Posted June 2, 2011

Obstacles: BUST 'EM!!!

Today I was going to take a day off from blogging as I had a bunch of stuff to get caught up on yesterday, and the Canucks paid a holy whuppin on the Bruins, which occupied the good majority of my evening, and as a result left me with little time to write anything down.

That being said, I just finished a phone call with a new client who said they had been reading some of the stuff I’ve written, knew of a few of my old clients who had been able to get some fantastic results, and wants to come and train with me as a result. Nothing new here, except for the kicker: This is a professional person (not going to say what profession, but it rhymes with “Joy-er”), and they live in Red Deer Alberta, a full hour and a half away from Edmonton along a barren stretch of road known as Highway 2, and approximately halfway between Edmonton and Calgary.

That’s right folks, this person is willing to drive an hour and a half, pay for parking, and get their sweat on with me, simply because they choose to and are not willing to let what may stand in the way stop them from achieving their goals.

Now I’m sure some of you would see this as somewhat crazy. I mean, for a lower cost, less time easier commute, they could do distance training with me and get similar benefits, and not have to drive a mind-numbing stretch of highway, but there’s something about having someone there to tell you “move your back this way” or “you’re letting your knees cave in together” that makes the personal attention worth it to them.

Now as cool as this is, it’s not even the farthest someone has traveled to train with me. I have one client who lives in Toronto (a four hour plane ride from Edmonton) who comes into town once a month for business and gets a training session with me each time he’s in town. I give him a program to work on while he’s home in Toronto, and he emails me about his progress and what he’s finding easy or difficult, and we change things up as needed. That’s a pretty big geographical obstacle that’s essentially been entirely removed from allowing him to hit his goals.

Stuff like this always makes me do a little trainer chuckle inside, as people will typically find every excuse in the book not to train, even if all the obstacles are removed. I have clients that find it difficult to get to the gym, even though they work less than a block from the gym!! Some of the other excuses I get are things like:

I don’t have the time

I don’t have the energy

I smell bad when I sweat

My testicles are small

My dog wouldn’t get off the couch this morning

My shoes are too tight

I don’t like my haircut

Seriously people, nut up and get to work. Consider the workout part of your day, and you can’t go home until you get your workout in. Have to tidy your desk? Close your email? Talk with Jane from accounting? Add in a workout to that end of the day routine, and you’ll be that much better off.

No matter how many obstacles you have in your way, the truth is there is no obstacles. Only you hold yourself backf rom achieving anything, so start busting obstacles and go get what you want. Hey, it could always be worse, you could live in Red Deer.

Oh SNAP!!! NO HE DIDN’T!!! Oh yes, I did.