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Your Fitness Goals Are Not Impossible

When it comes to your fitness goals, do you ever think that it will be impossible to achieve them?

In 2009, I attended the ‘Get Motivated’ seminar that was held in Denver. Here is their website. The known speakers were the Rev. Robert Schuller, Colin Powell (a personal hero of mine), Laura Bush, Terry Bradshaw, Rudy Giuliani, Zig Ziglar, and John Elway. Some were dynamic speakers and others were just very LOUD (yes, that would be Terry Bradshaw). However, the first speaker, Robert Schuller, grabbed my attention immediately.

When it comes to working on your fitness goals, anything is possible if you put in consistent work to achieve your goals.Reverend Schuller is an elderly man who is a televangelist and is known for his program, Hour of Power. He has also written many self-help books including the classic, Move Ahead With Possibility Thinking. Dr. Schuller came out and immediately let us know that he only had 13 minutes left to speak. He would give us updates every couple of minutes on where the clock was at. After the first update on where he was at with time, his voice immediately hit a very powerful and loud crescendo as he proclaimed-

“CUT THE WORD IMPOSSIBLE OUT OF YOUR LIFE!”

Whoa! That hit me between the eyes with the force of a sledgehammer. Cut the word impossible out of your life. What a powerful statement.

When you hear this proclamation, what immediately comes to mind? What have you considered impossible in your lifetime? What about your fitness goals?  Do you think it’s impossible to lose that last 20 pounds? Do you think it’s impossible to become healthier? What about your career?  Is it impossible to think you could be financially secure? Do you think it’s impossible to have your own business?

I say absolutely, positively it is NOT impossible to achieve what you want to achieve!

We all have this wonderful organ in our heads called the brain (yes, I’m serious….look it up!). In our brains, we are able to consciously and unconsciously control our destinies. One of my favorite mantras is, “What you believe, you will achieve.” We can train our unconscious minds for achieving the impossible. Our values, thoughts, ideas, etc. are all a function of our environment. We are influenced by our parents, colleagues, spouses, friends, the media, etc. What we do with all this information is up to us. As an individual, we make decisions on how we will live our lives and accomplish our fitness goals.

One of the obvious examples of achieving the impossible is Lance Armstrong. Here is a guy who had Stage 3, yes, STAGE 3 testicular cancer that had metastasized to his abdomen, brain, and lungs.

It would be impossible to think he would go on to win seven Tour de France races in a row right?

Or think about putting a man on the moon. I am sure people in the 40s, 50s and probably early 60s were thinking that was impossible. Yet there it was, in 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin bouncing around on the moon.

One of my Loveland personal training clients decided to do the MS 150 bike race last year. She had never done such a long road ride in her life.  She was concerned that she wouldn’t be able to do it. She was psyching herself out before she even tried.

But do you know what happened?

She did it. She completed the entire ride. Was it hard? Absolutely. But she persevered. She pushed through the negative thoughts that were running through her brain and accomplished the impossible! Do you think that if she decides to do the ride next year she will think it is impossible?

I challenge you to look at your fitness goals and the preconceived obstacles and truly think if your goals are impossible to achieve.

As Dr. Schuller ended his presentation, he told us about his daughter. His daughter was an accomplished softball player who unfortunately lost one of her legs in an accident. When she was healing, she told her father that she was going to come back and become the greatest home run hitter in softball. Dr. Schuller looked at his daughter incredulously and told her there was no way she could do that! She only had one leg! How was she going to be able to run around the bases with only one leg?

His daughter with great resolve told him, “I will be the greatest home run softball hitter. I won’t have to run. I can walk when I hit a home run.”

And that is the embodiment of cutting the word impossible out of your life.