How do you define success?
Success can be defined as so many things and is much more complex than the simple definition provided by a dictionary. If you are trying to find the best definition for what success is for you, take a look at Lifehack.com’s article regarding success and the many ways to define success for your life.
When do you begin to believe you’ve had success and start to see yourself as “being successful”?
Success means different things to different people. We all define it a little bit differently. Until you can understand, and fully grasp, how you define success, it’s difficult to understand and define your own wins. Sometimes we look at others and think, “Wow. They’re so successful.”
Why? Why are they successful? What have they accomplished that makes you define and acknowledge their success and not your own?
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier
Victories, especially relating to our health and fitness, can be easier for you to see in others than it is to see in yourself. It’s not uncommon that we focus on the success of others and focus more on our own faults and where we think we may be falling short. By doing this, you’re stacking the deck against yourself. You are selling yourself short.
There are specific steps you can take to not only have more success in your life, especially in fitness and health but also to enjoy the process that much more. Isn’t that what you want? Success and more enjoyment of life along the way? Reaching your goals doesn’t have to be a grueling process that makes you hate every moment of the journey. It shouldn’t be something you dread, it should be a process you embrace and love.
How can you reach success and enjoy each process? Let’s take a look at what it takes to find success and the 7 steps you can take to enjoy the journey and find more success than ever before.
What pushes you towards great achievement?
Do you know what inspires you? What is pushing you to reach the goals you’ve set? Where should you start?
At Mind Muscle Memory (M3) we focus on three things:
· To Inspire
· To Educate
· To Motivate
Having a goal, especially when focusing on fitness and improving your health is important. You have probably heard about setting clear goals and writing them down, but do you do it? Psychology Today discusses the importance of goal setting and how powerful it can be in their article, ’10 Things You Should Know About Goals.’ In their article, they discuss the effects goal setting can have on the brain. It is stated that:
“Our brains may have an internal guidance system for reaching goals. Research from neuroscience suggests that our brains use the neurotransmitter dopamine as an internal guidance system to reach goals. An animal study showed that the dopamine signal in the brain gets stronger as the goal gets closer. It’s sort of a “Marco Polo” effect that influences choices made to direct action toward a goal and adjusts expectations about how close or far away from the goal really is.”
Your goals provide the foundation for the inspiration to act. Your brain craves it. Without a true goal, or knowing why you want to do something, you won’t have the inspiration your brain requires to achieve it and make it important.
What are your fitness goals?
Where do you find your inspiration?
M3 is here to Educate and Equip You with Everything You Need to Be Successful
Many fitness professionals and coaches focus heavily on holding onto information and secrets out of the fear that they won’t be needed if they tell their clients everything. At Mind Muscle Memory we focus on the opposite. We strive to educate all of our members as much as possible and to equip them with everything they need to reach success mentally and physically.
What are you doing to educate yourself to help equip you for better victory?
Continuing to learn and grow in your knowledge of what it is you seek to improve is one of the best ways to be successful. Gaining more knowledge provides more confidence and more
So, how can you ensure that you are going to reach success and enjoy the process? You can educate yourself and work toward triumph.
Motivation isn’t where you should begin.
That’s right. You shouldn’t start with motivation. As mentioned above, at M3 we believe that it’s the third focus, not the first.
There will be days where you don’t “feel” motivated to do anything. You will have days where it’s hard to “find the motivation” to go to the gym or to eat healthily, but it’s still necessary. If you start with needing the motivation to start your journey towards victory, then you are likely to never start at all.
Motivation is helpful. It’s going to help along the way. Motivation can be internal or external and at Mind Muscle Memory we strive to be the motivation and pulling force for those we coach to help motivate them as they work through their journey. Having an external pull, or motivation can be helpful for those who are on a journey towards better health and improved fitness. You don’t have to do it alone, and you shouldn’t.
Motivation is important, however, to ensure that you have a strong foundation of inspiration and a strong goal to help push you first or no amount of motivation will matter.
Here are the 7 steps to help you reach your goals, help keep you inspired, and to help you enjoy the process along the way. The secrets to your success and the enjoyment of success are simple. Though they may not be easy, they are simple.
7 Steps to Enjoying Your Fitness Journey and More Success:
1. Educate Yourself. Don’t sit by and rely on the media to tell you what you should and shouldn’t do with your fitness. Instead. Educate yourself and gain knowledge.
2. Set strong goals. Set goals that will motivate and drive you, but also that are obtainable and motivating in themselves.
3. Find a coach or mentor. It’s important to find someone who can mentor you and help you find a process that will fit your needs.
4. Time. Give yourself the time you need to reach your goals, don’t force yourself to move too quickly. The overall goal is to live a better, healthier life. It takes time. Be sure you give yourself grace and the time you need to reach those goals.
5. Observe your successes and failures. To really reach your goals and have more success, you need to observe your successes and failures. Over time, you will have more success when you learn from what did and didn’t work.
6. Reward yourself! That’s right! You need to be sure to reward yourself when you reach your goals. Even the small ones need to be recognized and rewarded so you continue to progress forward.
7. Rinse and Repeat. No need to re-create the wheel. When you find what’s working, keep going and keep doing it again and again. Continue to push yourself, but there is no need to do something different when you’ve already found something that will work.
These steps aren’t complicated. When you break them down one by one you will notice that they are, indeed, simple. These 7 Steps are vital to success because within each of them are the true secrets to having success. Have a clear goal, take action, review your results, celebrate your success, and repeat. This is the process, when you continue to use it, that will serve you along your entire journey.
Celebrating Your Victories Regularly Should Never be Taken Lightly
Many people struggle with celebrating their success, especially the “small” victories. What you have to remember is that it’s celebrating those small steps of triumph that will continue to push you throughout your journey. If you are only ever focused on where you need to go, the larger goal and the “end game” you can begin to lose sight of the impact your small victories are having on your ability to reach your larger goals.
Research has proven the implications that celebrating small successes can have on motivation and overall success. In his article, ‘The Power of Small Wins: Why Celebrating Your Progress is Crucial for Long-Term Success’, the author discusses the importance of celebrating small successes can have on the brain and motivation. He states:
“This is because any accomplishment, no matter how small, activates the reward circuitry of our brains. When this pathway is opened some key chemicals are released that give us a feeling of achievement and pride.
In particular, the neurotransmitter dopamine is released which energizes us and gives us a feel-good aura. This chemical enables us not only to get that sweet feeling of reward but also to take action to move toward what triggered its release in the first place.”
Celebrating success and growth along your fitness journey is vital for your continued success and your enjoyment of the journey. Don’t just celebrate the end and the big win. Acknowledge the small wins and all of the success it takes to get that big win. It is when you are able to do this that you are truly able to enjoy the process, no matter how long it may take.
M3 wants to be the Pull that Gets You Further Than You Ever Imagined
When you are looking for a way to get to the next level and to get past the plateaus, Mind Muscle Memory is here to help you. Our coaches are here to support you and to pull you through the valley and the plateaus when things get rough. You may not know where to start. You may not know what areas to educate yourself about that will impact your journey. Our coaches are here to answer these questions and to help be that pull you need when you can’t find the motivation to push yourself.
You can contact us today to meet with someone to help you get started so you can start finding the success you desire and enjoy each step of the process along the way. Fitness, health, and reaching your goals don’t need to be painful, grueling, or unpleasant.
Find your Inspiration. Be educated. Be Motivated.