The world is full of people with the qualities necessary to be successful in health or in business but it is rare to find people who have mastered the disciplines in both areas. Exceptional athletes like George Best achieved tremendous success on the soccer pitch amidst his personal life crumbling. Ireland’s successful business people and politicians may be leaders in the boardrooms while it is plainly visible to see their health is in a state of distress. Working as a health coach I see this frequently as business people attempt to change their body shapes. They arrive at the gym and expect to achieve success without applying the same success principles that they apply in the office.  In Power-lifting coach Dave Tait’s book Under Bar, he parallels the lessons in life he’s learnt through weight-lifting and how he’s applied them to his business life.

If you aspire to be healthy you must ask yourself where you see health in your life. If your goal is to be healthy it needs be prioritised on your list of values and you need to make time to achieve it. It’s the same with wealth. These goals must be written and you need to measure them regularly with key performance indicators to track your progress, as even expert marksmen cannot aim at a target they cannot see. When you have decided upon your goal you need to schedule your work or training to ensure it gets done and then you can invest in your education. Reading books and Internet websites are great ways to increase your knowledge. You must however be aware of information brokers who claim to be experts in fitness and wealth while they struggle to pay the bills having never set foot in the gym. Your role models should walk the walk and not merely talk the talk. They should be walking billboards and look and act how you aspire to be.

They will be part of your team. John Paul Getty said it best when he said that he would rather use 1% of the efforts of 100 people rather than 100% of his own. You can’t know everything so you should develop this team so that they will support you while making you accountable to stick with your targets. You can draw on the expertise and knowledge of mentors but it will be your commitment to repeated efforts and your dedication that will dictate your success. A plan is only as good as the level of effort and intent to which it is executed. If the plan is not achieving the success as dictated by your indicators you may need to be flexible and change it. Einstein has said that the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting the results to be different. I see this everyday in the gym as members do the same exercise and lift the same weights and are left wondering why nothing has changed..

Children like your body will not progress unless they receive new stimuli and if they receive the same information they will stagnate lose interest and regress. This is why you need flexibility not just in your body but in the way you view your plan and sticking points that halt you progress.

Set backs are common in any project as you try new things. You may have unforeseen circumstances like illness or injury but these set backs or risks in attempting something new must be worked into your plan if you are serious about progressing.

Honesty is another principle to add to your tool box. You can lie to others about your job or your earnings but the truth in the weight room is that you can lift a weight or you can’t. You can’t lie to yourself, there are no other options, and so it is best to be truthful and honest with yourself and others in training or business. There is only one way you are going to improve in your health or your business goals and that is to have a good attitude. A good attitude will bring you altitude and if you don’t have the right attitude, no matter what endeavour you pursue you will not be successful. Your goal will be to stay positive but open. A coach may offer helpful hints to help you progress and you must be open to receiving this. This constructive criticism may seem harsh but there is always a lesson to be learnt and you might just need a slight change to continue your progress.

Change is not just relevant to our training. You must understand that the diseases of our age like cancer and heart disease did not form overnight and likewise great businesses and healthy bodies are not built in a short span. They require perseverance. Businesses, like strength, do not follow a linear process. You cannot lift 2kg heavier every week for the rest of your life and likewise profits do not grow at the same rate every week. What is happening can be best explained with the story of the egg. When you looking at a newly hatched egg,  from the outside nothing appears to be happening. This is until one day the egg cracks and a baby chicken emerges. The process didn’t happen over night but while changes may not be so visible on the outside it’s what happening on the inside of your body that matters most.

Making a change and developing a business is not an easy process.  It requires you to learn to take 100% responsibility, whether that is for your training or for your finance. At some stage in your life you have tasted the sweet smell of success and it is by applying the same effort and application that made you successful that will help you taste future glory. You just need to take the time to think about how simple it is. This is your wake up call to put the steps together and be successful. You have always known what you need to do. Now as Nike would say…. “Just do it!”