"Always be prepared"
Posted On: June 22, 2008
That's the Scout's motto, To be prepared in mind and body. It's been a while since I was a scout but that motto always seems to come back to me. Being in the Fitness Industry it's easy for other to assume that you're always in shape (if you're not then you might be in the wrong industry) and that's fair enough. But just like everybody else having obstacles is part and parcel of life and us trainers are definitely not immune to it. "What's that got to do with being prepared?" PLENTY!
Like I said we all face obstacles in our lives that have the potential to sidetrack us or derail our ‘best laid plans’. How we deal with these obstacles determine how we progress at work, rest and play.
Being prepared isn’t just about having a ‘tool’ ready for every situation. It’s about having the right attitude that if things don’t go our way that we can still manage to do something to overcome or achieve our potential.
Let’s stay with the Boy Scout motto of mind and body preparedness and apply it to our workouts/exercises, etc.
How can we ‘always be prepared’ when doing our exercises? If we’re working out at the gym we need to make sure we have our workout clothes, gear, towel and water with us so that we have a change of clothes, etc.
That’s just our ‘tools’. What about preparing the mind?
I hear it all the time, people pack their workout gear with the intent to train but the moment arrives and nothing happens, why? work got too busy, too tired, made another appointment. Let me ask you a question, ‘Wasn’t there a possibility that you were going to get tired from work?’ Be busy at work? or even that someone might want to meet with you after work?
Since some if not most of these are real possibilities why don’t they think it was going to happen? Or they knew it was going to happen so their excuse is already built in? Clever!
Preparing the mind is to me pretty much the same as preparing the body. You go over all the things that might happen and accept them and commit yourself to doing what you planned to do by adjusting to, adapting to or just plain old overcoming any and all obstacles that might present itself.
If you tell yourself NO, guess what? You’re never going to do it!
You’ve got to give yourself that opportunity, that chance whatever it may be to go for it! It could be something as simple as donning a raincoat when it rains as you train outdoors!
Whatever the obstacle, you have to tell yourself, YES I CAN!
I’ll finish with this quote from Robert Baden-Powell (Boy Scouts founder ),
” We never fail when we try to do (our duty), we always fail when we neglect to it “