Fit-trepreneur: Achieve fitness success by thinking like a businessman

Have any of you reading this ever thought about what it would be like running your own business? Have you ever walked into a store, restaurant or any establishment of your interest and thought to yourself,

"This place is all wrong. If it were my business, I'd do this, that, etc etc."

Don't lie, we've ALL done it. That's only the first step. Then you begin to visualize how you'd change the facade of the establish. How you'd manipulate what the service provided is and how to make it better.

Don't get confused, this IS a fitness article and your brain has just been switched to "Leader" as opposed to "Follower". Follow me here:

Every business has a plan and every plan; a goal. Now I want to ask you while you're thinking like a businessman,

" What's your plan? What's your goal?"

Whether you want to lift 1000lbs or lose 10, you need a plan in motion to achieve success. Treat this as your "Business Plan." Every business plan will include the following:

- location/environment
- investment/costs
- timelines
- references (personal/professional)
- fail safe back up plan

Let's look at these briefly to explain how you can make this new endeavor work for you!

Location / Environment :

Consider your goals when finding the perfect environment to achieve and keep this in mind

       Birds of a feather flock together

In other words, you need to put yourself in an environment with like minded individuals to help expedite your success. No different than successful people positioning themselves with other like minded successful people. The company you choose to keep with make or break your success. If your company do not share your same views or want what you want, you need to dump them and move on.

Investment / Cost :

This, in my opinion, is the one singular deterrent in individuals success. It's the reason most business fail: thankfully for you, fitness doesn't have to cost you can arm and a leg. However, depending on your goals, it will require an initial investment to see a wonderful return. This means putting your hard earned green towards:

- Proper nutrition. You don't have to be 100% organic and jump on the Central Market/Whole Foods bandwagon, but you'll need to be more conscience of what you eat. Face it, healthy food is more expensive than cheap food.

- Supplementation Taking the extra incentive to fill your nutritional gaps makes a bit of difference and it's there to HELP your progress, not do all the work for you. Don't take the word of your Local GNC employee who obviously doesn't lift. Instead, seek out your gym rat forums and ask some people in your social circle that actually workout about it and see what they say. I personally recommend the basic MultiVitamin and Protein supplement to get you started

Gym environment - You don't need a gym to get healthy, but if your goal is to get stronger , gain muscle , lose weight , tone or any other thing then pushups and curling paint cans will only get you so far. Find a gym that YOU feel is consistent with your goals. For example, if you want to get stronger than Curves probably won't be able to help you much like if you want to get huge ,Planet Fitness isn't your destination. Visit each gym and find a spot where the people there look like you want to look or are exercising the way you want to exercise. In the end, its going to cost something. You can probably wheel and deal a joiner fee wave or a few months free , but that's about it.

Equipment - Okay so your old pair of Adidas that you mow the lawn in CAN be used for gym shoes but it doesn't hurt to invest in proper equipment/clothing . Wearing shoes with good support, purchasing gloves if needed, straps, wrist support, etc etc etc.

Timelines - set a time for your goals. Be specific. For example ,

"I'm going to workout 5 times this week."

Or

"I'm going to drop 2lbs per week"

Or

"I'm going to lose 10 lbs this month"

Set a timeline goal and reset it after you've achieved it. Remember, running water never grows stale. Keep on flowing.
References (personal and professional)

In a nut shell, find a gym buddy to workout with to keep you consistent, accountable and motivated or INVEST in a personal trainer to get you started. 

Fail-Safe Backup plan:

This is your lifeboat ready to save you and let you fight another day. Here, you will reevaluate your position and what you've done and you change everything that didn't work and try something new. This is a must and it is fail safe because it doesn't matter how many times this fell short, you never fail unless you give up

Take care and train hard,

SeanB