We have interacted with clients who succeed easily and others who struggle tremendously. The sad fact is seven out of 10 people who start an exercise or nutrition program drop out within a few months. If you know people who have been among those drop-out stats, the problem may not be with them– it may be with the method. Most people attempt to do too much too quickly. They do not do any planning and they don’t know how to monitor their progress.
This is where YOU come in! Over the next 4 weeks we will review the 4 steps that will help your clients dramatically increase their chances for success.
- Step 1. Determine how ready your clients are to make the changes.
- Step 2. Help your clients develop concrete internal motivation for helping them to adhere to their program.
- Step 3. Help your clients set SMART goals
- Step 4. Outline potential obstacles to success and strategies for overcoming them
We will spend the most time discussing step 1 because I believe it is absolutely critical to your success as a Personal Trainer.
Step 1. Are your clients ready?
We generally know within a few minutes whether a client will succeed easily or not. If the client accepts our recommendations for changes to their exercise or nutrition program immediately and unconditionally, we know we will achieve success easily. If the client begins to make excuses or give reasons they feel they will not be able to adhere to the program, we can generally expect struggles throughout the process. They are not ready to make the changes required to see the results they want. It is a good idea to use some type of “Readiness” questionnaire with your clients. This will help determine the approach to take with your client and will give you a good idea of they are truly “ready” to adhere to the programming you provide.
