If you think like this - you WILL NOT succeed.

Critical Thinking or Thinking “Critically”

I have found that most of the successful people that I know are

critical thinkers, while most of the people that consistently struggle for success think critically of themselves, others and circumstances.

Critical thinking is using your Knowledge, Experience and Common Sense to create a SOLUTION for challenges and obstacles. Thinking Critically is the opposite.  The type of person that consistently finds the challenge in the challenge and always seems to find him or herself embroiled in controversy at home, with friends and at work is Thinking Critically.  They have trained themselves to find the worst in people. Chances are high that this person spends a great deal of time trying to convince people, that their way is best and that everyone else is either bad or wrong.  You cannot be focused on the issue and the solution simultaneously.

Begin to notice when you are Thinking Critically and then apply critical thinking to the situation.  Discover your patterns and obstacles and break them.  Critical Thinking delivers solutions from a logical standpoint.  

Critical Thinking allows you to view a situation of its own accord, without interference from past feelings or biases. 

If you are the type (or know the type) of person who is exceedingly difficult to please, that never can find the positive in what they have done, that always belittles everything and everyone (finding fault), and generally is unpleasant and dissatisfied with life then THIS person is THINKING CRITICALLY.

If they are emotional, reactive, persist in unhealthy behaviors and generally just are a real downer - then THIS person is THINKING CRITICALLY.
In nearly 20 years of practice, I have not know many people that are able to attain and maintain any type of progress and satisfaction in their lives.

The type of person that is successful in achieving and maintaining success and happiness are those that do find the progress in the progress, that are process driven (not outcome driven), that set high standards for themselves but also understand the necessity of flexibility and that setbacks exist. The type of person that is truly successful long-term is persistent and tends to FIND reasons to smile.

The person who stops to think of the path to the outcome they desire and sets off on that path is the person that succeeds.

How are you behaving?  Which behaviors need to be continued and which need to be discontinued?

(excerpt from Personal Development Made Simple)

Critical Thinking is Solution Based Thinking.  
 Clear thinking = Good Outcomes.

Personal Development Made Simple

Getting out of a "rut"

A question posed recently from an attendee at a Personal and Professional Development seminar that I was honored to speak at was "How do I get out of a rut?"

The answer is a simple one: Do something/anything different than what you are doing now. Upon further discussion we came up with a few challenges that this person faced in attaining a level of satisfaction and happiness in life:

1. They were either without goals in some areas of life or had made such monumental goals that they were overwhelming.
2. They were falling into an "excuse machine" habit. This person could justify inaction for just about anything. 
3. The goals that were set were not attached to a reason or purpose.  They were very general and hence, not stimulating.
4. When this person took action they simply repeated what they had already done and expected a different result.
5. The very general goals (What) were not attached to an Action Plan (How). 

The solution presented was for the individual to get a clear sense of what they wanted and to create a list of their habits (Helping and Hurting) so they could clearly see what they were and were not doing.

Second was to create an environment for success by choosing an Action Plan that is stimulating, achievable and rewarding.  By deciding to alter 1-2 habits at a time, succeeding and then choosing more habits to change you gain momentum.

Remember:  Action precedes Motivation.

Your duty to gain the success you desire is to figure out if it is a skill that lacks, desire that is missing or knowledge/information to help get you there.

If you need guidance and support to achieve your goals then come visit us!

Just Do It! by: Karen Welby

Just Do It!                                                       Meet Karen  

Everyone knows that regular exercise is essential to living a healthy life.  But look around – how many people do you know with endless excuses about why they don’t work out and can’t remember the last time they worked up a sweat?  Working out doesn’t mean spending hours in the gym lifting heavy weights or running miles on a treadmill.  Small exercises, or simply 10 additional minutes of activity per day, will have a positive impact on your health.

As personal trainers, we have to look deeper to identify what is holding people back.  Doesn’t everyone want to live a healthy life style with more energy and less pain?  The answer should be a resounding “YES!”  Unfortunately, until something big happens in their lives, simply “knowing they should” is not enough to take action.  A hundred excuses can be made and justified before someone commits to an exercise plan.  When they finally run out of excuses, a personal trainer is there to motivate them and support their exercise goals.

The sooner you decide to take action, the sooner you will begin feeling better.  The first couple exercise sessions may leave muscles achy and sore, but like anything else, you have to start at the beginning.  Before you know it, you’ll feel revitalized and have newfound energy to take on the day. Regardless of age, anyone can benefit from moving more!

  

Initial One on One Session

I witnessed an initial “One on One Session” between Robert and a new client.  She explained that she has had her fair share of negative experiences with trainers and gym memberships.  So Robert started small – no intimidating equipment, no nitpicking her stances, no having her do an exercise until failure.   The goal was not to kick her butt and leave her feeling sore for 3 days.  The goal was for her to gain confidence performing basic exercises (that anyone at any age or fitness level can do) and enjoy doing them.  The 1-hour session flew by and in the end she burned calories, increased her heart rate, stretched neglected muscles and left with a sense of accomplishment.

Personal trainers are available to create customized workout plans according to your individualized needs and simply hold you accountable to get the work done.  As Robert’s new client becomes more efficient at the “easy” exercises, her workout plan will be adjusted to continue increasing her fitness level.

Bottom Line

Any movement, no matter how small, outweighs the alternative of no exercise.  Stop making excuses and just do it!

                                                                               Meet Karen

Stay tuned for information on our 5K running program beginning in September.

Successful People

Character Traits of Successful People

1. They are hard working.
There is no such thing as easy money. Success takes hard work and people who are willing to do it. Successful people realize the sacrifices that they must make in order to achieve the results they truly desire.

2. They are honest.
Those who are successful long-term are the honest ones. Successful people are honest with themselves regarding their strengths, needs, opportunities and true production.  Successful people realize that lying only delays results.

3. They persevere.
How many success stories will go untold because they never happened? And all because someone quit. Successful people outlast everybody else. Successful people prepare for the hurdles to come, accept that there will be hurdles, plan for the ones they know will arise and plan to overcome the unforseen hurdles.

4. They are friendly.
Have you noticed that most successful people are friendly and people oriented? This endears them to others and enables them to lead others to accomplish the task.

5. They are lifelong learners.
Successful people are people who stretch themselves and grow continually, learning from all areas of life, including from their mistakes. Successful people surround themselves with people that will support and challenge them, they will seek out advice and education from the people they admire.

6. They over-deliver.
The old statement of under-promise and over-deliver became famous because it made a lot of people successful, including the richest man in the world - Bill Gates

7. They are Positive.

Successful people do not allow themselves to be dragged down by small problems.  they realize that life is filled with challenges, that there is good, bad and ugly that occurs to everyone in differing amounts at different times. Successful people put negativity in perspective and rebound quickly from setbacks.

8. They seek solutions in the face of problems. 
Problems are opportunities to do the impossible, not just complain. Successful people are the ones who
find solutions. Successful people do not view the issue/obstacle as the end.  They are solution based and action oriented.

9. They seek assistance when it is needed.

The most successful people I know seek out the guidance of a coach to get a different perspective, ask the right questions and aid them in getting "un-stuck".

10. They BRING IT ALL. EVERYDAY.

Successful people do more and give more than the average person.  Successful people have set goals and have created a plan to achieve them.  Successful people wake up and TAKE ACTION.

Thanks to Thomas Plummer for teaching me this years ago.  




                                    

How to move a mountain

Here are a few steps to maximizing your potential:

1. Reflect on your life: Spend 10 - 20 minutes daily eflecting. Open up your mind and just think, analyze, consider, ponder, contemplate, imagine, visualize and dream. Capture these thoughts by writing them down so you can re-read later. As Albert Einstein said –“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
2. Become an optimist: If you’ve been stuck on negative thinking, you’ve only created an anchor in your life that’s keeping you down. Always look for the positive in every situation.
3. Set a goal: Set a lofty goal that stretches you outside of your comfort zone. As Napoleon Hill said – “A goal is a dream with a deadline”
4. Define who your role models are: Once you’ve identified them, model yourself after them. If you don’t, you’ll pick up bad habits from all the wrong people.
5. Be grateful: Having an attitude of gratitude invites even better things to come into your life. Life cannot be fun if you are angry and emotional all of the time.
6. Become a life-long learner: Let your mind be the sponge it was created to be – commit to learn something new every day. Read a book and/or watch an entertaining and educational TV show.
7. Embrace change: It’s impossible to reach your full potential if you’re not willing to change. Come to the realization that change is good!
8. All you need is patience (yahh ahhh): Change takes time. Take responsibility for your choices and know that you choose to become part of the process or fight the process.  Either way, change will STILL take time.

The Bottom Line

The Bottom Line: Move more, eat less.
Turning off the television and skipping the sugary drinks can help.

Weight is a tough issue. Most people know how important it is to keep weight in check yet struggle to do so. And it's understandable in today's world where calorie-packed food comes fast and easy. But, the health benefits of staying at a healthy weight are huge and well worth the effort.

Because most people put on a pound or two every year, the first, and easiest, goal should be to stop any more weight gain, which has big health benefits itself. After that, getting weight down to a healthy level should be the next step.

Quick weight control tips? 
Get active, choose smaller portions, and eat more s-l-o-w-l-y.

Learn about the IFS Weight Loss Education and Support Program HERE

Stress reduction kit

Stress is a killer. 

It can create havoc in your weight loss efforts and it creates a host of health trouble.
Utilize these steps to gain back control.


To get out of feeling overwhelmed:

1. Acknowledge it.

2. Take a moment to breath.

3. Notice that of the things causing the feeling, some are more urgent or important than others.

4. Notice which elements you have control or influence over and which ones you don’t.

5. List some things that can be put off for now, or may not even be necessary.

6. Pick one thing to do right now. Doing one thing at a time is calming and is the most effective way to make progress.

If these do not work, then turn to coaching or come to one of our Fitness Classes.  We'll BEAT the stress out of you!

Get things DONE.

Put Off Procrastination - Get things Done

If constantly putting tasks off till later is causing you stress and consistently making you feel dissapointed in yourself, then here are a few tips to help you to stop procrastination in its tracks once and for all!

Causes of Procrastination

Identifying the causes of procrastination is the first step in overcoming procrastination.

You've probably resolved to make a change, but once again you find yourself in familiar territory of leaving things till the last minute.

Procrastination has the potential to rob you of your potential.

Is procrastination:

• causing you stress
• reducing the quality of your work
• souring your relationships with colleagues and family?

If so, then it is time to act.

Procrastination is not about a lack of willpower!

Psychologists have identified a number of causes of procrastination. These include:

• a lack of clear goals
• indecision
• fear of failure
• anger and resentment
• feeling overwhelmed
• fatigued or tired.

1) Do the unpleasant stuff first.

One of the reasons we put off certain tasks is because some aspect of them is unpleasant; for example we may need to make a difficult telephone call or perform our least favorite chore. Write down the worst tasks which need doing each day and make sure you do them first. Try not to think about it too much, just get stuck in- you find that the most unpleasant tasks often turn out to be a lot easier than you think once you take action. Give yourself a little reward when you have completed them, such as a coffee and an hour of T.V relaxation time.

 Once these are out the way, you will feel more motivated to tackle the easier stuff on your list.

2) Sometimes we procrastinate because we lack focus and direction
of what needs to be done. Make a list of what tasks need to be completed each day, and prioritize them in order of importance (or unpleasantness!) Commit to starting and finishing the first item on the list before moving to the next. Make a step by step plan for each task and commit yourself to completing one step at a time.

3) The task appears too big.

Any task which appears to be too big can cause us to procrastinate, as we can feel overwhelmed by it, such as clearing your whole house or starting a business. The best way of dealing with this is to break each task down into smaller, more manageable steps- for the house clearance example, you may decide to start with one room, or an area of one room. If the task is starting your own business you may set yourself smaller tasks such as spending time researching your business idea, then working on acquiring skills you may need.

Steps 4-6 in the next issue.

Until then:  GET THINGS DONE and you can feel like these guys -

How do I get to my goal?

"How do I get to my goal?"

Are you acting according to your goals?

Unfortunately, there is no one canned answer to this question.  Consider this, pick your favorite store in the world, and now figure out how many different routes you can take to arrive there.  The options can be endless. Now utilize this same thought process for your personal fitness goals.  The same analogy can apply. When you add in all of the marketing that tells you to take a specific direction or route, your friends telling you the "shortcut" that you can take to arrive at the store faster and the feeling that everyone you know has figured out how to get to the store in a timely manner but you, you may not even want to go to that store anymore!  It could get really confusing.

Fat Loss, Health and Fitness, and Sports and Performance goals all place different demands on the body. From the amount of sleep required to the number of meals and calories eaten daily to what they are made of (Protein, Carbohydrates and Fats) -  it is slightly different for everybody. If you add in your genetic predisposition for where and how much fat you hold, your given metabolism, food preferences and dislikes plus your attraction or aversion to exercise it can be exhausting and de-motivating to try and figure all of these items out for yourself.

My advice: DO NOT GIVE UP!  That is one surefire method to fall short of your fitness goals.

Now that we have decided that you will not do that let's discuss how to succeed.  Focus on food, fitness and education, the foundation of Innovation Fitness Solutions.

When your actions meet your goals you will experience progress.

Food

It's a good idea to spread your food out throughout the day.  I recommend at least 4 meals daily and sometimes up to 6.  The number of meals depends upon your goal and some of the factors discussed above, but a good starting point is 4 meals.  Do not ever eat less.  It just leads to hunger and hunger leads to poor food choices and over-eating.  Regardless of the goal, it is important to know how many calories you need to maintain your weight daily and how many calories you are actually consuming.  Do you really know how many calories is in that Whole Wheat Bagel you eat?  How about that Chai Tea with skim milk you had yesterday?  Having the facts at your fingertips is a great method to understanding how to be successful, guesswork usually can get you started but never works long term.

The good news is that there are people who have spent their entire adult lives preparing themselves to help you get the success you want. Your Weight Management Specialists and Exercise Specialists care about you and your results and we do know how to help you.  Everyone has different goals, and the strategies that you must utilize for success have to be tailored to you. Realistic, Progressive and Maintainable (R.P.M.) methods for long term success are right here in front of you. Talk to one of us and let us help!

Fat Loss
Fat matters, carbohydrates count but calories are the bottom line!  Do not buy into the myth that some foods are fattening and others are not.  It is not true.  Every food can help make you gain weight and every food can help you keep it off.  The amount of ingested has to be less than the total calories burned or you will get bigger eating sunflower seeds and grapefruits.  It just does not matter! Control your calories and eat as healthy as you can right now.

Health and Fitness

The more consistent and the healthier the choices that you make the better you will feel.  I suggest 30-45 minutes of cardiovascular work 3-4 times weekly + 2-3 strength training sessions weekly.  In addition, maintaining a diet of consistently balanced foods along with your exercise routine will help you achieve your goal with ease.  Your body will thank you for it and your mind will as well.  When we choose healthy options we give our body the fuel it needs to keep going strong throughout the day, fight off cellular damage and be mentally sharp.

Sports and Performance

Eat often, eat well and eat balanced!  The timing of your pre and post workout meals is crucial to your success.  Eating 45-60 minutes pre-workout is essential to providing the energy necessary for optimum performance.  A post workout meal consisting of a 4:1 ration of carbohydrate to protein is important for recovery.  In addition, optimal rest (6-8 hours of sleep) and the proper training intensity is essential too. Try not to workout more than 3 days consecutively if your intensity level is above a 7.5 on a scale of 1-10.

Result

In my opinion one of the strongest variables someone can change is to get out of daily result and into the process. It is a BIG PICTURE way of looking at your goals and your goal setting.  Everything matters but mistakes will be made and they will be corrected.  Nothing is impossible and a great plan makes for great successes. 

Change "I can't" to "I WILL".

Change your Fitness Dictionary

I have begun a petition!  It is to remove one word from the dictionary.  Let’s see if you agree…

Can’t:Verb

Contraction of cannot

Negative form of can

Can someone please explain to me how this word has risen to such absolute Diction Stardom?  This is the most overused word in our language.  Name one positive thing that has EVER happened with this word at the start of a sentence… Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Here are a few synonyms of can’t. (Now this is a list of winners!)  Synonyms: anxious, blue, can’t win*, cynical, dejected, depressed, desperate, downcast, frantic, hopeless, miserable, melancholy, no-win, sad*...I think you get the point.

A very wise man once said, “There is no try, there is only do.”  I believe it was Mr. Miagi from The Karate Kid or Yoda from Star Wars.  Either way, that guy had it right.  I do not care if your goal is to get huge and take up as much space on this planet as possible, if it’s to get small and take up as little space as possible or if it’s to remain the same size and just get from one point to another faster - there is no CAN’T!

You may have tried numerous methods to help you attain these goals before.  If you failed then you have figured out one more way that does not work for you.  The only sure thing is that if you stop trying then you are virtually assured of not succeeding.  Do not give up!  Get mad, get psyched and get moving!

I see people with 3 main goals: Get big! Get small!  Or get healthy!  We jump on a treadmill and walk to nowhere aimlessly for a few months until we get bored and stop or we will lift up heavy things that do not need to be moved multiple times in an attempt to make us big and strong.  We all start this process with a high level of motivation:

Motivation:  

Noun

the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior.

Providing incentive.

I also see other common traits when it comes to fitness: we eventually stop!  Whether we are bored, our program is not working as quickly as we would like or not at all, or we are confused about what to do next, we stop searching for a solution because the ‘solution’ that we chose no longer provides the stimulus it once did.  One recommendation thatWILL make a difference in maintaining your level of motivation is small group training.  Training in small groups offers 3 distinct advantages over trying to workout on your own:

Competitiveness and Camaraderie

When there are 3-5 other people in the room busting their butts along with you, you will all work harder as individuals and as a group.  No one wants to be the weak link and you will work harder to keep up or set the pace when someone else is falling behind.

Energy

The above leads to Energy.  When you work harder you burn more calories in a shorter time.  If your goal is fat loss then this concept helps a great deal.  If your goal is muscle gain then you can create a bigger response to the exercise.  This is a Win – Win.   

Achievement

You will do more!  I promise you that you will do more under the direction of one of our trainers than you ever will alone.  The “I can’t” or “I don’t think I can” attitude will disappear and you will just do it…every time.  No excuses, no let down, just achievement.  Think like a winner and act like a winner.  When you do not feel like showing up, show up anyway and do it.  When you feel like showing up, show up and blow the doors off the place.   Second, there are a few classes and private training sessions that will help you get moving and bust through anything you feel is holding you back.  Make a deal with your self that you will try a new class or take a session with a personal trainer every month.  Make it a point to look for activities that you have not tried before.

Now that we have discussed the ways to overcome the “can't” in our vocabulary, let’s add these words to our vernacular instead.

Can:

-auxiliary verb

to be able to; have the ability, power, or skill to: I’m sure

to know how to

To have to power or means to

Will:

-noun

The faculty of conscious and especially of deliberate action; the power of control the mind has over its own actions

Power of choosing one’s own actions

Purpose or determination

You have to believe that you can and will succeed.