3 Things You Need When Starting a New Program

I didn’t really mean it when I said it. I was mostly trying to be funny with a new personal training client, but there was an important truth behind what I was saying. Deep down I knew she was going to need three things for this training to be successful. So, what I asked was:

“Do you have patience, hope, and optimism?”

She laughingly agreed that she did. What’s behind the question was my fears as a coach. Frankly, I knew deep down she would make remarkable progress, but I worried it would be boring and it would take some time.

So, I offered a joke to cut through my fears. 

We’ve been training for exactly twenty-eight weeks and the transformation is remarkable. Twenty-eight weeks is a long time to wait for anything, but if we rushed the process these results would be impossible. In addition, her ability to tolerate the relative (albeit boring) commitment to the process. 

My reason for bringing this up is that I observe much of the fitness industry patronizing our human tendency to lack patience and short attention spans. If you’re with a quality coach, you can have more than everything you want. 

Read that again. You can have more than the goals you have. It will just require patience, hope, and optimism.