This is a website about fitness and physical skill. It’s probably not much of a stretch to assume that, if you’re reading this, there’s something you’d like to change about the condition and capabilities of your body.
There could be any number of changes you’d like to make:
better physique, impressive skills and tricks, greater strength, improved performance in a sport or activity, etc…
One thing you probably don’t want to happen is this:
Your specific circumstances and desires are unique, but whatever goal you’re trying to accomplish, this page maps out a process for discovering your most efficient and effective means for accomplishing it.
If getting started is something you’re struggling with right now, we made this page especially for you.
Follow the instructions here, and you’ll be taking tangible steps in the right direction.
This is a long page with lots of links, and it’s describing a process that will probably require spending a little time thinking and writing things down. It’s not designed for easy consumption.
It’s worth the work.
But you might not be able to get though this in one go. We recommend bookmarking this page now so you can return here as necessary.
Are you ready to make a plan for finally getting started on building the body you really want?
Great. Let’s get to work.
If you want to make changes in you health, fitness, physique, and movement ability, you need to get clear on a few things.
Step 1 – Discover Your True Goals
What do you want? No, not that.
What do you really want?
There’s no right nor wrong answer to this question, but there is a lot of confusion.
Advertisers spend a lot of money to convince us that we should want certain things. If we’re not careful, we can end up believing them. And we worry so much about what other people think about us that we can lose sight of what’s really important to us.
Get really clear on what YOU want.
Often, when we ask people what their goals are, they respond with a list of things they’d like to do – running, swimming, martial arts, gymnastics, etc.
But those aren’t goals; they’re activities.
Look at the activities you’re attracted to and ask yourself exactly what it is you hope to get out of that activity.
What’s the precise outcome you want?
- I want to have the strength to carry my daughter around all day without getting tired
- I want to have the energy and agility to enjoy whatever activities I try
For bonus points, use specific details and make your goals measurable (“hold a handstand for 10 seconds” or “my wife notices my muscles”).
Useful Articles
Once you know what you want, let’s move on to why you want it.
Step 2 – Find Your Deepest Motivation
Most people will tell you that they work out to be healthy.
That’s a lie.
If health were really as important to us as everybody likes to say it is, we’d all act a lot differently. We’d eat better food and watch a lot less TV. More likely, your true motivation has little to do with your health.
And that’s completely all right.
We’re not here to judge, but it’s incredibly important that you be honest with yourself about your deepest motivations for choosing the goals you did in Step 1.
- Do you want to look better so you can get some lovin’?
- Need to be strong so you can take care of your family?
- Want to learn some cool tricks so you can have something to show off to your friends?
All completely valid reasons.
Figure out yours.
If the first two steps were enough, we’d all be ticking off goals every day, but it’s not that easy.
Step 3 – Identify Your Roadblocks
Ask yourself, “Why haven’t I achieved this yet?”
You’ve probably had this goal for a while, so it’s important to understand the factors that may have been holding you back so far.
Maybe you’re busy. Or lazy. Or maybe you just don’t know what to do.
What usually happens during this step is you realize that there are two categories at play:
- Excuses
- Challenges
Discovering the first might make you uncomfortable, but the fact is we all make excuses. Often without realizing it. Let this exercise be an opportunity to come clean and admit that you sometimes lie to yourself. It’s OK. Again, we all do it.
But even without your excuses, you probably have legitimate challenges that will make it difficult to achieve your goals.
Perhaps you have a job that requires you to travel frequently. Or a sick family member who requires care. Or you live in an apartment with very little space for training.
Don’t get discouraged. Just get clear on what’s holding you back.
Useful Articles
Once you know what challenges you face and what excuses you’re likely to make, you can begin to make a plan to overcome those while working toward your goal.
Step 4 – Map Out Your Plan
Only after you’ve taken a hard look at where you’re at right now can you begin to plan out the steps that will take you to your goal.
It’s the difference between seeing something on a map and knowing the precise turn-by-turn directions to get there.
Once you’ve done some soul searching, this step can be pretty simple. You just find a program that is aligned with your main goal and do it.
But if you don’t have much training experience, you might not know where to start.
For most people, we recommend following a proven program created by professionals instead of attempting to create some kind of crazy customized thing of your own. That’s because the more your try to optimize, the less room you give yourself for error.
And you will make errors!
Don’t let learning about training be an obstacle to actually doing it.
Useful Articles
At this point, you might think it’s as simple as following the plan, 1-2-3, but what happens if you miss a step? How can you be sure you keep going?
Step 5 – Build Habits and Plan for Setbacks
If you’ve ever tried to break a bad habit, you know they are almost impossible to defeat once they’re really ingrained.
Let’s use that to our advantage.
Simply making a plan isn’t enough to achieve our goals. We have to do the damn work and manage the ups and downs that are a natural part of life.
Habit can be an amazingly powerful too.
But building good habits can sometimes be even harder than breaking bad ones. The key is consistency and flexibility.
It also helps if you’re prepared for the inevitability of “life stuff.”
Life stuff is your job, your family, holidays, that bug going around the office… all the completely normal stuff in your life that makes it difficult focus on your health and fitness. You can’t prevent life stuff from coming up, but you can plan for it and be ready to respond in an effective way when it does.
One of the most important things to remember is that training doesn’t have to be all or nothing. If all you have time for is a warm-up, then warm-up and call it a day.
Do your planned training when you can, but doing something is better than nothing at all.
If your plan doesn’t account for things not going according to plan, you’re eventually going to get stuck. But if you’re ready for setbacks before they happen, you’ll be able to make continual progress, even when it seems like the cards are stacked against you.
Useful Articles
By now, if you’ve gone through these steps, you’ll have gotten down something that looks pretty good on paper. Now you need to decide whether or not you need help.
Step 6 – Get Help (optional)
Let’s be real honest: you probably can’t do this alone.
Some very disciplined people can follow a plan and get results, but most of us need a little support.
The process above works.
We know it works because it’s the exact same process we used to create our curriculum, used by thousands of members of the GMB Posse around the world.
But just because it works doesn’t make it easy.
That’s why many of our clients have asked Ryan to guide them through the process.
We call it a Roadmap Session.
If you’ve made it that far down the page and followed each step to create a plan that looks completely reasonable and doable to you, congratulations! You’re methodical and disciplined, and you’ll probably have great success.
If you’re reading this and still don’t have a concrete idea of your next action step, we highly recommend you get some support, either from us or elsewhere.
Click below to have Ryan personally walk you though this process and craft a 6 month training plan for your goals.
Whether you get help or go it alone, the most important thing is to take decisive action.
Get Started
Now after having gone through all that, the very worst thing you could do right now would be to tell yourself that you’ll store these ideas away and think them over for later.
That never works.
Click here for a handy chart that will help you choose the right program for your goals…
If you don’t take some action now, you’ll forget. Or you’ll get busy. Or something.
Get started.
Today.
Choose a GMB program and get going.
If our stuff doesn’t suit your goals, that’s fine.
Find something that will.
And do it.
Need more help?
If you’re not sure what to do next, get in touch and we’ll help you figure it out.
Seriously, we’re very nice.
