Fit For Life: It Starts With “I Can”

Fit For Life: It Starts With “I Can”

This is tough! But it’s hard! I’m tired. That’s heavy! These are all things I hear constantly throughout the day, and it’s all part of the program. If people weren’t saying these things, I wouldn’t be doing my job properly, so I just make a counter remark and keep ‘em moving. But the one line I hear regularly, that I jump all over people for saying is “I can’t do it.” Unless someone asks you to lift a tractor, or invent a magic pill that will save the world, you should lose this phrase from your vocabulary.

Where would Apple be if Steve Jobs listened to people who told him he would never compete with Microsoft? Or Arnold Schwarzenegger, if he listened to people tell him that an Austrian immigrant could never hold office in America? Or where would our country be if all the space exploration experts listened when all those other experts said you can’t put a man on the moon?

So when you come to me at Providence Fit Body Boot camp and you do the program, and I map out your nutrition plan, and if you tell me you can’t follow the plan, or do a push up, I dismiss the statement with a “you can and you will” response. I am regularly reminding people that if one human is capable of performing a certain task, almost all of us are, and you need to change the negative mindset in order to achieve your goals, weather that be fitness or life in general.

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What makes one human being more successful or healthier, or more educated, or more fit than another? It’s usually because the fit guy never said “I can’t workout because of my busy schedule.” Or the successful one never said, “I can’t make it happen,” or the educated one never thought “I can’t pass this class.

How it starts.

When you throw your hands in the air and say, “I can’t,” you won’t, because many things require mental positivity equal to physical strength. Many exercises require mental focus to make the mind-muscle connection, which in turn relates to body awareness, creating better balance and muscle control. So when you enter with a negative mindset you will fail, because by saying you can’t you have given up hope, and refusing to try eliminates all chances for success.

I must have said this to someone recently in my Boot Camp because I overheard a client say “I don’t think I can do this, but I can’t tell Matt because he’ll get mad, so I am going to try.” She said it jokingly, but tried to master the move, because I motivated her to make an attempt. I told her in the beginning that the words “I can’t” aren’t allowed at my Fit Body Boot Camp, and now she is working harder, and I am confident she will see amazing results that wouldn’t be possible if she maintained the negative mindset. Remember this quote with all things hard, but to  keep you working forward towards your goal: “You will miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Matt Espeut, GoLocal's Health & Lifestyle Contributor has been a personal trainer and health & fitnesss consultant for over 25 years. He is the owner of Fitness Profiles, a one on one, and small group personal training company, as well as Providence Fit Body Boot Camp, located at 1284 North Main St., on the Providence/Pawtucket line. You can reach Matt at (401) 453-3200; on Facebook at "Matt Espeut", and on Twitter at @MattEspeut. "We’re all in this life together – let’s make it a healthy one!"