Are You a Story Person or An Action Person?

I can always tell when someone asks me for fitness advice if they are going to take action or not. It is very interesting to me what drives people to take action and actually change their fitness/eating habits. I believe it can come down to something so simple as 1. Believing in yourself. 2. Taking Action. Indulge me......

Let me back track/side story. I have trained with Rick Ruether for about 3 years now & when I am in his basement, which I like to call the dungeon, I am training on equipment that he has designed and welded himself. Every Thurs. when I wake up I have excitement & a little bit of fear about my training session that morning. As I head into the basement I walk past a sign that says "The Lord can have your soul, your ass belongs to me." I then step on a mat that says No Whiners while walking under a doll hung by a noose b/c there is a cell phone in it's hand. During the workout I don't look at the weight amount & I have no rep number. He sets things up & I go until he says stop. There are many a day that I thought I would never make it out of the dungeon. I would say the thing that gets me through & has helped me through all the ups and downs of training is that whatever weight Rick sets, whatever Rep amount, & whatever workout the entire time I BELIEVE I can do anything that he wants me to do. I never never never tell Rick before a set that it's too heavy nor do I hear those thoughts in my head. I might tell him after I do a set that I was dying, but during the entire set I am saying in my head...."I can do it, light weight, you got this." I tell you this b/c I like having someone believe in me, & push me physically beyond where I would push myself. Being in this environment keeps me pushing myself hard & keeps me believing more and more in my training abilities.

Back to Action vs. Inaction. In my experiences the action people give a brief list of their bad habits/failures along the way, but they are more interested in the details of the process to change & starting a plan to get started. The Story people ask for advice and then just go into a very long detailed story about all their struggles/failures/excuses, they don't really want the details of how to change and they definitely don't want to setup a time to come in and see me.

When I tell "The Story Tellers" what I do and what my clients do I typically hear, "Oh I could never do that.....and this is why." It's very obvious that they don't BELIEVE in their ability to TRY let alone CHANGE. I typically will respond to them, "Maybe your are right, you can't do it." They are always surprised/shocked to hear me reiterate their own thoughts.

Action People:
1. Have the Potential/Desire to Workout.
2. They Believe they can Workout Consistently
3. They Take Action & Workout
4. They Become more Desirable/Healthy

The Cycle Repeats and they Improve Even More

1. They have even more Potential/Desire to Workout
2. They Believe in Themselves More
3. They Keep Taking Action
4. They Become even more Desirable/Healthy


Story People:
1. Have the Potential/Desire to Workout
2. They Don't Believe They Can Workout Consistently (focused on story)
3. They Don't Take Action, they continue Bad Habits
4. They Get More and More out of Shape

The Cycle Repeats & They Get More out of Shape

1. They have Desire/Potential to workout.
2. They Believe in themselves less (even more focused on story)
3. They Don't Take Action
4. They Get Even More out of Shape

MORAL: Don't stand in your own way! Believe in yourself and take action!