The secret ingredient for my client’s success

A shift in perspective to help you to make strides in your progress

Photo by Caleb Frith on Unsplash

The secret ingredient of my client’s success is this:

Curiosity.

• Be engaged

• Ask questions

• Learn from wins and setbacks

• Try new things and experiment

Those who don’t experience success are the ones who check out and become passive in their approach.

If you want to go far and enjoy the process, you need to cultivate intrinsic motivation.

Curiosity is a path to achieving this state.

Let’s break it down.

Be engaged

What energy are you bringing forward every day? Are you passive, and simply letting life roll over you? Or are you actively participating and focused on being?

This state of being is really about embracing the moment and process, rather than constantly striving to become - which is ultimately a forever-moving goal post.

There is a word in German:

Eigenzeit

It basically means: the time inherent to the process itself.

It comes from the German words eigen, meaning “one’s own,” and zeit meaning “time.”

Improving our health, performance, and body composition are serious time investment. If we rush ourselves, seeking shortcuts or extremes, we inevitably fail to surrender to our respective eigenzeit.

All of our unique journeys take certain amount of time.

Surrender to it, while continuing to stay engaged.

Ask questions

Finding a coach, a mentor, or even a friend who has achieved a level of success you admire should serve as an opportunity to ask questions and learn.

I don’t recommend blindly following in the footsteps of others, and considering what they have “success” and you lack as “no success.”

But you can examine the features, conditions, habits, and attitudes of other to integrate into your own life.

Learn from wins and setbacks

A growth mindset will carry you far. It allows you to see setbacks and obstacles as opportunities.

• Didn’t drink enough water this week?

• Missed your workouts over the weekend?

• Not hitting your fruit and veggie goals?

Remind yourself, “feedback, not failure.”

Ask yourself in your specific situation, what you can learn from missing your target. What was happening in your life at the time? Did you prioritize your days appropriately? Was the behaviour too much of a stretch, and might require scaling back a bit? Is the habit aligned with your values and goals?

Be a compassionate investigator.

Then leverage the answers in a proactive way as to help you move forward.

Try new things and experiment

Now, don’t try a bunch random things haphazardly because you see other people doing it. Rather, be intentional about what you’re doing as it relates to your identity, values, and goals.

Work at it long enough to allow you to see if the behaviour change is working, but not so long as to have you adopt an insufficient habit for life. Maybe that two weeks, or maybe it’s 90 days. However, if you’re going on three months and are not seeing these desired change you’re looking for, something needs to get adjusted.

Imagine yourself as a scientist, and have fun running these micro experiments with things that are helpful to your health goals.

This is why working with a coach is so helpful. You get the guidance and support needed, and it takes the guesswork about having to consider and navigate what the best path forward is.

What do you think - has curiosity benefited your journey in any special way?

Need support?

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