My Secret to Success, learning from the

World Champion.

As a trainer, I always encourage and nudge my clients to set the biggest goals possible. A big scary goal can be an incredibly powerful thing to prompt massive action. Taking massive action and maintaining it are, however very different things. Keeping up that all important momentum can be hard and this often leads to missed targets and the inevitable falling short of hitting a new goal weight, Personal Best or the green light to reduce your medication from the GP.

Now setting big goals is to be commended and if doesn’t make you a little nervous or better yet scared then I would consider if this really is the right goal for you. This isn’t, however, another blog about goal setting, this is about how you overcome the “hump” when that goal no longer ignites the fire it once did.
Assuming your goal is big enough to genuinely motivate you and realistic enough that it could actually happen, sorry most of us aren’t going to the Olympics, then it’s fair to say you will hit the wall at some point in your training and healthy eating journey. Firstly this is normal we are all human and secondly, no accomplishment worth having ever came that easy.

My Secret to Success

To explain how I learned to overcome this particular stumbling block I need to tell you about the day I met one of my idols. Now I have been fortunate in that I have been able to meet many of my idols from the world of Formula One and I came to realize a long time ago that they are often not what you expect. However, the day I met one of my greatest idols, six times Ironman World Champion Dave Scott I was blown away at how humble and human he was.

I was attending the annual Triathlon show in Sandown specifically to hear Dave Scott talk and learn more about his time in the sport. This was back in the days when I was coaching as a hobby and still building up the courage to start my own business. Standing in the queue for the talk I was at the back of the general entry behind all the priority ticket holders. To my surprise Dave Scott appeared and wandered along our queue stopping to chat and apologizing that we had to wait for him, insisting the organizer ought to bring us coffee. At this point, I’m pretty sure I was mumbling incoherent mumbo-jumbo, either way, it’s wasn’t English. After grabbing a quick photo we headed inside for the talk.

Dave spoke in detail about his career, his athletic accomplishments and most interestingly to me his coaching approach. He spoke with such passion and detail about the athletes he worked with and he spoke in a way that felt like he was talking directly to me. This was a very poignant day for me and don’t say this lightly. Of all the advice and people I have trained with and been coached by this next bit of advice I have taken to heart and use it all of the time, especially when I am in need of a kick. Dave spoke about all areas of his life, growing up, coaching and competing, but the one thing he kept coming back to was the simple mantra he lived by, “do what you can do now”. Simple, right?

It really is that simple, but it is incredibly powerful when you take it to heart. I waited around after the talk and caught up with Dave explaining about my desire to start coaching and working in the industry. He told me to focus on what I could do now and become a voracious reader (another bit of advice I have taken to heart). He kindly signed a poster wishing me luck with my career and those who train with me will be able to see this hanging proudly in my gym as a permanent reminder of this important day. So, you might be thinking to yourself that’s a good bit of advice but will it really make any difference? Well, After meeting Dave I focussed just on those things which I could do and forgot about the hundreds of things I couldn’t.

For me that meant investing my savings into setting up Fundamentally FIT, incorporating the company, buying my first set of equipment and securing my first license to run my boot camp. Within a short period of meeting Dave Scott, I had moved mountains and established my own business and started recruiting my early client base. This was not struggle free and even today almost four years on the goals keep getting bigger and that nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach always reminds me if the goal is the right one. When I hit a wall or get stuck I just think back to meeting Dave and focus on what I can do right now and simply forget the rest. The faster you focus on what can be done the quicker you will get to what you think can’t be done because all of a sudden those roadblocks don’t seem as big or insurmountable anymore.

So, ask yourself that very same question today. Whatever your goal, health, fitness, business or otherwise what CAN you do right now that would move you forward however big or small and just get on with making it happen.

We all have barriers, mental blocks and often excuses as to why we can’t do something, so just focus on what you can do right now and you will be shocked at how quickly you start moving forward and making progress. This really has been my secret to success.

Andy Strong

Fundamentally FIT