On numerous occasions as a fitness professional I have heard a range of individuals talk about health and fitness goals & movements that they’ve believed they could not achieve. These individuals includes clients, family, friends and myself (yes I have my moments of self-doubt also). The health and fitness goals & movements range from losing a specific amount of weight or body fat to being able to perform certain movements either in the gym (e.g. bench press a particular weight) or in their day to day lives (e.g. pick up nieces and nephews).
It can be so easy to get hung up on the things we “can’t or haven’t achieved” or that are “too hard for us”, especially when it hasn’t happened in our ideal time frame. We know, or at least tell ourselves, that we are doing all that we can to achieve the goals we’ve set, and yet these goals always seem to be just out of reach. When this happens it can be very disheartening and frustrating particularly when we can’t visualise the goal eventuating. One thing that I have found that challenges the thought process of focusing on what we believe we can’t do, is to pause that thinking and shift our focus onto the things we can and have achieved. Once we focus on our achievements it becomes more manageable to set further goals so that we are able to achieve more.
From my experience, often the things we tell ourselves we can’t do is based off the fact that the process of achieving it is new to us (e.g. squatting with heavy weights on our shoulders), or more challenging than on previous occasions (e.g. performing deadlifts at a certain weight pre-injury Vs post-injury). When it is new, or more challenging, we have to find different ways to achieve the goal. We can’t compare another person’s steps, with the steps that we need to take to attain the goal. However, we can use them as motivation and a general guide of what can be done to get there. We need to take into account our own circumstances when forging our path.
So where does your focus lie? Are you always focusing on the negative, or are you realistic and focusing on your achievements? Because we’re human, we will have moments of doubt which is part of our nature. The real challenge is to not dwell too long in the negativity, and shift our focus onto the positive.
As we interact with each other this year let’s challenge each other to focus on the things we can do, and have a willingness to at least try the things we perceive we can’t. The results will truly surprise us.