Recently I was at a business mastermind in Las Vegas and we got into a discussion about why people fail. The discussion was geared toward business and we ended up with a list of 10 reasons people fail. As we were creating the list, it really struck me how many of the reasons applied to all areas of our life, even weight loss and fitness.
Here are the top 5 from our list that I believe apply to fitness:
1. They are afraid to fail – Failure is not fun, it’s unnerving, can shatter your confidence and crush your pride. It can set you back and make you lose hope. People may murmur a little “uhhhh-huuuh. I don’t know why she tried that!” or “I guess she’s not as good as she thought she was as that” even “I told her that wouldn’t work.”. Frankly, it can be embarrassing to fail! So instead of going through that, lots of people just don’t even really try. Have you ever felt embarrassed by not being able to run a mile, do “Guy” push-ups or keep up with your workout group in general?
2. They suffer from information overload – Some people spend so much time “gathering” information; reading, dissecting and evaluating books, magazines, blogs, going to live seminars, etc. on a certain topic that they never get around to actually acting on the any of it! They either don’t know where to begin or they fool themselves into thinking that they are taking action by gathering information. How many diet books, workout videos and pieces of exercise equipment do you have?
3. They give up too soon – Chances are the first time you do something the outcome may not be on par with what you had expected. In fact you may outright fail. All too often people let the first roadblock, setback or plateau be the end of their trying (see reason #1). In 99% of cases, success does not come overnight. In fact many a successful actress of business person will say a variation of “it took me (insert number of years) to become an overnight success”. How many diets have you quit after just 1 or 2 weeks?
4. They Don’t Have Passion – If you pick a goal that has no real meaning to you. If your “Why” for wanting to achieving something doesn’t make goose bumps appear on your skin or make your heart beat faster, chances are when you won’t stick to your mission when the going gets tough, and really, why should you? “I want to get healthy” while noble, rarely is a goal inspiring enough to really push you through the tough stuff.
5. They take shortcuts – In the end, nothing can substitute for putting in the work and earning what you get in return (think liquid diets, starving yourself, surgery). Nuff said.
So there are 5 of the reason people fail….as I look at my list, I see about 3 more reasons that really apply to fitness and frankly are probably the most common. I’ll write about those tomorrow.