Michael Jordan is well known as being one of the hardest working athletes of all time. You may know the story .The greatest basketball player of all time was cut from his high school team and was not heavily recruited before he landed at the University of North Carolina and played under legendary Coach Dean Smith.



Jordan had what few others possess. Call it character. Call it the will of a champion. Heart. Whatever you call it, we see it so infrequently that we do know it when we see it. Mental toughness is the capacity to no what you want to do and then to actually do it. It's not about trying to get to the gym and work on your fitness. It is about sticking to the activities that will get you your goal.

Most folks don't understand what it takes. NO real goals. Maybe they have an idea of what they want to accomplish in their program but they don't get it down on paper. If it's not written down then it is a dream and not a goal.

Dr. Loredana Petrucci, a Baltimore Metro area Wellness Expert and Certified Personal Trainer says, "Action and well defined goals are the way that my clients are successful in reaching their fitness goals." Without a plan that you implement you won't know where you are going. Federal Hill Re/Max Realtor Nicole Callender has lost over 30 pounds so far in 2008 and has another goal to reach a specific weight by Christmas. Stated another way, 90% of success in reaching a goal is that it is defined and then acted upon. Certainly a lot less effort is spent on a mindless ramble but you won't get anywhere of note.

In addition, remember that creating and reaching fitness goals is a process. You need to be able to be happy within the process. As an example, say you create a goal of a specific resting heart rate. Well, you still have to choose the exercise to take you through the process. If you can't stomach running then your success is doomed before you begin.

Also, one of the biggest reasons fitness goals are never reached is that the road to success is one of incremental gains. You don't subtract four tenths of a second off your forty yard dash time in forty days. Nor do you lose thirty pounds in thirty days. Any worthy intention takes time, as does most anything worth reaching. Accomplishing a fitness goal or any goal for that matter requires a level of emotional intelligence not often seen. If your "why" is huge enough, then you tend to make the life decisions required to reach your objective. Good luck!

Copyright (c) 2008 Sandy Sommer