Usual Outcome: Feeling the task is too much and impossible to even begin.

The Road to Success: Choosing the right fitness plan for you.

Now that we have done some research into what you really want to achieve with your fitness and how to get motivated to take action, we need to examine how you are going to fit achieving these goals into your life, starting now.

Overcoming The Fear of Failure

Something that can discourage people from making changes to their lives is the fear that things might not work out just as they want them to. I once heard someone say, 'I do not like to fail at what I do so I would rather not put myself under too much pressure by going on a diet, just in case I cannot keep it up'. This is a great example of how creative we can be with our excuses to avoid what we know needs to be done. It shows how we can twist things in our own minds to suit what we want to believe at the time. Although this person was unhappy with their body shape and weight, they perceived that it was better to maintain the status quo than to take responsibility for making some changes. To set about making changes and not get the result they were looking for would lead to them being dissatisfied on two counts - in their mind they would be overweight and unable to take action to fix the situation. So they settle for just being overweight.

A significant reason that people anticipate 'failure' is that they expect to hit on the right solutions, the ideal fitness plan, immediately. What can we do to create a more positive vision of fitness where the notion of failure no longer exists?

From Ideal To Real

Most people love the idea of being a physically active, vibrant, sporty individual, taking exercise, eating well and living life to the full. So why is it that so many do not manage to live up to their ideals of what it means to be physically active? And, worse than that, having failed to live up to their ideals, why are people so hard on themselves for not doing 'enough'?

As you go about your daily routine in your office, on the train, in coffee shops or any social environment around the country, it won't be long before you hear someone bemoaning the fact that they should have gone to the gym last night and they feel really guilty because they now cannot go for another three days. Or that they broke their diet yesterday and they feel terrible because they just cannot seem to stick to eating the right things.

A common limitation for people embarking on a new fitness regime is that they do not stop to consider fitness, exercise and healthy eating within the parameters of their own lives. They read the latest books or magazine article, or see something on the television that discusses the 'perfect' answer or solution to healthy living, and all of a sudden they find themselves aiming for this perfection without considering whether or not it is appropriate for them. It looks quick and looks easy, so that is what they choose to aim for.