“Believe in yourself”, “No fear”, and Other Impossible Instructions

"Give it your best shot"
"Be awesome"
"Be inspiring and motivating"
"Believe in yourself"

Like you, I would like to do or be all of these things. I would like to be awesome, inspiring, motivating, and have an immense amount of self-belief—especially after looking through my Instagram feed full of these great aphorisms. Like you, I am in the health and fitness field, so you most likely have also seen similar posts on your social media feeds.

I check my social media accounts around the same time that I make my morning double-espresso, around 4:30AM. But at 4:30AM, very little makes sense.

The advice in these aphorisms from all of my social media friends—who are also in fitness—comes at the time of day when my head is still somewhat in a fog. I take a few sips of my espresso, wait for the caffeine to kick in, and in a few minutes my head is clear. But, the advice is still swimming in my head. After a look at my calendar and emails, I have my bearings and I’m ready to start the day.

"Be awesome." Ok Rolando, let’s go and be awesome today.

"Believe in yourself." I thought I believed in myself yesterday, but today I will believe in myself even more.

"Anything is possible!" Oh geez, that phrase actually scares the crap out of me. I want to go back to bed! I don’t want ANYTHING to be possible, only the things I want to be possible.

 

 

After looking at my own social media posts, I realized that in my attempt to make people feel good and positive about their day, I was also sharing impossible advice. I was posting the very same type of messages that almost everyone in health and fitness shares in their digital communications. These ideas are harmless for the most part—the world needs more positive vibes—but that harmlessness is marred by a crucial oversight: they lack clear, actionable instructions.

If I want to be awesome, what am I supposed to do? In what order should I do it? And how do I know I have achieved the end goal and fulfilled my purpose for that day? In other words, we cannot simply will ourselves into being awesome, inspiring, and full of self-belief. Instead, these qualities are the results of clear, dedicated, and committed action.

As health and fitness professionals, we must demand great clarity of purpose and action from ourselves—if we want our words and deeds to be instructive and impactful. We can make a commitment to our profession with our actions.

The following short list of actions will turn our previously "impossible advice" into an effective way of being:

 1. LISTEN
Listen to three people each day. A client is always a good choice, but you can include your best friend in that list, too. The person you love is a GREAT person to listen to—they need you to listen. Listen to your parents. While they needed you to listen when you were a child, now that you are older, they need you to listen to them even more than you may realize.

2. ASSIST
Assist at least one person on any given day. Be conscious of your decision to assist them. If your client has a question about a fitness app, help them set it up on their phone. If a fellow trainer can’t decide on what certification to choose, do some research for them. Every day, pick one person to assist without judgment or restraint.

3. PRAISE
This last action is important, because it requires a lot of thought to be genuine. Don’t just window shop, quickly scanning someone before saying, "Wow you’re amazing!" That is not praise. If you listened to them in the beginning, and assisted them in what they needed from you, you should be able to find something to praise about them.

 

Everyone is highly aware and often insecure about their shortcomings. Praise from someone who helped and listened will come from a place of sincerity. Sincere praise will be received with genuine gratitude.

Listen to people, they need you to hear them. Find people to assist, because the world needs people like you. Do your best to praise the good in someone. Most of all, acknowledge the good in yourself and the life you are building. I know you will do these things, because I know you are awesome. And I believe in you.