As a fitness trainer, I always hear about the major obstacles (better said, excuses) as to why people are not taking the proactive steps to take care of their bodies. After all of these years as a trainer, I’ve become immune to the hundreds of excuses people come up with. Simply, here’s what I believe: if you really want to do something to improve your body’s fitness & overall health, you’ll do whatever it takes to get it done. As a matter of fact, this applies to anything you do in life. However, when there isn’t a burning desire or a big reason to achieve something, we will fail miserably at fulfilling that goal.

Life is constantly happening to us. We are busy with our jobs, school, family, volunteering, as well as doing other busy and productive work, such as watching tv, updating facebook, playing Farmville, and the list goes on and on. I get it! You are busy, busy, busy! But, can you afford to spend at least 15 minutes of your ‘busy’ & ‘productive’ day to invest in yourself? Of course you do! Just show me a list of your everyday activities and I’m absolutely certain that I can find a block of time to schedule your 15 to 30 minutes of exercise time.

Below I will show you the top seven obstacles that people face (or I should say fictitiously create on their minds) and how to overcome them with my seven strategies. I will go ahead and briefly explain them here. I’ve actually written a full report on this topic so I won’t write too much about them. Just enough information to help you apply them. Let’s dive into them!

Obstacle: I have no time to exercise!

Success Strategy #1: Chunk it Down!

Psychologically, just the thought of doing a workout for a full hour might seem overwhelming to some people. “Chunking” down your workouts throughout the day makes it easier for a lot of people to stick to a program. This chunking process will change the perception and will make it easier for the psyche to be able to perform a workout that takes less time. It is extremely important to block this time & commit to it.

Obstacle: No written goals.

Success Strategy #2: Write Your Goals!

What a surprise! If you have no goals written down, then all you have to do is write them down. Goal writing is great, but how do I actually do this right?

Be S.M.A.R.T. about your goals! I strongly recommend that you pick up a pen and a piece of paper and jot down the goals you want to reach using this SMART acronym. Many successful people have used the SMART goal-setting criteria to jot down their goals and accomplish their desired results. Make the changes necessary to ensure it meets the criteria for a SMART goal:

S = Specific M = Measurable A = Attainable R = Realistic T = Timely

Specific—Make your goals as specific as possible. Just writing down vague goals is not enough to keep you going towards fulfilling your dreams.

Your goals need to be as specific as you can get. For example:

Lose 6 pounds in 3 weeks.

Increase my jogging distance by half a mile every week for the following 3 months.

Start a program (“Performance for Life Training Program”) and workout 3 days a week for 12 consecutive weeks.

Measurable—Establish a criteria on how you are going to measure your success. It’s great to have a vision of where you want to be with a long-term plan. However, setting up a timeline with shorter goals to get us towards reaching our objectives will keep us going with the greater probabilities of success.

Measuring our progress will allow us to stay on track as well as give us the feedback on what we need to improve upon.

Attainable—There is something magical that happens when we set out to accomplish or attain something. What seemed unattainable before becomes a possibility when you start taking the steps towards your most important goals.

There are several quotes from the book The Alchemist, by Paolo Coelho, which represent what happens when we start moving towards our goals.

“Making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision.”

The other quote is this one: “Whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It’s your mission on earth. And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

Making the decision to begin something will allow you to figure out ways to make it happen. You will start to develop the skills and abilities necessary to attain that goal. Any opportunities that you might have overlooked before become clear now and will get you closer to achieving your objectives. So don’t stop if the goal seems too far out there.

Realistic—Being an extremely optimistic person, realistic to me means settling for less. Why? Because I think that the average person usually underestimates their true potential and settles for just being “realistic” about their present situation. Many times, although people’s present realities are not the most ideal, they tend to be conformist and accept that to be true for them. We cannot let our past or current situations dictate our future. We can do better and I have been an example of this.

You are the only person who can decide just how high your goals can be and nobody else.

You’ve probably seen the movie "In the Pursuit of Happyness," spelled with a "y" in happiness. My favorite quote from that movie comes from Will Smith playing Christopher Gardner and talking to his young son.

Christopher Gardner: "Hey. Don’ ever let somebody tell you… You can’t do something. Not even me. All right?"

Christopher: "All right."

Christopher Gardner: "You got a dream… You gotta protect it. People can’t do somethin’ themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want somethin’, go get it. Period."

Your goal is probably realistic if you truly believe that it can be accomplished.

If you have set yourself a really high goal, make sure that you are constantly progressing and moving in the forward direction. Otherwise, you will become discouraged and abandon your dream.

Being willing and able to move towards your goals is an essential key component to being successful. Nevertheless, if you set out a goal which conflicts with who you are or where you see yourself in the future, then this goal will not be realistic for you.

My advice to you is to set realistic goals without limiting your BIG thinking.

Timely—A goal without a time frame is not a serious goal. Setting up a specific deadline for a particular goal will give us a sense of urgency. Additionally, it will provide us with the necessary focus to get things done within a certain period.

Here are some sites you can visit to help you to write down your goals:

http://www.43things.com (my personal favorite)

http://www.mygoalmanager.com

http://www.mysomeday.com

http://www.mygoals.com

http://www.onlineorganizing.com

http://www.officearrow.com

Obstacle: Can’t Stick to a Workout Routine

Success Strategy #3. Stick to It!

If you make exercising an elaborate process, and if you are not on the habit of exercising regularly, you will not be very successful at sticking to an active lifestyle. Make it easy for yourself to be successful and difficult to fail.

Exercising and staying active should not require a lot of preparation. Get creative and take advantage of the activities that you already perform in everyday life. When walking up the stairs you can probably get your knees higher and drive your arms. Or, instead of walking you can jog up the stairs.

Obstacle: Lack of Motivation

Success Strategy #4: Find your motivation!

If you don’t have the motivation to exercise or have just lost it, try staying active by doing activities that you like. For example, you can try walking with your friends or going to the park and walking your dog. There are many activities that I’m pretty sure you can enjoy while staying active and fit at the same time.

Additionally, there are multiple sites filled with groups and forums that can help you keep your motivation up. On these sites, you’ll find like-minded individuals who share the same similar obstacles and desires.

Here’s an example of different sites you can visit:

www.fitness.meetup.com

www.craigslit.com (look in the community section)

http://groups.yahoo.com/

www.training.fitness.com

www.exerciseforums.com

http://exercise.about.com/

You can also try finding any exciting local events by picking up one the free local magazines in your area.

Obstacle: Can’t afford a personal trainer

Success Strategy #5. Be creative!

Not everybody is able to afford a personal trainer, however there are many other creative ways that we can find access to the expertise of such individual at a cost-effective price.  I’m pretty sure that you can workout an exchange or bartering deal with a local trainer, or join a group to keep your cost low. Other options are to do semi-private sessions or join a fitness bootcamp near you.

If the options I’ve mentioned don’t necessarily work, there are multiple instructional dvd’s, books, audios, and a vast quantity of websites that contain excellent material to facilitate and support your active lifestyle without the need of a trainer.

Here’s just a few resources where you can find some great exercise videos from other trainers:

http://www.youtbe.com/ggperformance

http://www.ehow.com/videos.html

http://video.about.com/exercise

http://www.collagevideo.com/

Obstacle: Don’t Have the Proper Equipment

6. Using the Elements.

Although this is a major excuse not to exercise, it is still not a valid one. We see all of this equipment being sold during the late infomercials and we start believing that we absolutely need this special gadget or program to get the results that we want. Let go of the notion that you need the perfect thing to get a great workout. When I work with my clients outdoors, I usually try to figure out what "elements" we have at our disposal. Even though I carry training equipment on my car, I still prefer to use the "elements" for a more "organic" workout. That is to say, I can use a kids playground, a tree, a picnic table, hills, stairs, ropes, or anything that I can safely integrate into my clients’ exercise regimen. Not only is this effective, but the variety helps make the workout fun and enjoyable.

I’ve created many short videos using the elements and you can check them out at http://youtube.com/ggperformance and use them as a reference.

Obstacle: Not Knowing What To Do or How To Exercise

7. Use the Performance for Life Program!

If you have somebody with proficiency in the fitness training industry, you can reach out to them and ask if you could get some tips or arrange some sort of exchange for their expert advice. If you have the possibility to afford a personal trainer or performance coach, this will be a superb way to stay motivated with new and different exercise activities.

Additionally, with the internet there are so many outstanding free resources out there to get some exercise ideas. Also, you can get your hands on magazines, books, and e-books with creative ways to get you started or get you out of the same monotonous routine.

The Performance for Life Program is a step by step system that is easy to understand and simple to structure and customize your workouts from beginner to advanced levels. If you are stuck or don’t know how to begin or structure a workout, or if you are not ready to invest on a personal trainer, I strongly encourage to check out my program. For more info about this program, contact me at coretrainingu@gmail.com or you can find it here at http://ggfitnesstraining.com