Goal Setting For Personal Trainers

The most important step in any endeavor, and the step that most skip right over, is defining your goal(s) for success.
The dictionary definition of success is:
Success : (n) The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted
The important question here is, "What is your definition of success".
Let's use your a typical client as an example. They come to see you, as a personal trainer, in order to reach a goal. In this example their goal is to lose weight. OK, sounds like a goal to me....Or is it?
Would you start designing a training program based on the incredibly vague goal of "wanting to lose weight". If that's the case you may as well run them on the treadmill for a while, put them on the scale to see that they lost 1/4 of a pound and claim it a success.
Hey, they "lost weight" didn't they?
Of course you wouldn't do that. You would ask the client a series of questions to determine a much more specific goal:
- How much weight do you want to lose?
- By when do want to lose this weight?
- What are you willing to change/sacrifice in order to reach this goal?
- How much time and effort are you willing to put in to making this goal a reality?
- WHY is this goal important to you?
Not having a specific goal is the same as not having a destination on any other type of journey. Would you jump in your car and start driving without knowing where you were going? Or would you jump in your car with a very vague destination, say the beach?
How will you know if you're on the right track and making strides to your destination, or goal?
How will you know when you've arrived?
Well, unfortunately, most fitness professionals, although they do well helping their clients define their goals, don't take the time to define their own goals for themselves or their business. And without having specific goals, you're driving around aimlessly hoping to eventually end up at your goal by accident.
So, it's time for some homework.
What? You didn't know you would actually have to do something? You thought that just reading this series of newsletters was all you'd have to do? If that's the case, you should unsubscribe now and continue doing what you've been doing and getting what you've been getting. I mentioned in the welcoming e mail that you needed to take action to gain any results, and now it's time to take action.
Answer the following questions as they pertain to your goals for you, as an individual, and your business. Be very specific with each answer, and now is not the time to be "realistic". Shoot for the stars, dream big, and all the rest of the clichés you can think of. If you set mediocre goals you will achieve mediocre results. And we are not here to be mediocre. Its "Go Big or Go Home".
After you answered the questions, write them down on a sheet of paper In The Present Tense, as if you have already achieved them.
If one of your goals is to work with professional athletes you should write down:
"I work with professional athletes and help them take their performance to the next level"
NOT
"I hope to one day work with professional athletes"
The first statement will get your mind making decisions as if you were training professional athletes now, which will lead you to make it a reality.
The second statement will continually keep you in the "hoping" mode.
After you have written them down, post them in an area or two where you will see them every day, and every day read them aloud to yourself with emotion and conviction. This one step, as unorthodox as it may sound, will begin to change your mindset in a way that will make you more focused and more passionate about reaching your goals than you could imagine.
Here are the questions:
- For you to be successful, as it relates to you, as an individual, what would you be doing on a daily basis?
ie: I own the largest and most successful Sports Improvement studio in the Northeast. I oversee 12 other Sports Improvement Specialists and personally work with the elite professional and Olympic athletes with great success. I promote my business proudly and I am recognized as THE Sports Improvement Specialist in the industry.
- For your business to be successful, what would it "look" like?
ie: My Sports Improvement Studio is a state of the art facility with the most cutting edge training equipment available. Athletes of all levels and from all sports come here knowing they will reach the goals they have set for themselves. My studio is clean, comfortable and always busy.
- For you to be successful financially, what you (you're business) need to generate?
ie: I earn in excess of $500,000 dollars per year in passive income which allows me to live the life I always dreamed of.
- To reach this level of success, what are you willing to do?
ie: EVERY DAY I take steps to make my goals a reality.
The last statement on your list should always be:
"I DESERVE to be rich and happy because I add value to other peoples' lives"
When you are reading this list aloud AT LEAST twice per day, be sure to vividly and emotionally visualize the outcome. See yourself working within your studio with elite athletes (in this example). See yourself talking with your staff. See the studio in all it's glory. See yourself enjoying the life you always wanted.
In scientific studies performed, brainwave activity was measured in Olympic athletes while they performed their specific event. They were measured while the same athlete vividly imagined performing the event. The brainwave activities were the same. Your mind can not determine the difference between reality and vivid imagination.
By changing your mindset to one of success and goal achievement, the minor steps on how to get there will begin to flow to you and ideas will begin flooding your mind like never before.