A bad workman blames his tools, so the saying goes, and when it comes to many aspects of life it is easy to look around for someone to point the finger of failure at than to look closer to home. Think about times when you've started a health and fitness plan and not quite followed through. Who was responsible? Was it circumstances beyond your control or the actions of another person? Or did you have a part to play? What's true, when it comes to personal training is that your attitude and approach counts in the chances of success.
When starting up sessions with a personal trainer you do need to be aware and pay attention to the training strategy and the quality of personal training being delivered. However, it is also important to look at what you are bringing to the training too. In Part 1 we identified five key positives: your motivation; your willingness to have two-way communication with your trainer; your ability to really listen and take on board new ideas; being expressive for a natural and more open workout; and being yourself.
To stimulate your own personal mindset further, here are five more positives :
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Being committed not competitive - Yes, there is a difference. While competition can be healthy and motivating, personal training sessions are more about you applying your mind and physical effort to your own goals. Focus on turning up with a positive attitude and being loyal to commitments rather than trying to jump forward or sideways into a competitive frame of mind.
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Accepting failure as an opportunity - Everybody gets knockbacks, but it's how you view them and how you react and act upon them that is important. Read the biography of most successful people and amongst the glittering achievements are often a list of attempts, fails and challenges. If you don't at first succeed, what do you do? Try, try and try again. Bring this sense of steely determination and don't let failures stop you going forward.
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Light and joyous, not dark and serious - You might be completely focused and determined to get fit or achieve some specific goal through personal training, but that's no reason be overly serious all of the time. While you need to knuckle down and put in some effort, some laughter, joie de vivre and lightheartedness can keep your spirit up during challenging training days. Don't underestimate the power of positive thought.
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Mindfulness - Bring your attention to what you are doing during training at any given moment. This means letting go of what you've been doing outside of training and in previous training sessions and not concentrating on the future either. By letting your focus gently reside in the present you can delve deeper into your own inner reserves and each movement too.
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Lack of ego - It is easy to be a know-it-all and less easy to recognize your weaknesses. By owning where you lack in skill and ability you are not being negative but quite the opposite. The ego can get in the way if it is too dominant and progress is made not by hiding your light under a bushel but by opening yourself up to learning something from somebody else.
Make a personal and positive decision today to make personal training work out for you.
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