Every day we all fail at something. Sometimes I fail to get to 10,000 steps, other days I fail to keep my cool with my kids. It happens. We are all human. I make typos (just ask my boss), I cook a bad meal (ask my wife), and I even fail clients.
One time I started training a friend, though it was more like distance coaching. I would send him workouts, grocery shopping lists and motivational text messages. We trained in person a few times and he seemed to enjoy it, he even lost a few pounds. He did the best when he logged all his meals on myfitnesspal.com. I would log on and check his meals and offer some suggestions.
It was tough getting him to commit to workouts, and tough getting him on the phone. Eventually I stopped reaching out. My thought process was if he wants this bad enough he'll reach out to me. That never happened. I failed him. He wanted someone to yell at him, bombard him with messages, and I did not do it adequately.
I learned a few things from this experience:
- Listen better to what clients want, and deliver
- Develop communication/workout expectations for the client and me
- Ask for help
Now the list goes on, but if I screw up I want to improve. I want to learn something. If you are not getting the fitness results you want, think about what you can do differently.
Here's a good checklist:
- Are you moving enough?
- What are you consuming? Amounts? Foods? Time of day?
- Do you watch/play too much with electronics?
- How can you change your workout?
- Can you partner with someone (trainer or workout friend)?
- Have you spoken to your doctor? (Sometimes thyroid or other conditions make it hard to lose weight.)
Without getting too self-help-y -- don't give up! I've had publishers tear apart my book ideas and numerous editors quit, but I'm still working on it. I realized I don't have to write a Pulitzer Prize-winner the first time out. Perfection is not the goal. The same can be said about health goals. Start off slowly with small steps and don't look back.