Success and the Athletic Mindset
We're talking about mindset today and for good reason! The reality is that it doesn’t matter how amazing your personal training, group exercise and nutrition program is if your thinking isn’t solid. Your mentality is actually more powerful than your program.
Mindset is the most powerful piece in your fitness arsenal.
If you have an incredible fitness and nutrition program in place but are living in the Fixed Mindset, you will inevitably run into frustration, aggravation and defeat. But with a Growth Mindset, even if you are saddled with a marginal fitness program, your mentality will seek out solutions, mechanisms for learning and growth that will eventually lead to a successful outcome. With a Growth Mindset, you can’t be stopped, you just keep seeking new pathways and improvements.
Joe Garcia, Program Director for Arena Fitness in California, USA, calls this the Non-Athletic Mindset vs. Athletic Mindset. Over many years in his fitness business he has painted a clear picture of the characteristics possessed by those who are successful and fulfilled in their fitness and those who are not.
In the image above you will see two columns. If your behavior tends to fall in the right column more than the left (none of us are perfect!) than you are much more likely to experience overall success and fulfillment in your training. If, however, you live in the left column, you probably start and stop frequently, go up and down in weight, get frustrated, quit, blame the program and ultimately don’t progress.
You can change if you want to. You can train yourself to live in the Athletic Mindset. Behaviours and characteristics have been identified of people who create and sustain results, and you can be one of them if you choose.
