Let's Talk About: Image

When I got my qualification I was a good deal lighter on the scales, I was also a lot fitter, I trained 5 days a week, I ate nutritious foods and I made sure to stay active, even through lockdown I worked out regularly, and in 2021 took on a running challenge something way out of my comfort zone, but I had a steady job with good income, I was a stuck in the corporate cycle. 2022 was my off year, I didn’t train as much, I didn’t eat as nutritious foods, and as my movement reduced due to the type of work I was doing the weight crept on, slowly but surely. 

So how can I, a personal trainer, motivate and support my clients when I dipped off myself, when I didn't have a 6-pack (and still don’t and probably never will), when I wasn’t eating nutritious meals 100% of the time. 

I Was Wrong

By losing my own way it showed me how easy it is for others to do so, it taught me that perfection doesn’t need to be the goal, it taught me that I don't have to wait to ‘look’ a certain way to get started, the way I look has nothing to do with the support and feedback and coaching I provide, it doesn’t change what I know and share with others.

If you want something don’t let your own perceptions of how you should look, feel, act, be get in the way. This doesn't just apply to my situation it could be:

I can’t go to the gym until I am a bit fitter, people might stare.

I can’t eat a nutritious breakfast everyday, so I won’t bother.

I can’t exercise for 3 days a week so I won’t do it at all.

I guess the moral of the story is that perfectionism is the killer of action. If i had been crippled by my perfectionism I wouldn’t be working in a gym with clients everyday doing what I love, I would be waiting for the perfect body so I ‘looked the part’ instead of actually ‘being the part’.

Does it change my personal goals, no. 

Does it change my coaching style, yes… for the better.