Have a healthy belief in your ability to excel

Fall is in the air and as the summer winds down, it’s typical to see gym attendance jump up. That’s a wonderful thing. It marks a season of change. Kids are back in school, schedules are back to normal, the weather begins to change, the days get shorter and everyone gets the bug to lose the weight they’ve gained during another carefree summer. Fabulous! It’s time once again to make a decision to throw out old habits and get ready to change.

Optimists will take this new challenge seriously and they will run toward it with the heart of a warrior. We can all learn from the optimist. He or she approaches life with a mentally tough attitude, assesses every habit and situation through the eyes of logic and they know how to put their emotions aside in order to not only get the job done but to excel beyond the goals and dreams they have set for themselves and come out a champion every time.

The average performers, most often the “glass half-empty” pessimists, are timid, lack confidence in their own judgment and they don’t typically have a healthy belief in their own ability to excel. The pessimist most generally will understand the importance of living a healthy lifestyle and most often they have a true desire to commit to a healthy lifestyle but they will automatically feel defeated in the process before they tie up their sneakers on day one. The difference between the champion and the average performer; the optimist and the pessimist; the world class thinker and the middle class thinker is simple. It comes down to courage, confidence and a healthy belief system. It’s a mindset.

The good news is even the best leaders and champions are uncertain about their decisions in an environment of unprecedented change regardless if they are optimists or pessimists by nature. The difference between the champion and the average performer is their willingness to make a decision and take full responsibility for the outcome.

Amateur performers habitually play not to lose and procrastinate because they fear making a mistake. The great ones know mistakes will be made and can be corrected. Their willingness to assume full responsibility for their decisions eliminates the need to gather more input than is absolutely necessary. The solution to making a shift in thought processes and thinking patterns of average performers and champions rests in developing a sound decision-making process. Sound decision-making is the foundation of superior leadership.

Your fitness lifestyle should always be fun. Yes, new habits are hard to adhere to. No question about that. It’s when we decided to make a realistic plan we believe we can stick with and we make the activity fun and rewarding, it’s hard to start making excuses as to why we can’t follow through and eventually drop off because the results will start showing up and before you know it you’ll be looking and feeling great!

If you have to fake it ‘til you make it in the beginning, do it. You owe it to yourself to at least try. Now, I realize I’m preaching to the choir for a lot of our readers today but I also realize with the obesity rate being 70 percent in America right now, there are a lot more of you who need to hear a good mental toughness message and I’m here to deliver the goods. That’s what I do.

I’ll leave you with a personal challenge and an action step today: Take a fitness and wellness oriented decision you have been putting off for a while and decide on a course of action within the next 24 hours. Decision-making skills are like muscles: they can only be built through use and you owe it to yourself to be well, healthy and on top of your game.

Lisa Gough is a Mental Toughness Coach for weight loss and peak performance and owner of Total Fitness Athletic Club.