The time has come and you’ve decided to commit to a new health and fitness
program. This could be for one major health reason or a combination of necessity and desire. But either way you’re ready to get back on track and make progress with a new program, no excuses!
A vital aspect of committing to a new program is planning! And this actually starts before you begin to exercise and gather your essentials for your meal preparation. Planning is an important part of our Pre-Season and sets the foundation for your ongoing success with a balanced approach to your lifestyle.
Whilst you’re in your planning phase you may feel some fears or insecurities arise that result in creating excuses not to go through with your program. Don’t fear, you’re not alone ! In fact a staggeringly high percentage of people internalise their self doubt and look for ways to rationalise not following through as intended. Give yourself the gift of honesty and accountability right out of the gate, as the only person that is truly judging you is YOU!
Some common excuses that result in diverting from the path that you mapped out at the planning stage can look like:
Feeling Intimidated
Whether it’s intimidation about the gym itself, being a newbie or returning to exercise post injury – intimidation can be paralysing. However, this is not a negative! Just an emotional response to the unfamiliar or a new challenge, take this feeling and use it as a fantastic opportunity to grow.
Just like we build muscles with resistance training, our confidence, experience, knowledge and scope to evolve as a person will grow exponentially with each conquest. So take those fears and nerves, and flip them to something positive that makes you nervous in a good way!
Past Experiences
A past experience may have caused you to worry about how you’re going to get through your program. It’s fair to say that most of us will have memories of moments when things didn’t quite go to plan. If we let these linger in the back of our mind, they can keep us stuck in our comfort zone and prevent huge self development and competence. This is normal and it’s now time to embrace the doubt and really go for it! Your past does not need to define your now!
Feeling Ashamed or Embarrassed
Speaking generally, feelings of shame or embarrassed can be a huge deal for lots of people and in many cases, will reduce the options of where they feel comfortable training. Please know that the majority of people will feel extremely overwhelmed at the start of their journey, many of them just have an excellent people poker face to disguise just how uncertain and nervous they are! We all started out in this position and you have no reason to worry about other people’s perceptions.
If you do decide to use a gym, you can chat to a trainer and have them walk you through the basics. This way you can see the layout of the equipment with a short demonstration of each machine/weight. Most gyms will have an instructor on the floor to help you with this and of course, a session with a personal trainer is a great option too.
Lack of Commitment and No Clear Goal
This struggle creates an opening for excuses to validate the lack of results. When you head off track, this can be the time for poor decision making, self sabotage and disappointing behaviour to sneak in. The best thing to do is lock in your goals early and have an iron clad plan to follow.
Consider how much time you give to the things in life that are NOT essential to supporting your goals and run a quick summary of how much time these distractions cost you each day. Then reschedule your diary in a way that has you ticking off your MUSTS as a priority. Take full accountability for where you are right now and take control of which direction you actually want to go!
Outside Influences
Often influences in the home can knock you off of your course! For example living with others often means those “out of bounds” foods in the cupboards or fridge are literally singing out to be nibbled on! Ask yourself, do you have a healthy support system at home, or a negative environment that
creates more challenges? If it’s the latter, maybe it’s a good idea to have a chat
as a group and come to an agreement whereby everyone feels free to achieve
what makes them happy.
Now these are only a handful of some of the most common excuses and reasons that people have for not hitting the mark, not making the progress that they have intended to smash over many attempts and there are of course a lot more that run into each person’s own situation.
While there’s great strength in being aware of your own triggers and reasons to fall short, it’s equally important to recognise and celebrate previous
achievements.
If you’ve not yet reached your health and fitness goal, or some of these excuses hit close to home. Why not look to other areas in your life where you have thrived or succeeded more than you expected and take a moment to reassure yourself that you CAN in fact do anything that you set your mind to!
Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right!
