How to Be Successful At Anything

It’s probably not surprise that I spend a significant amount of time thinking about why some of my clients and our members at the gym absolutely crush their goals while others have a difficult time creating any significant or consistent change.

There’s obviously a lot that goes into being successful in your health and fitness or in anything really. However, I’ve started noticing some trends in our most successful members.

I’m giving a lot of health/fitness related examples below, but remember a lot of this can be applied to other goals as well. Have some business goals? Financial goals? Marriage goals? You bet the 5 things below will help you be more successful at achieving those types of goals as well.

5 Things I’ve Noticed About Successful People

1. Successful people are consistent.

First off, consistency is important. You know that, right? You have to show up, and keep showing up, even when you don’t feel like it. <— This part is key.

Doing something over and over again, not just knowing something, is exactly how you create a habit.

No matter what goal you’re chasing, if you want to be successful you must stay consistent with action, not just intention.

Think of something positive you do that you’re super consistent with in your life. Why are you able to stick to it? What makes it easy for you? Remember success breeds success, so often times tacking something on to an already consistent habit works great. Every time you make coffee (duh, you’re super consistent with that I bet), you take your vitamins. It’s a lot easier to be consistent with a new habit if you stack it on an already created one. The cue here is making coffee and the new habit is taking a vitamin.

2. Successful people trust the process.

We all know a lot about health and fitness. Or we think we know a lot ‘cuz there’s tons of information out there. If you need to know something, just google it, right?

Just remember, not only is the fitness and nutrition information you read online often confusing/conflicting, it’s also not always geared towards people who are similar to you. We all have different bodies, health and fitness backgrounds, desires, lifestyles, etc. That said, we all have very different wants and needs.

Even individually, we have very different needs throughout our lives. What worked when you were 20 may no longer work now that you’re 37.

Let’s say you’re looking to make a change to your health or fitness routine, but you’re tired of weeding through the ridiculous amount of information online. You decide to hire a nutrition coach or personal trainer to help guide you. Of course, you do some research and find a coach who’s stories and beliefs resonate with you.

Do yourself a favor. Trust your coach and the entire process.

You didn’t hire a coach to do what you’ve always done. That wasn’t working for you. Even if what your coach says is different from what you’ve believed to be true before, give it a solid effort for at least 6 weeks so you know if it what your coach suggests is actually working for you.

3. Successful people believe in themselves.

Our expectations for ourselves are powerful.

This doesn’t mean you should set ridiculously high expectations. In fact, too high or inappropriate expectations can also kill learning/success. Saying you are going to lose 40 pounds by the summer of 2017 is likely to put you into panic mode where you feel overwhelmed. You know what happens when you feel overwhelmed? Usually…you waste time stressing when you could be taking action.

Instead, set realistic goals and continuously picture yourself achieving these goals.

Let’s say your goal is to make it to the gym 3 times a week.

Start by committing to 6 weeks of training 3x/week and only allow yourself to miss a session for a very small number of reasons. Getting to bed an hour later than normal or having a few busy days at work are not good enough reasons. Make it happen this week …and then do it again next week.

One day and one week at a time, you’ll realize you can do it and you’ll be a lot more likely to succeed than someone who constantly looks too far ahead. One of my favorites is to use the don’t miss twice method. Miss a workout or have an off week? Don’t do it again next time. Sometimes it really is that simple, especially if you tend to be an all-or-nothing-mess-up-once-and-life-is-over type of person. 😉

4. Successful people realize they can not succeed alone.

Most of the time, success takes a village. Especially when you’re taking on something new or really different for you.

Staying committed to your goals isn’t always easy. Let’s take moms who have young kids. They don’t have complete control over their schedules so fitting in training sessions, grocery store trips and cooking can be challenging.

As moms, we often put ourselves last and feel bad asking for help, even from someone as close to us as our spouse!

I always encourage my coaching clients to share their goals with those close to them and enlist help where necessary.

Maybe your spouse can’t help or you’re a single mom. Can you trade times with a neighbor or friend? Can you afford to hire a sitter once or twice a week for your non-negotiable workout time?

I love this from a recent nutrition coaching client.

“I am committed to three times a week at SOS. My husband and I literally have a calendar on our fridge and we map out who is working out and when for the week, otherwise it would not happen.

We have always known the value of letting each other find the time to work out it is just infinitely harder with two kiddos and a dog. But we make it happen.

In the last couple weeks I have been better about doing something on the days that I am not at SOS and I know that that helps me in ways more important than just losing the weight.”

5. Successful people realize there is no wagon.

There is no wagon. You can’t fall off because it doesn’t exist.

There is just one decision and then the next. One workout…and then the next. One day…and then the next.

I also love this from another coaching client in one of my recent nutrition coaching groups.

“As for nutrition, I’ve always had a ‘black or white’ mentality; if I had a cookie I thought I might as well eat like shit the rest of the day because I already ruined my diet plan.

I learned there is a balance, and that I don’t need to beat myself up for being “bad”. Even now, I’m still recovering from the flu and have had more comfort foods, but I know as soon as I feel better, I will enjoy more fruits and veggies as I was before…I don’t have to let this past week dictate the coming weeks.”

BINGO. Both quotes above are from working moms with young kids. They’re learning that often times you have to just keep at your goals, even when things don’t line up exactly as you’d like. You have to keep taking action and when you miss, because you will, it’s rarely a total fail. You need to decide to keep going. Keep looking ahead instead of throwing in the towel. Most of us spend way too much time looking at what we wish we did differently in the past and too little time taking action right now.