While working in education for the past seven years as my “main job,” I’ve heard from co-workers more than a time or two, “I just need you to be my personal trainer and I’ll get going again.” Or “I used to be in shape but then _______ happened.” They confess their unhealthy sins and then sit back and make a lot of excuses. I totally get why this happens: Getting back into shape is so much more than putting yourself through a regular exercise routine. It truly is a change in lifestyle. Everything has to change in order to sustain it: sleep patterns, kinds of food you eat, how much water you drink, and how you choose to spend your free time.

So when my friend and co-worker, Wanda, approached me about wanting to make a big change when she turns 40 and potentially having me help guide her, I needed to see if she would show up on that first day.

With my personal training clients, yes I am showing them how to move (squat, press, push, pull) but the hardest work I encounter is how to incrementally build the mentality of an athlete in them. This is one of the areas of life where if you think it, you become it. An athlete isn’t someone who has medaled in a sport or can beat everyone else’s time in your gym. An athlete is the person who no matter how busy life gets (marriage, kids, jobs, illness etc) stays the course and consistently shows up to do what he or she can. It’s the person who targets their weaknesses and constantly strives to improve. I get the pleasure of coaching these kinds of people in the group classes and boy do they operate with an incredible amount of self-discipline. If they’re running late they still come and warm themselves up on their own and jump into the workout. If they miss a class completely they come and put themselves through another workout that week without the encouragement from being in the group class. These are the people I’d not only want to go to war with but the people who I consider to be the true athletes.

As a trainer, I consider it my job to show individuals how much more their body can do even when their mind is telling them they can’t. Now, this isn’t to push them to the brink and take someone who’s never worked out before into total body cramping and dehydration. No, this is to allow them to take pride in their accomplishment that day. That even when they thought they couldn’t finish. They finished.

Taking pride in your performance during a workout is a feeling like no other. It is the reason I continue to strive to improve myself, as well as the reason I bawled like a baby upon recently reaching a longtime deadlift goal. No matter how small or insignificant your goal seems, if you care enough, you’ll put in the work to meet or exceed it. And when that moment comes, celebrate it! Don’t let others write it off because working out is a “hobby.” On the contrary, it is your sense of wellness, a way you’ve empowered yourself, something you’ve built that no one can take away. Wanda swore up and down she was ready to invest in herself in this way. So I said, okay just show up on Friday and we will get started.

Wanda came in early, had the right positive attitude, and trusted me to take her past where she thought she could go. Although it’s only been one session together. I’m so proud of her and want to thank her for showing me what effort and determination looks like in the very beginning.