Here’s a short list of mistakes you probably don’t want to make if you’re trying to get yourself in shape.
1- Assuming too much about what you know and what is possible
There are the people that rock up with total confidence in what they’re going to do and how you’re going to help them get there.
You’re just an order-taker, you see, even though they have no training, education, experience, or track record of getting results.
Oh but they’ve got a list of demands. In the fitness space that works out like this:
I want to add muscle, grow (whatever body part is trending on Tick Tock), get lean, defined, and sculpted, and I want to run a marathon while training for a powerlifting contest, too.
Sure thing, Cinderella. I’ll tell the mice to send over the Pumpkin Carriage around eight.
Here’s a harsh truth you may not want to hear:
The great majority of human beings have no idea what they want. They go through the motions, pick up words, thoughts, and behaviors from imitating other people, fall into a routine, and rarely give a second thought to what they really want.
If you don’t know where you’re going, you sure don’t know how to get there.
If there is no definite destination, then any path you take is as good as any other.
Sometimes the crazy demands are coming from frustration and lack of clarity, and they can be straightened out with a conversation.
Other times… well. A person that already knows everything wouldn’t need to hire a specialist, would they? But here they are, telling you how it’s going to be.
Good luck.
2- Overwhelmed overcomplication
If you let yourself get drawn into all the influencer and marketer nonsense on the internet, you’ll believe you need to be involved in about 18 different sports and activities at a high level if you want any hope of having a decent-looking body.
Even scientists with podcasts are out there spreading the “optimization” lie that there is some ideal perfect day that you can achieve if you just do this morning routine checklist, take all these vitamins, buy these apps to send your dox to Big Tech “know the data”, and treat yourself like a 19th century workhouse.
It’s all so tiresome. It’s so simple to keep yourself in shape, even good-enough shape.
There’s about 3 things you have to track on a daily basis.
What’s hard is listening to all these manure-peddlers and their complicated fake-science schemes.
Complexity sells. There’s something about word-salad, repeated often and stated with absolute confidence, that entraps the masses.
Well. You can “listen to the science” and let yourself be seduced by “everything”…
… or you can keep your focus on what works and get real results for yourself.
3- Seeing what you want to see, hearing what you want to hear
I’m very clear that I work with people over 40 who are frustrated with working out and dieting while seeing bad or no results.
I help people in that specific circumstance, with specific problems around fat loss, gaining or holding on to muscle, and doing it within the time and energy needs of a person who is no longer young and has priorities beyond living in the gym.
Without fail I still get regular emails and DMs to the effect of “Hey Matt I am 32 and want to get my squat up can you help me”
No, I can’t help you.
If you cannot even bother to read who I work with and what I help them do, what kind of client are you going to be?
What do you think I’m going to be able to do for you?
Don’t answer, I can tell you myself from past experiences:
You’re going to be a headache who already showed me you can’t read the instructions, won’t pay attention, and are unlikely to follow through on anything you say you want to do.
There’s a high likelihood that you’re going to complain about how much it costs while all that is going on, just to rub it in.
Lowering my standards to “help” people like that 1) doesn’t help them at all, because these people are lying to themselves and don’t want help. But worse yet is 2) they make me dislike people and take joy in their failures and misery, which is not a place I want to be inside myself. Nobody wins.
I want to work with focused, literate people who actually want to get somewhere.
People that live entirely within their self-absorbed illusions do not qualify. Frankly that kind of obliviousness to the world is a major contributor to the problems that people have in life, with their bodies and with everything else.
If you insist on seeing everything how you want to see it, instead of seeing what is really there, you’re going to keep tripping over your own ego.
There’s three mistakes I hope you aren’t making. For sage wisdom and guidance on avoiding these and other blunders, you might start here:
Matt Perryman