Throughout my 18 years in the fitness industry as a trainer, nutrition
consultant and motivational coach, I have noticed that some people who
start a nutrition and exercise program give up very easily after hitting
the first obstacle they encounter. If they feel the slightest bit of
discouragement or frustration, they will abandon even their biggest goals
and dreams.
On the other hand, I noticed that some people simply NEVER give up. They
have ferocious persistence and they never let go of their goals. These
people are like the bulldog that refuses to release its teeth-hold on a
bone. The harder you try to pull the bone out of his mouth, the harder the
dog chomps down with a vice-like grip.
What's the difference between these two types of people? Psychologists say
there is an answer.
An extremely im****tant guideline for achieving fitness success is the
concept that, "There is no failure; only feedback. You don't "fail", you
only get results."
This is a foundational principle from the field of Neuro Linguistic
Programming (NLP), and the first time I ever heard it was from peak
performance expert Anthony Robbins back in the late 1980's. It's a
principle that stuck with me ever since, because it's a very, very powerful
****ft in mindset.
A lot of people will second-guess themselves and they'll bail out and
quit, just because what they try at first doesn't work. They consider it a
permanent failure, but all they need is a little attitude change, a mindset
change, or what we call a "reframe."
Instead of saying, "This is failure" they can say to themselves, "I
produced a result" and "This is only tem****ary." This change in perspective
is going to change the way that they feel and how they mentally process and
explain the experience. It turns into a learning op****tunity and valuable
feedback for a course correction instead of a failure, and that drives
continued action and forward movement.
It's all about your results and your interpretation of those results
Dr Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of
Pennsylvania, did some incredible research on this subject and wrote about
it in his book, Learned Optimism. Dr. Seligman noticed that the difference
between people who give up and people who persist and never quit is what he
referred to as "explanatory style." He said that explanatory style is the
way we explain or interpret bad events or failures.
People who habitually give up have an explanatory style of permanence. For
example, they hit a plateau in their progress and explain it by saying,
"diets never work" or "I have bad genetics so I'll always be fat." These
explanations imply permanence.
Other people hit the same plateaus and encounter the same challenges, but
explain them differently. They say things such as, "I ate too many cheat
meals this week," or "I haven't found the right diet for my body type yet."
These explanations of the results imply being tem****ary.
People who see negative results as permanent failure are the ones who give
up easily and often generalize their "failure" into other areas of their
lives and even into their own sense of self. It's one thing to say, "I ate
poorly this past week because I was traveling," (a belief about tem****ary
behavior and environment), and to say, "I am a fat person because of my
genetics" (a belief about identity with a sense of permanence). Remember,
body fat is a tem****ary condition, not a person!
People who see challenges and obstacles as tem****ary and as valuable
learning experiences are the ones who never quit. If you learn from your
experiences, not repeating what didn't work in the past, and if you choose
to never quit, your success is inevitable.
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