Find your Yoda

I met with Yoda tonight.

Sure he doesn’t look or act like Yoda, and the Force may not be strong with him, but I couldn’t be more thankful that he’s around.  My Yoda happens to be named Mike, a personal trainer guru from Colorado who taught my certification class.  Although he trains in Colorado, he travels all over the country to train trainers and hits up Atlanta quite frequently.  Whenever he’s in town I make a point to meet up with him for breakfast or after work.  In the short time I’ve gotten to know Mike, he’s quickly become an amazing mentor to me.  Tonight, I spent a good two hours just picking his brain (much better than picking his nose…yes I went there) on the fitness industry, personal training, and the next steps in my career.  I’m always amazed with how happy and willing Mike is to pass along knowledge and advice to me, stuff that people pay hundred and hundreds of dollars to get at seminars.  I’m very lucky.

I’ve realized that having a mentor is absolutely essential to anything do in life if you want to be successful.  If you want to get better at math, you find the smart kid in the class and ask for help (bad example, you all were probably were that smart kid).  If you want to be the best chess player on the planet, who do you play against?  You try to find the best, and learn from them.  If you want to be the best Counterstrike player in the world, you join a clan of the best players around.  Find people that have been there before you, and ask them how they did it.  Ask them what mistakes they made, what worked best for them, and follow their leads.  Go it alone and you might make it, but I guarantee it will take you a lot longer and probably cost you a lot more money.

I spent 6 years in a gym – from my sophomore year of high school until graduating college – doing what I thought was right; I wasted hours and hours of time and probably hundreds of dollars on equipment, supplements, and routines that turned out to be useless.  In just three sessions with a personal trainer my life changed completely.  Had I not been so dumb for so long I would have seen results and success much sooner.  Since then, I’ve learned my lesson, which is why I’m so thankful to know Mike.

Tonight, I asked for his advice on switching up my workout; it had become stale and boring and I was out of ideas.  Beginning next week I’ll be starting a brand new routine that emphasizes full body workouts three times a week and I couldn’t be more excited.  You might think that because I’m a personal trainer I should be able to train myself, but it’s not that easy.  There’s always room to improve, and always somebody who knows more than you, so you have to make an effort to never stop learning.

That path you’re thinking of exploring – find somebody to help you get started.  If you want to start a business, find somebody who started something similar and ask for advice.  If you want to get in shape, reach out to somebody who has the body type and lifestyle that you want for yourself.  Now, if you don’t have anybody that you can reach out to, shoot me an email at steve@nerdfitness.com with any fitness related questions, and I’ll gladly help you out.  Fitness is tough starting out if you don’t know where to begin (trust me, I know), so let me know what I can do to help you change your life.

Find your Yoda!

Steve

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