Progress Builds Confidence

I can't sell you confidence. I can't sell you more energy. I can't sell you a better mood.  I can't sell you good health. I can't sell you a better body. Anyone who says they can is lying to you.

Confidence is subjective. So is energy. What puts me in a good mood might be completely different to you. Health means not being sick, so you already have it, and if you are sick, there's a range of issues that need to be looked at. Your idea of a great body might be entirely different to mine. So I can't sell you that either.

None of those can be packaged. 

All of them are a by-product of 2 things: training and dieting.

There are countless courses and packages floating around the internet claiming to give you life-changing results with very little focus on what it actually takes to get them. In fact, most make an effort to downplay the importance and flat-out lie and say you don't need to train hard and don't even need to change your eating habits in order to appeal to a mass market.

I get it, sell the destination and not the journey. No one wants to hear how hard it's going to be to get to where they want to go.

Dazzle them with bright lights and shiny pictures. Gloss over the hours of sweat and hard work it takes to get there. 

But reality hits home real quick when what was sold as a walk in the park turns out to be a marathon, running into gale-force arctic headwinds with both feet tied together.

Do you know why people build confidence from training? It's more than just looking better in the mirror. 

What builds confidence is doing things they’ve never done before. Subconsciously being able to overcome limitations that have been stuck in someone's mind for years, perks up even the staunchest of pessimists. All of a sudden in a moment of reflection they can say, “shit, I actually did that.” 

The feeling of elation that comes from a deadlift of squat PB. The person will walk around on cloud 9 for the next week. They’ll feel 10 feet tall. They walk with their head and chest held high and feel like stopping strangers on the street and asking, “Do you know what I just did?” 

You can stand in a room full of people while looking around thinking to yourself, "I bet none of these people can do what I just did."

That kind of confidence comes from focusing on their training and making progress. That confidence is what builds, and tells them if they hit one PB then they can hit another. That confidence then starts to flow into every other aspect of their life.

That newfound confidence is what improves a person's mood. People will assume you got laid the night before. Nope, this is far better. Walking around all day buzzing from hitting that personal best will keep a smile on anyone's face. They are now a better version of themselves.

More energy? It all comes from that training. That newfound confidence. That better mood. 

Who has time to feel tired and down when you're out there moving mountains? 

You go to bed thinking, dreading, but anxiously and excitedly picturing that weight moving. How it's going to feel. How you're going to move and how you're going to feel when you lock out that last rep with a weight significantly heavier than your best from several months ago. It's enough to get your adrenalin going, hands shaking, heart pumping and feet tapping just thinking about it.

And what about the main reason you started all of this to begin with? A better body. That happens because your training has now transformed your life and every aspect of you as a person. You train better, you feel better, you eat better, you now look better. 

But none of it ever happens if the work isn't put in and the progress isn't made.

None of those changes occur if you don't work harder than you've ever worked before.

Show me the person who makes no progress with their training and I'll show you someone just as miserable, and out of shape, who still hates their own reflection and is always complaining about everything, just like they were 12 months earlier. If their training doesn't get better, neither does their life

The destination is always the goal and it's what keeps people motivated. But the work that it takes to get there can never be ignored. That hard work, that sweat, that frustration, is what makes the progress all the more satisfying. 

And when you reach the destination? Then you can confidently sit back and say, “I did that.”