Fear will paralyze you when it's time for an early-morning training session.

As a result you'll roll over in bed, hit the snooze on your alarm clock, and miss your workout. 

In the long term, fear will squash your dreams of being strong, lean, and happy.

Of course everyone feels scared at times. 

Everyone experiences doubt and uncertainty too.

No one is immune to fear; however, it's just a fictitious version of a future outcome that has not happened yet.

The Truth About Failure

Fear is a made-up story that you've created in your mind.

It keeps you stuck in a place where average becomes the norm.

Where being unhappy and tolerating a life you are unhappy with becomes your day-to-day reality.

On the other hand, courage is when you are afraid yet push forward anyway.

Fear is a reaction, but courage is a choice.​

Courage and bravery are not the absence of fear but rather the acceptance of fear and saying, “I can do this.”

A coach-friend of mine was dreading taking his bodyfat after being laid up in bed for months due to hip surgery.

So while he had kept track of the scale he did not track bodyfat percentage.

He even has a professional body-fat-testing machine in his house, so he could have done it at any time - but he was scared.

He was afraid to learn how far he had regressed.

You see, my friend was overweight as a kid and teased by his classmates.

“Fat kid, fat kid," they chanted on the elementary-school playground.

He was validating his fears and kept making excuses as to why he should not take accountability for where he was.

Well, he finally decided he needed to muster up the courage and do it.

And guess what?

The scale showed his bodyfat at 7.5%, which was as low as he has ever been.

Here's the truth:

If I were to make a roadmap detailing the journey of my most successful client-athletes, here's what it would look like:

Work, work, work, try, fail, iterate, try, fail, work, work, try, try, try, fail, iterate, work, try, try again, fail, get frustrated, want to give up, try, fail, try, fail, try, try, try, fail, work, try... and finally achieve success.

How do I know?

Well, I've spent decades around professional men and women, over the age of 40, who struggled to achieve success in life.

On the other hand, I've witnessed others who enjoyed one success after another.

You see, I've delivered over 100,000 transformation programs over the past 25+ years so I have much experience when it comes to helping folks get leaner, stronger, and happier.

I've worked with many, many different types of people.

Some folks, especially the unsuccessful ones, give up before the starting line (or during the race).

They are unable to suspend their disbelief that change is, in fact, possible.

Or they start out strong, believing success is possible; however, they drift back into their familiar bad habits when life gets tough.

And when they're confronted about the relapse, these clients kind of of shrug their shoulders and look dejected.

In most cases this defeated attitude is a product of being surrounded by crabs and naysayers and, oftentimes, an unsupportive home environment too.

But I’ve also enjoyed spending time around many top achievers from dozens of different fields.

These folks are really no different than the folks who fail.

It’s just that the successful folks believe that change is possible.

They fail just like the rest of us; however, they are resilient.

They stand right back up, brush off the dust, and attack it again.

☀️Successful folks are relentless in their pursuit of excellence.

So the diversity of people I've spent my time around is vast... and, again, the difference in achievement from the ordinary to the extraordinary largely centers around the way someone thinks.

Remember success is not about intelligence or talent.

Some of the smartest-and-wealthiest folks I know habitually drink themselves to sleep every single weekend.

It’s apparent to everybody that they suffer from alcoholism; but they simply choose to ignore the consequences:

Wasted talent, not living the life they desire and deserve, wallowing in mediocrity, or worse.

I know plenty of broke “geniuses” too.

I've seen literally hundreds of talented people struggle to achieve much of anything.

No, I'm talking about how you think about achievement.

You must think that success is possible and that you've got what it takes to achieve it, you deserve it, and that you're going to make it happen.

Successful people think bigger than the average person.

When most people are thinking that “the normal” they see around them is their ceiling, you believe that you're capable of so much more.

When others blame their weight gain on the birthday cake at the birthday party or the mindless eating-while-watching-Netflix, you're different.

You know that you control your own bodyfat and, as a result, your health.

You simply have to:

1. Decide what you want.
2. Believe you deserve it.
3. Put yourself in a situation to make it your reality.

It's really that simple.

Simple but not easy.

So think big, but be specific.

If you want to draw your map, you need a precise destination.

You must believe, in your heart, that you deserve success.

For me the two things that help me maintain a positive mindset are who I spend my time around and what I study.

Then put yourself in a position to achieve it.

That's the willingness to take strategic action.

I hope you really embrace what I've just shared.

Because if you do indeed take action, you will succeed.

Have a great day,

Coach Joe

Joseph Arangio helps 40+ men and women get leaner, stronger, and happier. He's delivered over 100,000 transformation programs to satisfied clients around the globe. If you want to lose weight from home, with the best online longevity personal trainer, or you want to visit the best age-management personal trainer in the Lehigh Valley, you can take a free 14-day trial.