Are You Negotiating With Yourself?

Most people assume the biggest barrier to fitness is physical. After years of working with hundreds, if not thousands, of people, we can tell you with confidence: that's not what determines who makes it.

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The people who succeed in the gym are not the ones who walked in with the most capable bodies. We've worked successfully with clients in wheelchairs, 90-somethings, people who are legally blind, some on the spectrum, some with neurological or autoimmune disorders. Chances are, most of you reading this aren't up against limitations like these.

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So why did they succeed? Mindset.

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Mindset doesn't mean pretending that some days are hard or that your limitations aren't real. The clients who inspire us most are not the ones who never struggled. They're the ones who struggled and committed anyway. Mindset is the decision you make before you walk through the door (and then over and over again).

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If you've been waiting until you're "ready," until it feels easier, until life slows down, you're waiting for something that isn't coming.

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The barriers are never gone. You must stop negotiating with them.

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You don't want to get up early, but you also don't want to go to the specific session that fits your schedule later in the day. You want to stay up late, but you also have goals that require sleep. You want to get strong, but you don't want to feel like a beginner in front of people who aren't.

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Notice the pattern. It's not that the barrier is too big. It's that you're negotiating with yourself.

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A few things that actually move the needle:

Pick the time before you need motivation to show up. Motivation is an emotion and even those of us who work at a gym don’t feel like training some days. The people who have been at Vero Strength the longest usually have the same days and times locked in, not a loose plan to "get there when they can." (When I reach out to missing members and they say “I hope to be there this week,” I know it won’t happen). 

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Make the decision once, not every day. Deciding whether to work out every single morning is exhausting and it's a decision you'll eventually lose. Decide on Sunday what the week looks like and pre-book your sessions. Then you're just following through on a decision you already made, not making a new one at 5:45am when your bed is warm.

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That flicker of resistance before a session doesn't mean much. It shows up whether the day turns out great or not. Almost everyone feels a little pull toward staying home, even people who love their training. The people who stick with this long term aren't the ones who stopped feeling that pull. They just stopped treating it as useful information.

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None of this requires perfect conditions. 

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None of us are going to ever have every condition perfectly lined up. So, start before you feel ready and keep going even when things get hard.