When I began my personal fitness training career back in
1987, many of my clients came to me looking for motivation.
And I gave them plenty of it – but more importantly, I taught
them something that is “THE KEY” to success in anything.
You might think it’s goals – or New Year’s Resoultions. You might
think it’s positive thinking – or will power. Yet, the truth is that the
key to success is none of these things.
Regarding will power, I once had a client who told his friends,
“Matt is my will. I don’t have the will to exercise on my own,
so I go to him and he gives me the will I need.”
Not so. I gave the man support – but I didn’t give him my will.
Not only that, but I went so far as to tell him he didn’t need to
use his own will either.
There’s an old saying, “In the battle of will power versus imagination,
your imagination wins every time.”
This happens to be true with getting fit, improving your career, having
better relationships, rearing your kids – and everything else. You can
do your best to impose your will on a child or student, for example, but
it is the other person’s imagination that will prevail. The same goes when
you pit your will against your imagination.
Your imagination was created to move mountains – to help you create
whatever you want in life. Your imagination, as P.T. Barnum once said,
is “the elixir of life.” Or as Einstein said, “… is more important than
knowledge.”
The most important part of the word ‘imagination’ is “image.” As in, what
is your “self-image?”
How do you see yourself? What is the opinion you have of yourself?
You can set goals – as I encourage people to do; you can make resolutions;
you can even try to use your will to get what you want out of life – BUT if
your goals, resolutions or will are in conflict with your self-image, you will
not make lasting change. Not only that, you won’t even take lasting action
to create the results you want.
The bottom line is that you will fail to get what you say you want. Or you’ll
get what you want temporarily – only to snap back into agreement with
the picture you have of yourself; your self-image.
The good news is that you can change your self-image. You can attain the
results you want by relaxing your mind and body and imagining the person
you want to become.
Just as a professional fighter shadow boxes to perfect his punches, you use
your imagination the same way. You play around with the image you have
of yourself. You go to the place that Dr. Maxwell Maltz, author of the 30-million
copy best-seller, Psycho-Cybernetics, called your “Theatre of the Mind.”
You go into this private movie theatre and make changes on the INSIDE that
will in turn change who you are on the OUTSIDE.
This, my friend, is the key to making goals and resolutions successful. This is
the key to making positive thinking work. Without a change in your self-image,
you’re riding in a car without gas.
“How to Build a Fit, Powerful and Healthy Self-Image” is something I am going
to cover at my February “Secret of Secrets” Fitness Seminar in extraordinary
detail. I am going to guide you through all the steps that lead to lasting
success. And when you follow these steps you will attain the weight you want; the
fitness level you want; and whatever else you want out of life.
Learning how to change your self-image IS the most important exercise I can
teach you. With a healthy self-image you’re somebody; without it, you’re nothing.
Go to http://www.mattfurey.com/007_fitness_bootcamp.html and BECOME the
SOMEBODY you’ve always wanted to be.
Best,