The psychology of your progress

If you are on a mission to get fit, then you’ve probably surrounded yourself in a fitness bubble on your social media. So most days you’ll see the same old:

“Don’t give up”

“Push through the pain”

“Just think about the results”

 

This is all very well and good, but can be extremely frustrating when you are not seeing any progress.

A lot of people trying to achieve their dream physique always ask “What am I doing wrong?” The truth is that you are probably not doing anything wrong at all. In fact, you are probably doing everything RIGHT.

Here’s the trick, you need to shift your focus. Instead of focusing on going from a size 14 to a size 8 every time you’re in the gym, focus on what you can DO TODAY to maximise the chance of reaching your goal within the next year ( or even longer! )

Exercising and dieting have up-front costs and the benefits of doing them are not seen immediately. People tend to largely underestimate the time it takes to achieve such fitness goals. It takes an incredible amount of discipline, self-control and sacrifice every day in order to succeed.

When you push hard every day of the week and you’re still a size 14 on Friday, you end up exhausted, frustrated, and demotivated. So no wonder the giving up rate is so high.

So the shift in focus goes something like this:

“I want to go from a size 14 to a size 8 and get rid of my excess fat.”

To this:

“I want to do 20 minutes of cardio and 5 sets of 20 5kg bicep curls.”

See now how easy it becomes to congratulate yourself!?

WELL DONE YOU! You completed your workout. And YES that is ABSOLUTELY the kind of feedback and encouragement you should be giving yourself EVERY DAY after you’ve overcome a challenge. Whether it be a workout, or if you’ve eaten a healthy meal.

Instead of having one HUGE feeling of achievement and satisfaction after 3 years of training, learn to positively feedback to yourself every DAY. This way you won’t go insane with the thought of getting nowhere, and never feeling satisfaction or achievement.

Feeling positive about the progress of training is so important for staying on track. It will always be difficult, but negative thoughts and emotions only make it 10 times harder. Fitness is a mental AND physical journey. Your body and mind both need to be cared for in equal measure.