Personal Trainer Reveals How to Succeed in Your Health Journey so YOU can Avoid Fear of Failure

Written By Nurse Mary  |  Podcasts, Recent News 

Today’s Episode is with Christopher Blackmon, Certified Personal Trainer & Message Therapist, at Affirm Health Center in Springfield, MO.

Remember your WHY

He talks about those life lessons and the reason we need to remember our why. The hardest part of getting healthy is in your head. Do you dare to believe you are good enough? Stay tuned to the end to hear Chris’s personal story of how he transformed himself and his life. Be sure to look in the show notes below or any references that we talk about throughout the show.

Chris is a director of fitness and nutrition where he custom designs fitness and nutrition plans for clients. Well, we’ll let him explain things himself  🙂

I am not a cookie-cutter out of the box type of Personal Trainer. It is called “personal training” for a reason because it’s personalized to each of you. 

Everyone’s goals are different. Everyone’s journey is different. Everyone has a different life coming into wanting to have better health. Some people have kids, some people don’t, some people are busy, some people are not. 

Focus needs to be on figuring out a way to bring your life fitness and better health into the picture. Sometimes it takes a bit of creativity. That being said I am not your boss. I am not a taskmaster, your drill sergeant, you know, an overseer. I’m really just a friend who’s going to help you get a little bit healthier. That’s what I’m here for. 

Who is Personal Training Ideal for? 

Chris says: My ideal client, honestly, will come from every age group. Universally, no matter what age group you’re in, it’s going to be fundamentally the same biggest challenge. That is – going to be the mental challenge of this whole process. 

For example, a younger person, let’s say you’re going into college. A college student’s mental state may be completely different than someone who’s 60 years old, but they may have some of the same goals: getting in better health, better shape, and developing a better eating plan. So my favorite part is to work with someone who has fitness goals and nutrition goals. Then help them navigate that mental process so that we can start introducing the work that it takes to fit the goals. 

At Affirm Health Center we do have some fitness equipment. We are a medical spa type of environment, we have a personal training studio, that works right next door in conjunction with the medical spa. We have equipment in here that I use and I teach them how to do exercises properly and also give them their homework to do outside of when they’re with me that they can do on their own, as well. That way they keep their results going and so they can stay consistent. 

Feel Empowered to Manage Your Own Health Journey

It’s empowering once they feel like they can function on their own and be effective even outside of when they come to see me. The last thing I want is for them to come here and everything’s great and you have a good time and it’s super productive – but when I’m not here, I don’t want that to go by the wayside. At Affirm Health Spa we always teach you how to properly use the equipment so you can do this on your own or at home, as well.

Success with Better Health Transfers Over into All Areas of Life

The hardest part is overcoming the mental barriers that we may have within this process. For example, I like to tell all my clients that if you can succeed with getting in better health, better shape, better fitness, you can succeed in anything. Those principles of success are universal and transfer over into every part of life. 

The same way that you succeed in creating better health is the same way that you become a better parent or a better member of society or a better at your job. The principles are interchangeable – doing X amount of work with a game plan over X amount of time and it yields a certain result

The Decision to Change Starts with Changing Your Mental Attitude

Before we can talk about getting into the work and the consistency and all the things that people think that it takes to do this, you first have to get past some mental barriers. For many of us, including myself, I had to do the same thing, I lost about 85 pounds when I started as the trainer and a massage therapist. It took me about 30 years for me to decide to make the decision to get into better shape. 

I understand and I’ve been on both sides of the fence and I totally get it. It’s very freeing to get over the mental part.

As Americans, We Need to Move More, Eat Better & Manage Our Stress

The biggest thing is that this process – is exactly that – a process. Nothing happens until someone either gets upset or really excited. Meaning that some things are born out of necessity. For example, you want to get in shape for the summer, or we’ve got that cruise coming up or there’s a wedding or something like that. Those are fine, there’s nothing wrong with that because most of the time, with most people, their fitness vision has a deadline or timeframe. 

What I like to encourage people to do, these are a few words of wisdom from my own experience, is to look at this process as being a lifelong process

Look at Being Healthy as a Life-Long Process

You want to become a healthy person, not a person who’s going to be healthy for a season in life. I think when you do that when you say it, and you hear yourself say that you really change the whole dynamic of your thinking because now there’s no pressure. You know, there’s a sense of emergency. You do want to be consistent because you have to do that to get results. But at the same time, now there’s no pressure on you. You have your entire life to get all of this right. You know what to do to get your body right and your health right. 

Remove the pressure and develop a game plan that works for you. It’s a process and it’s not going to stay the same. 

Embrace the Changes Life Throws at You

Things will change. Your age will change, your metabolism will change – if we need to move to the left or the right – then that is what we do. Always keeping an open mind that is a life-long process. 

Let’s be honest – You’re not always going to be excited about it. There’s nothing you will be fired up about every single day. Your health is one of the few things in life where it’s a completely emotionless endeavor. What I mean by that is that you don’t have to “feel” like doing it – You just have to do it – if you want the results. If you do the work, it’s going to work for you over time. So just really just embrace the process, enjoy the learning, enjoy changing your eating habits and just developing this new you. 

Along the way, it feels really good just to know that you’re moving in a direction that’s solving the problem or that’s making you better. 

Enjoy the Process

Enjoy the process – That is the biggest thing that I can tell you – it doesn’t happen overnight. We want it fast but, believe me, actually trust me, it’s just not the way that it works. I don’t think it would be a good thing if it did because there’s a lot of change, there’s a lot of growth, and there’s a lot of learning that needs to happen along the way and you don’t want to rush that. You really don’t because those little moments are really special.

Life is a Journey – and Loving Yourself Enough to Care for Yourself

When setting goals – set action goals – So what are the things that you can actually do on a daily basis that you can control, that are manageable for you and your time. This is a huge starting point a huge tool that you can use is goal setting. You’re gaining ground every single day and you’re moving in the right direction. 

Accountability can help you move toward your goals

Maybe having an accountability partner – someone who goes to the gym with you or maybe it’s someone like me, a personal trainer, a coach, someone that you check in with or that’s actually helping you through your process. You can also use social media, friends or family to help you stay accountable. Once other people know and you verbalize what you’re gonna do, it is a way to hold ourselves at a higher level of accountability, as well. 

What a Day Might Look Like for Christopher

Affirm Health Center - Medica Spa, Springfield MO

In the same day, I might work with a basketball player, or a lacrosse player, even a football player, in the semi-pro football player with our local LA Springfield team that we have here. 

My favorite thing about what I do is that at 10 o’clock I can be working with the semi-pro football player who’s 6’5″ and this guy weighs 350 pounds, you know, and he plays on the line. But at 11 o’clock, an hour later, I can also be working with someone who’s 65 years old and just had a hip replaced. Rehab work, where we are just trying to get her back into mobility, doing a lot of massage work with her, stretching. We do a lot of active recovery work, some basic exercises, just trying to restore movement and mobility. 

If You Are Interested in Becoming a Personal Trainer

Everything is about mindset – it is the same whether I’m doing art or fitness. If you’re looking at becoming a health professional, fitness professional, what I would say is just remember your original intent – why you felt like you wanted to do it in the first place. It’s very easy in anything to lose that, to lose track of your passion. Remember why you do it and remember the feeling that you get when you do it and do it the exact same way. 

Do it your way every single day that you do it. Don’t change anything up for any one or because of whatever kind of rhetoric may be out there. You know, remember how you do things because it is the unique way that you do things. That is why people will, will come to you and come back to you for help and refer you for help to other people, to new clients. There IS unique about you and the way that you do it. So remember that original intent. Remember your passion and why you wanted to start doing whatever it is in the first place.

If You Were to Give Yourself Advice 5 to 10 years Ago, What Would That Be?

What I would have said to myself is just maybe, run faster, and that just is not, not just physically, but also as far as working and being consistent. Just spend less time thinking and more time doing. Because the thinking will work itself out once you do more. Don’t be afraid to take action and don’t procrastinate because the thinking will work itself out. You’ll figure out what you need to do once you go and do some stuff. Be more proactive about what you’re doing. Don’t overthink things, just make the jump. Yeah!

Dare to Believe you ARE Good Enough!

Some parting words of wisdom that I would give are: Just know – believe that you are good enough. If you’re looking at starting something, starting a business, going into a profession, know that you’re good enough to do it. You don’t have to be super amazing all the time. Just be willing to pursue what it is that you want to do.

If you’re the one who’s maybe needing help, wanting better health, looking for information, just know that you deserve it. Honestly, You deserve to be healthy. You deserve to feel good about yourself.

Chris tells his story…

I remember the day that I walked into my favorite store and the mall, I’ve always loved their clothes, but could never wear anything in there because nothing ever fit at the time. It was my favorite store and I had never bought anything in there for years. I would just go in there and look around and I remember the day that I got rid of all of my old clothes and I had nothing but a few outfits to wear. I needed to buy a whole new wardrobe!  

I walked into my favorite store and the lady said, can I help you? I said, yes, absolutely you can! Absolutely! I was like, I want one of each of the shirts on the higher shelf. I want one of them. Each of these pants that are hanging up on this wall, she’s like, okay, and as well do you have a cart? Cause I’m probably going to be here for a while 😀.   I was like, I have never shopped here before, I’ve always loved your clothes, I recently lost a lot of weight and I’m really excited. I bought so much stuff and it wasn’t about the shopping, it was about what it represented. 

It Wasn’t About the Shopping – It Was About What It Represented

In the process and I proved to myself, not to anyone else, but I proved to myself, that I could do it and I deserved it! It was one of the most exhilarating things I’ve ever done.

You deserve to have that experience and every great thing that comes with it. 

You will win in this process!

Resources: 

Affiliate links to book suggestions: 

Chris Blackmon - Personal Trainer. YOU ARE good enough!

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