Tuesday 21 February 2012

What counts as a success?

I was in the middle of a session with a client when I was asked a question, nothing unusual about this I get asked questions all the time. However this was slightly different from the usual “how do I get bigger arms?” or “what should I be eating?” This was a question that actually left me a bit stumped. My usual answer to a question like that is “I don’t know but I’ll find out.” It’s a bit of a catch all but it does lead me off in new directions. It motivates me to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and to develop new skills that will make me a better trainer. However this was the first time in a long time I really had to think about the answer. It seems strange but the question affects not just my business and training philosophy, but my ultimate goal as a fitness professional is.

I was asked how I define success with a client….

Let me just take a moment and talk about what exactly makes me feel successful.

Like most people when I started my career, I measured success very differently than I do now, paying my bills and surviving was enough to make me happy.  However that quickly passes and in order to be motivated beyond the mundane you need something to strive for to keep yourself happy and motivated.

Achieving my goals, most certainly makes me feel successful I’m happiest when I work to a target and I can’t help but getting excited about the sense of achievement and fulfilment I get from reaching and surpassing a target. I’ve worked with a lot of people over the years and my clients have been about as diverse as you can get I’ve covered the full spectrum from world class athletes to brides and business men who just want to do some boxing to de-stress, often in the same working day!

Nearly all achieve their goals, which is rewarding. This sense of achievement ensures they go away with a smile on their face and makes me feel proud of my work.



But if I’m 100% honest it’s that’s not the best feeling I get, it’s when I get to make a difference with my clients.

One of my first clients I worked with when I moved to London was a computer technician in his mid-30s who hadn’t been serious about exercise since he finished playing school boy rugby nearly 20 years earlier. He was overweight, bad posture, low self-esteem and by his own admission in a bad way. Over the next 2 years we worked on every aspect of his training habits and lifestyle. It was a gradual process building his training plans and resetting bad habits. Then as we were chatting about his goals last year he said to me with a new found confidence, “I’ve been thinking lately, I don’t need you as much anymore.”

I know a lot of trainers who would be heartbroken by this but in fact I was actually quite proud. My mind immediately jumped back to the very first session we did in the gym, where 10 kettlebell swings would leave him gasping for breath and looking at him now where he was doing 100 in under 2mins. I instantly realised he was right I hadn’t just changed his physique I had also given him the knowledge and ability to maintain it.

My view of success changed at that moment and although hitting targets is still the most important part of it, there is something more now. It’s not enough to just hit somebody’s goals and send them away happy. I now aim to educate people as to what they need to do to stop them from falling back into their old habits.  It’s an incredibly rewarding feeling when you meet a former client, and they still look good and talk to you about your training methods and how they are still using them.

For me that’s how I measure success now.

Thursday 2 February 2012

Febuary 2012

Well January is now over and Febuary has started with loads of potential, i have a few interesting things happening this month including my olympic lifting certs in the first weekend of the month keep coming back to see how I get on.

Cormac