Unlock Your Full Potential: Why Mindset is the Key to Achieving Your Health and Fitness Goals

When it comes to health and fitness, it’s easy to focus solely on the physical aspects - what exercises to do, what foods to eat, and how much sleep to get. While these are all important factors, there is another crucial element to achieving and maintaining your health and fitness goals: mindset. 

The way we think about our health and fitness goals can have a powerful impact on whether or not we succeed in achieving them. In this blog, we'll explore the importance of mindset in achieving health and fitness goals and provide tips on how to cultivate a growth-oriented mindset. By the end, you'll understand how to unlock your full potential and achieve the lifestyle you’ve been dreaming of!

What is Mindset?

At its core, your mindset is a set of beliefs that you hold about yourself and the world around you. Your mindset shapes your decisions, your attitude, and even your identity.

When it comes to mindset, there are generally two types of people: Those who adopt a growth mindset, and those who adopt a fixed mindset.

A person with a growth mindset believes that their abilities and talents can be improved. They recognize that their identity is continuously in flux based on their choices. A growth mindset means they view challenges as opportunities to learn and grow, and are not discouraged by setbacks. 

In contrast, a person with a fixed mindset believes that their abilities and talents are set and cannot be improved. They believe their identity is set and largely outside of their control. (“This is just who I am!”) They view challenges as threats to their abilities and are more likely to give up when faced with difficulties. People with a fixed mindset tend to avoid challenges and stick to what they are already good at, rather than pushing themselves to try new things and grow.

Why is mindset so important to fitness?

As Henry Ford said, “Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.” Your beliefs are powerful and can become a catalyst for transformation if you adopt a growth mindset, or a cage of stagnation if you cling to a fixed mindset.

Mindset plays a crucial role in many areas, such as motivation, resilience, self-efficacy (belief in your abilities) and your overall success.

Motivation

Motivation is a two-sided coin when it comes to your health. On one side, motivation is a great “jump-starter” and can help propel you into the first phases of transformation. Whether it’s by joining a challenge, setting a New Year's resolution, or trying a new program, starting something new and exciting can bring a surge of motivation. 

However, on the flip side, motivation isn’t sustainable. By nature, it doesn’t last forever. And whether or not you’re able to push through when the motivation dissipates depends on your mindset.

If you have a fixed mindset, you may find your motivation waning and think, “I don’t want to do this anymore. This isn’t as fun as I thought it would be. I don’t know how all those other people do it, I’m just not that kind of person.” It will be easy to give up if your mindset is still stuck in your old patterns. 
But if you have a growth mindset, you’ll recognize that your identity isn’t based on what you feel but what you choose to act on. You’ll be able to keep your eyes on the prize so to speak and rise to the challenge of pushing through those areas of low motivation because you’re committed to your goals.

Resilience

Resilience, or “grit”, is the capacity to withstand difficulties and to bounce back from hardships. People with a growth mindset recognize challenges as opportunities to grow and develop resilience, while those with a fixed mindset view challenges as a threat to their well-being, and therefore avoid them at all cost. With every challenge that you overcome, you are building your resilience and reinforcing your positive beliefs about yourself.

Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy, or your belief in your own abilities, is greatly affected by your mindset. I used to believe that I was unable to work out in the mornings – so I didn’t. I used to believe I was incapable of giving up alcohol – so I wouldn’t. If you don’t think you will be successful at something, you will not put all your effort into achieving it. 
By contrast, if you believe you are capable of doing something, you will be more likely to work harder at it and actually achieve it!

Overall success

So many people approach their health and fitness goals by “hating themselves into health.” They feel such self-hatred and even disgust at their own bodies that they deprive themselves of food by trying extreme cleanses or restrictive diets. They’ve internalized negative comments about their body and use it as fuel to force them to the gym or even to consider cosmetic surgery.

While this negative mindset might be effective at creating change (at least externally) it’s almost never going to be a true, permanent transformation. And even if the results do last, there’s often any number of mental health repercussions such as developing eating disorders, body dysmorphia, or anxiety and depression. 

However, if you can hold onto a positive mindset, you are more likely to achieve lasting, permanent transformation.

How to Adopt a Growth Mindset?

So, how do you adopt a growth mindset? Changing your mindset takes a lot of dedication and persistence, but it is possible, and it will make a profound impact on your goals! Here are three things you can do to achieve a growth mindset:

1. Embrace challenges

Instead of avoiding challenges or tasks that you view as difficult, embrace them! See them as opportunities to learn and grow, even if you do not succeed perfectly. By tackling new, challenging things on a regular basis, it can help grow your confidence and resilience as well as increase your skills and strength.

2. Redefine Failure

Rather than viewing failure as a reflection of your self-worth and identity, look at failures as the opportunity to learn. Be gentle with yourself. Recognize that you are not perfect and that’s ok. Analyze what went wrong and try to find at least one thing that you can learn from and do differently next time.

3. Practice Self-Love

In an earlier post, I talked about how to turn self-sabotage into self-love. By practicing self-love intentionally and on a regular basis, you can shape and mold your mindset. Choose to focus on your strengths. Don’t compare yourself to others, but celebrate your uniqueness. Be your own best cheerleader, even if that means you have to pretend. Remember – this is a process. Feelings follow action. 

Your mindset is the force that drives your transformation. If you are stuck with a fixed mindset, unable to face challenges or failure, you will not experience the transformation or the freedom that you long for. 

If you need help unlocking your full potential and achieving a growth mindset, our coaches are here to help! Send us a message, follow us on social media, and don’t forget to subscribe for more tips on transformation.