You Have Value!

Recently I wrote an article called  Invest more than $ into yourself  because lately I’ve been giving the idea of investing in oneself a great deal of thought. I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to invest in yourself and why you need to continue to do so. However, it was this past weekend when I met up with an old friend from Laurier for lunch that I realized the “why” behind investing in yourself. You need to take care, and invest in yourself because you have value. My friend, as well as myself reached a point in our lives where we felt lost. We fell into a funk, and forgot our own value. Because of this, we started making decisions out of fear, and holding ourselves back. This only made us feel as if we didn’t deserve much. We stated to think that maybe we suck? Maybe that’s why we’re not happy? We’re not happy because we suck. Maybe that’s why we’re not where we’re supposed to be in life? Or at least where we think we should be in life.

It took some time, and in our own ways we both realized that, that is not true. From my own personal experience, I realized that I can get myself out of this shitty situation. I realized that the situation I put myself in, is not a true reflection of who I am, or who I want to be. I learned that I needed to separate myself from the situation, and understand that maybe I’ve made mistakes, and maybe I’m a little lost, but that does not mean that I no longer have value, or that I won’t be able to find my way. This is very easy to forget. It is very easy to forget that you have value, that you are important, and that you have plenty to offer the world. There will be times where you find yourself in a negative relationship, in a negative environment, or in a job that you hate. All of these situations can have you feeling like shit, and they will also cause you to question your own self-worth. For me? I found myself in a job, and in an environment that I HATED SO FREAKING MUCH!!! Not only was it negative, I found that it completely conflicted with my beliefs, and values. I started to resent my job, and I hated feeling that way. It made me question myself, my career path. I started to question if I made the right choices? Is fitness for me? Maybe I’m just not good at this?

It took me time, and moving to another small gym, before eventually I began to realize that it was the company and the environment that wasn’t for me, not fitness. Actually, I’m really good at instructing classes, and personal training. I also realized that I can’t keep selling myself short, I need to follow my original dream and start my own business. I live and breath fitness… I mean that’s why I got into the industry in the first place! It was my passion for fitness, and how it empowers me that I even started instructing classes. I wanted to bring that sense of empowerment to others. I needed to remind myself of my purpose, and that I had value. No matter how negative the situation I was in, I had to remind myself that I will be okay. It wasn’t easy but the one way that I got out of this funk, and started to believe in myself was through my own personal investment. The best way to elevate yourself and to remind yourself that you have value is to invest in yourself. Do things that make you happy, do things that give you energy. Educate yourself, read, workout, try new things, go on adventures, whatever you have always wanted to do or learn, go and do those things. These are the things that will help you create your own happiness. I am not telling you to run away from yourself, but instead to take the time to be with yourself, learn, and grow. The more quality time your spend with yourself, investing in yourself, and getting to know yourself, the more you will be able to see your own value. Once you believe that you matter, and that you have value, the easier it will be to get through tough situations. You will be able to separate yourself from the negative situation, accept your mistakes, and move on because you believe that you can, and that you deserve to be happy.

If you find yourself valuable, others will too. Treat yourself as if you have value, because you do. 

Invest more than $ into yourself

I haven’t been as consistent with my blogging this month as I would like, and I have been brewing this idea in my head for a little while now, but I have only recently found the angle that I would like to approach “investing” in oneself. My coach uses the line “invest in yourself” many times on all of his social media posts, especially the progress photos of his competitors and clients. Ever since the New Year, I’ve been thinking about what it means to invest in yourself. Most of the time when we think of investments, or investing, we think about money. This is the most obvious form of investing, but my plan is to tell you that it isn’t the only form of investment, especially when it comes to your fitness and health.

First of all, I would be lying if I said that absolutely no monetary investment is required to improve your fitness, health, and lifestyle. Money has a huge impact on your ability to live a fit and healthy lifestyle. However, what I am trying to say with this article is that you cannot just keep throwing money at a problem and hope that it goes away. If you really want to make a change in your life for the better, you must invest more than just money. For example, if you bought the fanciest gym clothes, went to the most upscale gym, and bought an expensive personal trainer, that doesn’t mean that you are guaranteed to reach your goals. Your chances of reaching your goals definitely increase, because now you have a means to reach your goals, but that’s about it. There are a lot of people who think that now that they’ve paid for a gym membership they are going to loose weight, or now that they have a personal trainer, they are going to reach their goals. These things definitely help, especially having an educated trainer, but they are not a guarantee. Why? Well that’s mostly because of you. You need to be fully committed and invested in your goals. Not only financially, but mentally, emotionally, and physically. You literally need to invest your ENTIRE self into any goal that you set for yourself if you truly want to be successful. Investing in gym clothes, a gym membership, and a personal trainer, are all very superficial, and they mean absolutely nothing if you’re not fully committed to making a change in your life.

I was having lunch with a friend about two weeks ago, and we were talking about our businesses, and how most people like the idea of change, but they are not actually committed to making a change. This is why so many people make these superficial, financial investments like new gear, a fancy gym membership, and so on, but they don’t invest anything else into making a change. Just because you went to the gym, trained with your coach for an hour does not mean that you’re going to get ripped in no time, it almost means nothing at all… Now some of you may be asking yourself why that is? And well, sure you went to the gym, and sure you trained for an hour, but were you mentally present and focused for the entire hour? Did you put forth all your energy and effort? Even if you did all of that, that still doesn’t mean you’ll be getting ripped.Why? Well that’s because you only invested in just the one hour, there are 23 hours left in the day for you to mess it up! Some of you may be laughing at this point, and yes it is funny, but it is also true. If you don’t want that hour spent in the gym to be in vain, then you must invest the rest of your day towards your fitness goals. In fact, if being fit and healthy is important to you, then really you need to be centering your entire life around it. Like I’ve mentioned before, if you want to be successful at anything you must invest your entire self to it.

Now a lot of you may be thinking woah, wait… What is this girl talking about? What does she mean, center my life around being healthy? Or investing my entire self into being fit? I’m not a gym rat, I’m not that vain, I don’t need a six pack. And this is where my point is proved once again. A lot of people say, “I don’t want to diet, I want to be healthy, I want to make a lifestyle change…” However, a lot people don’t realize the amount of things they need to change and/or give up if they really do want a “healthy lifestyle.” Most people do not lead a healthy lifestyle, and most people don’t realize how unhealthy their lifestyle really is until it’s almost too late. This is why there is so much obesity, mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and disease plaguing our population! Now I don’t expect everyone to have the discipline it takes to train, and eat like a bodybuilder. Especially when it comes to getting ready for shows. I do believe in balance, and for each individual that means something different. But let me make this clear, you need to be very realistic with the goals that you set for yourself. You really can’t have your cake and eat it too, so to speak. Don’t ever expect to have abs if you don’t plan on drastically changing how you eat and how you train. If however, you would like to reduce your body fat to a healthy level, and improve your overall fitness, you won’t necessarily have to drastically change your entire life to the complete opposite of the spectrum. Meaning, you don’t have to start training twice a day, and eating 6 meals a day right away, if being completely ripped isn’t your goal.

If you do want to make a lifestyle change for the better, start off small. Be realistic!! Make your goals manageable! Do not set yourself an impossible goal of going to the gym 5 days a week if you’ve never set foot in there before. Start at maybe twice a week, and increase it from there. You will stay much more motivated, and you will be much more successful if you can set attainable goals for yourself right at the start. After you feel successful at going twice a week, then add in a third day. After you’ve been doing that consistently, you will then have the confidence to make other lifestyle changes to further help you reach your fitness goals. This takes time, an essential investment that needs to be made when you decide to commit to a fitness goal. There is no magical pill, or invention that will do the work for you. Like I’ve said before, being fit and healthy is work. It is a labor of love, a love for yourself and your well being that is. It is also an investment that requires you to be mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially locked in. You can’t eat well for five days of the week and then every weekend you get completely derailed. You will never get any further in your pursuit for fitness and health. You need to be consistent with your diet and your workouts. You can’t diet during the week, fall off on the weekend, and then punish yourself Monday by dieting really hard again. Set manageable goals for your diet just like your workouts, AND STICK TO THEM!! Change requires COMMITMENT!!! You need to be fully committed aka fully invested in all your pursuits, fitness or not because money unfortunately doesn’t solve all of life’s problems.

Why do I need a trainer?

I’ve been a personal trainer now for over 3 years, and one question that I’ve been asked many times has been, “Why would a personal trainer need a trainer?” This is a very tricky question because I know why most people are asking this question. It’s mostly because they believe that if you are a personal trainer you should walk the talk, and should be able to motivate themselves to workout on their own. This is true. I definitely believe that if you claim to be a personal trainer, your own personal fitness speaks volumes about your business, and how you are as a trainer. This is because most people who are looking for a trainer or a coach, are looking for someone who they aspire to be like. If you are a personal trainer or coach, you are a leader in the gym, and people expect you to act as such. Members are always watching you because they are looking to you as an example. So, if you are not working out regularly and eating properly yourself, then I don’t think you have any right trying to tell other people what they should be doing to reach their fitness goals. Do not claim to be a fitness expert if you never apply it to yourself. That being said, I do honestly believe that everyone, and this includes personal trainers, could benefit from receiving training or coaching from someone else.

Why? Well first of all, most trainers have an expertise or a niche within the fitness industry. It takes years of experience and practice to learn the various training techniques that exists. And even still, there is still plenty that trainers can learn from their peers. I have a coach, and I’ve been working with him for over a year and a half. Not only has my own personal fitness improved greatly, but I’ve learned so much about bodybuilding, dieting, and growing my own business. I think everyone can benefit from a coach or a trainer, I mean professional athletes have several different trainers, why would you think that you don’t need one? Do you know everything there is to know about weight training? Are you a Guru in the gym? Probably not… Especially if you do want to learn about a particular style of training, or a particular sport like Olympic Weight Lifting or Bodybuilding for example. It is a good idea to get a coach, that way you can learn from someone who has experience in the sport, and if you want to compete you will have a much better chance then if you tried to do it on your own. Plus it’s an excellent opportunity for you to find yourself a mentor within the industry. Someone who you look up to and aspire to be like.

Even if you weren’t trying out a new sport, or competing in anything. It is still a good idea to get a trainer to teach you the basics. You would be surprised how much your fitness will improve once you learn how to properly engage the right muscles. I’ve seen way too many people attempt exercises with horrible form. This will only lead to injury. Why not get some helpful advice from an experienced trainer? No matter who you think you are, I’m sure you would learn something from the experience. Plus your fitness can only improve with the help of an experienced trainer, and your commitment. Even on the flip side, I’ve seen people (mostly ladies) out of fear, they reach for very low weights, or they do not even attempt to get full range of motion in the exercise. Now their fear may come from various places, like a fear of injury, a fear of becoming too masculine, gaining too much muscle and looking bulky. There are so many myths and fears surrounding the gym. The gym can be a very intimidating place for someone who has very little experience weight training. This is why a trainer is so important! They can help to relieve some of your fears, and give you confidence in the gym. Their main job is to teach you how to properly exercise, and to help you reach your fitness goals.

Most people HATE working out, but it’s mostly because they have no idea what they’re doing. It is very demotivating to try and do something that you’re not very good at, or that you don’t know very much about. This is why having a trainer is so important. So many people flock to the gym in January with their new years resolutions, and that’s great! However, the problem is, is that many of these people have goals, but they have absolutely no real plan on how to reach these goals. So they go to the gym, highly motivated at first, and they do whatever they think they should do to get the body they want and then they leave. After a few weeks, they aren’t really seeing any results, and by the end of January more than half of these resolutioners have given up… Why?!? I know that training is not always affordable, but it is so worth the money. I’m obviously biased because I am a trainer. However, why do you keep wasting money on gym memberships if you have no idea what you’re supposed to do while you’re there? Personal training is a worthy investment because ultimately you are investing in yourself. You are your greatest asset in life, and if you want to prosper in your life you need to positively invest in yourself. You need to educate yourself, nourish yourself, and you need to exercise. Personal training does more than help you in the gym, just like sports for kids, there are many transferable skills that you can learn from your coach in the weight room. Personal training is an investment that literally anyone can benefit from. We all have so much potential for personal growth, but we are more likely to reach our fullest potential through the guidance of someone else.