cannot tell you how many times I mentioned that purchasing some new ankle weights would likely be a good move, and certainly resolve the situation that was causing her frustration. I even, on a number of occasions, sourced new, cheap ankle weights she could purchase.

For some reason. She never took action.

Every session, every week, every month, every year, she would use the same old ankle weights, and every session, every week, every month, every year, she would get frustrated when the ankle weights continued to fall off.

At the time I moved away from Personal Training as a business, letting all my clients go, she had still not replaced the frustration with some new ankle weights.

That simple act of not taking action to change something in her life, became a constant source of irritation for her.

And this applies to us all.

Every day, in business, in life, there will be things that we wish we could change.

And those changes. You can have them. But only if you're willing to invest in action.

• If you’re on a social platform that you’ve invested time and effort in, and it’s just not working for you, and you’re frustrated and wish you could change it, you can. You either make a move away from the platform, or you invest enough time and effort learning how to get better results there. Most people won’t do this. They’ll stay. Keep churning out the same old content, and continue to feel frustrated when a different result doesn’t materialise.

• If your business schedule is causing burnout because you’re working 40, 50, 60 hours a week, and you wish things were different. They can be. As long as you’re willing to look at the schedule and make some strategic change.

• If your family will not give you any free time to work on your business, you’re starting to resent your family as a result, and you wish things were different. They can be. If you’re willing to take action to change that. Setting boundaries. Having conversations to make them aware of their impact. Heading out of the house to a coffee shop with your laptop for an hour. All things that can help that situation change.

• If your business is stuck, not making enough money, and nothing seems to be working, and you spend your time complaining about this to everyone, whilst at the same time wishing it was different. It can be. Take the time spent complaining and invest it in deep learning and action taking from that learning. You might find that your business will improve.

The point here is, I'm sure there are things in your business (and life), that you wish you could change.

For some reason you may be convincing yourself you can’t make that change, or that change won’t happen for you, or that change is hard (it is).

But whatever it is you want to change. It can be done, as long as you are willing to take whatever action is needed, for as long as required, to make the change happen.

Most won’t do this - the discomfort of the thing they are not happy with is at least familiar. Change and action are not. That’s why so many stay stuck.

Thoughts on this?

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