Fit For Life: How Do YOU Spell Success?

Sunday, October 09, 2016

Matt Espeut, GoLocalProv Health +Lifestyle Contributor

 

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I have gotten several comments on several social media posts from friends, family, and acquaintances congratulating me on my success. Although I always like getting positive feedback, I feel the word success is a very subjective term. I feel this way, because I do not see myself as being fully successful - yet. I have a vision of what success should look like.

Yes, I have helped hundreds of people lose thousands of pounds. I get comments from people saying that my staff and Providence Fit Body Boot Camp has changed their lives, the business is growing, and my start-up debt has gone down substantially in the past two years, but I feel like I am a long way from calling myself successful. I still have so much more to learn about business.

I still have a mission to change thousands more lives, and help more people achieve their fitness goals. I feel like I am just starting to climb the ladder of success and it’s a long way to the top. I understand that it takes time and a lot of effort to get there, and I have in my head that I will do whatever it takes. Even if it means stressing myself out, sacrificing happiness, and peace of mind.

Then I read an email from a guy named Martin Rooney I have been following, and it gave me a new prospective. It went like this: “Success in life can simply be seen as the amount of your time that you spend doing what you love to do that either makes you happy or have fun!  You see, no matter how much money you make or things you have, you are not successful in my book if you are not spending most of your time really happy. I am happy presenting, coaching, writing, training, traveling, and being around my friends and family.”

Interestingly, that is what I do with most of my time. Those two statements he made helped me realize that I AM successful to some extent. I love coaching, writing motivational emails for my audience, working out, flying to the west coast a few times a year, and spending time with people I enjoy. I am also making a good living doing what I love to do; therefore, I feel somewhat successful.

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But it’s a big ladder, and I still need to keep climbing. I came up with my own acronym and I want to give you my definition and the steps I feel you need to take before you can truly call yourself successful. Here it is:

S- sacrifice. You won’t get there until you make the sacrifices needed. You can’t stay up late watching TV and taking the day off. You need to sacrifice some things you like to do for the things you need to do. If you want success in fitness, you say no to cookies, cake and alcohol. If you want success in business, you sacrifice a day in the park for a day in the office.

U- understanding that it won’t be easy. Even if you love what you do, it takes hard work and discipline to achieve true success. Remember what Steve Jobs said: If you look closely at most overnight success stories, they actually took a long time!!

C-creating a plan. You won’t get there by guessing and it won’t happen by accident. You need to map out a clear plan to follow, and have an idea of how you will accomplish your mission.

C-courage. You will need to take chances and step out of your comfort zone, and that gets scary at times. Fear will hold you back from achieving your dreams, so you need to develop courage and fight fear.

E-execution. Ideas and thoughts are useless unless you act on them. You will only achieve results from taking action, and taking massive action. Remember a plan is just words or ideas until you execute.

S-systematic. You need to perform many of the same tasks day in and day out to achieve results. These need to be productive tasks, and need to be improved upon daily in order to create a successful system. Once this happens things will flow much more smoothly.

S-satisfaction. This is the epic term. This is why I don’t feel fully successful. I am not satisfied yet. I have so much more to do, and so many more obstacles to get over. I am close, but not satisfied that I have done everything I am potentially capable of doing. I am happy at the progress I am making, but satisfaction is still a few steps away. It’s like someone wanting to lose 20lbs. Yes, they will be happy losing 10, and people will call them successful when they lose 15. But you won’t get full satisfaction until the goal of 20 is reached. I feel like this is a good thing, because in most cases when you are satisfied, you get complacent and progress usually stops. So being a little unsatisfied will keep you actively trying to improve the things needed to achieve your goal.

Success is a subjective term. Many of us define it differently, and we all have different interpretations of what it should be. It’s different, because we all have a unique set of goals and visions we want to accomplish, therefore no one person can put a label or give an exact definition of what it is. It is an individual accomplishment. I feel that all human beings are capable of creating success for themselves whether it be raising a family, losing weight or making lots of money.

We all have it in us to become what we want to be, it just takes focus, discipline, and massive action. You need to set your goals, devise a plan and go after them. The big bonus with becoming successful, is to find happiness and live your passion along the way. When you are happy doing what you do, that’s a big element of success!

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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!






 

 

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