What Is Mindset And Why Is It Important For Fitness Success?

When it comes to finding success in fitness, it’s not just about the physical work you put in. 

Having the right mindset is one of the MOST crucial components to finding success in your journey. But what exactly do we mean when we say “mindset”? Mindset is your mental attitude and it has HUGE effects on your ability to achieve your goals and even how soon you can reach them. 

Think of your mindset as the lens through which you view your potential as well as how you view the obstacles standing in your way. It doesn’t seem overly logical but having a positive mindset in this regard can actually make a big difference when it comes to whether or not you reach your goals. I say not overly logical because if you put in the physical work, even if you’re a bit salty about it, you should still hit your goals, right? Maybe, maybe not…here’s why: 

A negative mindset can lead to self-doubt, fear, and more-or-less talking yourself out of doing what needs to be done, all of which can hold you back from reaching your full potential. 

On the other hand, a positive mindset can help you mentally overcome obstacles, stay motivated, and push through challenges. Plus, when things get tough, and they will, a positive mindset helps you stay on track and focus on your goals when it would be easier to give up. 

Unfortunately, a positive outlook like this isn’t always easy and doesn’t usually come naturally. But here’s the good news: you can TRAIN yourself to have a positive mindset, just like you would train a certain muscle group to get stronger. If you stick with me until the end, you’ll have an array of new tools to help you cultivate a positive mindset and achieve success that will go well beyond your fitness journey. 

Limiting Beliefs And How They Affect Progress

In order to succeed in your fitness journey, and the journey of life, it’s critical that you understand the role your mind plays. One key aspect of this is recognizing, and ultimately overcoming, limiting beliefs. 

Limiting beliefs are beliefs or thoughts that hinder your progress, usually due to fears, self-doubt, or negative self-talk.

In fitness, limiting beliefs can manifest in several ways. Here are some common examples, see if you’ve recognized any stumbling around in your own mind:

• I don’t have enough time
• I’m too self-conscious to go to the gym or workout in public
• I don’t have the willpower to stick to a fitness routine
• I’m not fit enough to do that exercise
• I’m too busy with work or family to prioritize exercise
• I’ll never be able to really reach my fitness goals anyway
• I’m too old to start 
• I’m not strong enough to lift weights
• I’m not athletic or coordinated enough
• I don’t enjoy exercise or physical activity

First, these beliefs will absolutely discourage you and have an impact on your progress, or lack thereof. They will make it difficult to stay motivated and will become weights that you hold onto for safety not knowing that they are the reason you’re sinking so quickly. 

Secondly, research suggests that your brain will work to make your thoughts a reality. Now, you read that too quickly. Let it sink in. What if the thoughts that you entertain, your brain actually worked extra trying to make them a reality. If that’s true, then what happens if your thoughts are mostly made up from the list from above? How would that impact you? This thought process is often referred to as the “power of positive thinking” or the “law of attraction”. But you have to understand that this works both ways, if you are positive or if you are negative. You attract what you think. 

Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

The good news is that limiting beliefs can be overcome, especially now that you see how damaging they can be. The first step is to recognize them for what they are: false beliefs that hold you back from your full potential. 

I personally choose to think of these intrusive negative thoughts as my comfort zone’s defense mechanism. These are thoughts that I don’t actually believe and know to be false. And my comfort zone is trying everything it can to keep me where I am at. And once I recognize these thoughts as just that, not my best self’s real thoughts and feelings, they not only dissipate but I find that I am incredibly motivated after the fact. 

Another exercise you can practice is to identify your limiting beliefs and then challenge them with positive self-talk or evidence-based thinking. 

If you currently believe that you’ll never be able to do a certain exercise, remind yourself that progress takes time and practice, and everyone starts somewhere. This is both positive and logical and a healthy way of thinking. 

Brain Training: Developing a Positive Mindset

Training your brain to operate in a positive mindset will play a big role in staying motivated throughout your fitness journey and help you overcome the obstacles that will come along on the way. Oh, yes, if there were no obstacles fitness would be a whole lot easier for everyone so know ahead of time that they’re coming and use the expert-backed strategies below to be prepared: 

• Value the Process Over the Result: Instead of just focusing on the end goal, learn to value the process of getting there. Embrace the journey and take pride in the small victories along the way. Remember, progress takes time, and the effort you put in each day will ultimately lead to your success.That’s something that you can be proud of and you can use to build your confidence and self-worth.  

• View Challenges as Opportunities:  As mentioned, challenges and obstacles are inevitable, but it’s more about how you approach them and your reaction to them that decides how much of a set back they really end up being. Instead of letting issues discourage you, view them as opportunities to learn and grow. Embrace each challenge and use it as the life lesson it is, and let it motivate you to push even further. 

• Shift Your Mindset: Since your attitude and beliefs play such a significant role in your success or failure, adopt a growth mindset, which is the belief that your abilities can be developed and improved with effort and persistence. We’ll cover this in more detail in a moment. 

• Focus on Effort Not Talent: Remember, fitness is not just about genetics, but about the time and energy you put into it.  Essentially, the more you’re willing to invest in your body, whether it be time in the gym or educating yourself, the more you’ll get out of it. After all, your relationship with the gym is the one relationship where you get back exactly how much you put in. 

• Learn from Feedback: Feedback can be an incredibly under utilized and powerful tool for your personal growth and improvement. Don’t be afraid to seek out constructive criticism from those you trust and use it to improve your performance. Just make sure that you are mentally ready to handle the feedback in this positive light and don’t seek it right away if you are feeling down on yourself for any reason. Reset , recharge, and then reach out when you are ready to embrace the opportunity to learn and grow.

Cultivating this kind of positive mindset takes time and sincere effort, but it’s a real component of achieving success. Keep practicing. Keep training. And keep believing in your ability to succeed. Once you have started implementing positive mindset training techniques, it’s time to start applying them to acquire a growth mindset!

Developing a growth mindset for fitness success

Have you ever struggled to stick to your fitness routine? Maybe at one point you hit a plateau and just couldn’t seem to make any further progress. Believe it or not, the answer may lie in your mindset. Studies have shown that having a growth mindset can greatly impact your abilities to reach your fitness goals.

A growth mindset is the belief that your abilities and talents can be developed through dedication and hard work. For most of us, this should be seriously celebratory news. Have you heard the saying “Hard work beats talent”? Instead of relying solely on natural talent or what you were born gifted with, you can move forward with confidence knowing that your effort and hard work will pay off if you’re just willing to put in the time and energy. With a growth mindset, you will instead see challenges as opportunities to learn and grow. Which makes this kind of mindset particularly valuable for fitness success.

Here are 4 ways to develop a healthy growth mindset:

1. Set Achievable Goals and Set Healthy Number of Them: Instead of only setting big long term goals (which are still very important), it’s arguably more important to set smaller, more easily achievable goals. I personally suggest to my clients to have an “end goal”, monthly goals, weekly goals, and even nitty gritty daily goals. This could look like going up in weight for a specific exercise that month, or sticking to your water intake goal that day. Regardless, celebrate each & every small victory with full gusto along the way. It not only gives you a happy dose of dopamine to your brain (aka the “pleasure hormone” released when we do something that makes us feel good) but it will help keep you motivated day in and day out of your journey. Afterall, reaching your big ling term goal is usually just making sure that you consistently achieve your smaller daily/weekly goals. 

2. Focus on Progress, Not Perfection: It’s so easy to get discouraged, friends. We live in a world that has been built up to expect instant gratification. Not seeing immediate results or even results just as quickly as we expected to can really weigh us down. This is why you should focus on the progress you’re making instead of fixating on perfection or the end goal compared to where you are. It’s about how far you’ve come. Recognize and celebrate the small improvements you’ve made, no matter how small they may seem. This is also why it’s important to rely on more than just the scale when on your fitness journey. They may seem uncomfortable, but take progress photos/videos every 4 weeks. Take your body measurements too. Notice how your clothes fit. Notice your energy levels and your mood changes. These are all none-weight ways to measure your progress. There were months where I personally didn’t see hardly any movement on the scale and was extremely discouraged. But then when I reviewed my progress photos and measurements, I saw a huge difference. It’s too difficult to see changes in the mirror when you look at yourself every day. Like a frog in a boiling pot of water if you will… so take the photos, and thank me later. 

3. Embrace Challenges: Okay, hear me out on this one. Instead of avoiding difficult exercises or workouts, like we all do from time to time, learn to embrace them as opportunities to challenge yourself and grow. Remember, growth and improvement only come when you step outside of your comfort zone and push yourself. And then BONUS, think about how you’re going to feel when you master something that you used to avoid. Pretty damn good. Earn that feeling.   

4. Use Positive Self-Talk: Be kind to yourself and use positive self-talk to reinforce your growth mindset. Remember everything we covered about why a positive mindset is so important for your goals and remind yourself that progress takes time and that setbacks are just temporary and often a learning opportunity so you can be better in the future. You are doing amazing things by choosing to chase your goals so learn how to become your own biggest cheerleader.

Your fitness journey is not just about getting to the end result, but about who you will be when you get there. I’ve never seen someone dedicated to their physical improvement for any length of time who did not also see dramatic changes in other areas of their life. So let’s get you prepared to embrace the challenges, focus on progress, and truly start to believe in yourself. You are far more capable than you even realize yet. 

For more mindset tips & advice, consider a one-on-one coaching call!