Did you know that the number one indicator of success in reaching your goals is your “self-efficacy?”
What is self-efficacy?
Self-efficacy is how much you believe you will succeed based on past experiences.
98239743892723 people could tell you 2384932893084 that they believe in you, but if you do not believe you will succeed, that holds more weight than the words of anyone else.
I have spent much of this quarantine time working on my personal training certification. Most of the material is about client motivation, including which clients tend to succeed, and which clients quit before reaching their goals. The number one predicting factor of clients sticking to their workout program and reaching their goals was their belief in their ability to achieve their goal based on past success (or failure).
I used to quit on my goals because I was afraid (based on my past failures) that I would fail again.
Two and a half years ago, I fell down a bridge on my bicycle. That leads to a number of injuries, including a shoulder that needed reconstructed. All of this time recovering from injuries, surgeries, and physical therapy was challenging on my mindset and belief to heal. I spiraled into an eating disorder cycle when I felt like I was incapable of healing. When I hit rock bottom with my eating disorder and injuries, the first step to truly crawling out forever was changing my mindset and beliefs about myself.
I listened to the “High-Performance Mindset” podcast, read “Girl, Stop Apologizing” and that lead me down the rabbit hole of consuming material to help me change my life and habits.
What are some ways to improve self-efficacy?
Make a list of all the things you have accomplished
Set simple goals
The more you accomplish goals, the more you train your brain that you can complete goals. Instead of “I will work out every day”, set a goal to work out three days, and walk the other days.
Stay in the stretch zone
Keep setting goals that you can reach, and break them into smaller achievable goals that you can cross off. (The more goals you achieve, the more goals you believe you can achieve.)
Reframe obstacles
This is huge. How many times do you have a best friend that comes to you and explains that they feel like a failure? And how often do you reframe their circumstance to show them they are not a failure. Do that for you!
This is the number one skillset and factor that will help you reach your training, nutrition, and physical goals. You can achieve your physical goals, by building your mindset muscle. Help your clients by encouraging them to write down all the things they have achieved, set small weekly victories that they can celebrate, and encourage them to reframe obstacles to stepping stones.
