The Biggest Mistake I've Made as a Personal Trainer
My favorite part about working as a personal trainer is the excitement individuals have when they first start working with me.
It’s amazing.
I even remember my first day working with Diane, a retired Nurse, who came in to her first workout with brand new sneakers.
Seriously, seeing people get fired up about improving their health is contagious. It’s my favorite party of the gig, for sure.
It took a few years to realize but that excitement was also my greatest mistake.
You see, excitement provides temporary motivation. When you’re excited, you can do anything. But when you have the first hiccup, the first missed workout, the first day where the alarm clock comes too soon, that excitement is no where to be found. I call it “fall off” syndrome.
Even Nurse Diane’s new shoes weren’t enough to fight the fall off.
Over and over again, I had clients come in, train their butts off for 3 months then disappear. Some would ghost me instantly, occasionally leaving their last session unused. Some would slow fade, move to training once a week, then once a month, then never to be seen again.
Has this ever happened you?
Maybe not with working out, but with anything that yoI have been gung-ho to start, only to ditch it at the first sign of smoke?
Yeah, me too. I can think of a few things.
So why does this happen? Here is what I have found and what I have done to help mitigate “fall off” syndrome.
1. You didn’t set expectations.
Similar to setting goals, when you start something you need to set expectations, and realistic expectations at that.
Fact: I spend more time working with new clients talking them off the ledge of 5 workouts a week, adding morning cardio, and wanting to eliminate various food groups from their life. Seriously.
Let’s map out a scenario here. It’s getting nice outside and a lot of people will begin their yearly push of running outside. They’ll go once, love it. They’ll go again, beat their time or distance, continue to love it. Then have a shitty day at work, blow off their daily run, and start the cycle.
Cue the fall off syndrome.
So what happens now? Ask yourself this question…in the most perfect world, what does “the thing” look like? In your most miserable life what does “the thing” look like?
Now take it one step further…in your most miserable life, does “the thing” become something else?
In the running scenario above, imagine if after that shitty day at work they went for a 45 minute walk instead of feeling that they would have to match the intensity of another run.
I think the outcome would be very, very different.
2. The initial plan of attack was unsustainable.
Is there ANYTHING in your life you do every day?
I’m not talking about sleeping, eating, or any of the requirements to live…
Do you brush your teeth EVERY day? Do you make your bed EVERY day?
If you do, great. Chances are you have found a sustainable way to do it, or you do what James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, calls habit stacking.
Habit stacking is when you pair multiple actions on top of one internal trigger.
For example, when you shower, you instinctively know to brush your teeth. When you get dressed in the morning, your brain tells you to make your bed. You are stacking tasks based off the same trigger. Pretty neat.
When it comes to being sustainable in your workouts, my favorite way to stay consistent is to stack the fitness habit with something else that makes the workout seem more appealing.
Doing cardio? Listen to a book, get some reading done.
Daily walk? Sounds like a good time to call a family member or friend.
Workout planned for after work? Order your groceries in advance so you can pick them up afterwards (this is something I STILL do…).
3. You started something that wasn’t authentic to you
The hardest career pill to swallow was to ask someone “is this something you are ready to commit to?”
Now, don’t think that question is intended to be combative. The follow up question to a “no” is to ask “what do you think you could commit to?”
It’s all about finding something that you genuinely believe you can do. Not something that your endorphin rush from excitement pushes you to do.
Authenticity matters. A lot. It exists in two forms.
1) your authentic desire for change.
2) your authentic action to make change.
BOTH need to be in alignment.
The industry cliche is to find your “why”, to find the thing that really sparks your change.
Why is only half the battle. You also need to find your “how”.
How you go about it is just as equally important as your why.
If you know why, but don’t know how, your why seems further away and even more unattainable. And that sucks.
If you know how, and it’s real to you, you can map out the process.
Excitement can be good, and bad. Let it spark your desire to take action, but ask yourself the follow up questions required to make sure your decisions can last.
PS- if you need help with the ‘how’ behind your ‘why’, I encourage you to check out my personal training offerings, both online or in person!