"Motivation" by Gabe Rindaldi, FIT General Manager 

Are you motivated to reach your training goals?

Many clients come to F.I.T. and tell us they need some motivation to help them reach their health and fitness goals. As professional trainers we possess the knowledge in exercise science to guide our clients on this journey. However, the training industry is about so much more than simply exercise science. This article will examine the issue of motivating clients.

About 10 years ago I was working as a trainer at 24 Hour Fitness. I went to a corporate training seminar and I remember the speaker telling us that it was impossible to motivate another human being. At the time I wasn’t sure if I believed this, but I never forgot it. This past week several staff members from F.I.T. attended the IHRSA (International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association) convention in San Francisco. I sat in on different talks where the issue of motivation came up. One speaker (Greg Lappin) asked for a show of hands from people who thought it was possible to motivate others. Approximately 75% of the people in the room raised their hand. Mr. Lappin went on to explain that he believes it is possible to motivate others, but that it never works. Another lecture given by Bill Parisi was on the topic of motivating kids and young adults to exercise. At one point Mr. Parisi asked for a volunteer. This guy came up to the front and was told to do a vertical jump and mark the wall with a piece of chalk at the highest point of his jump. Next Mr. Parisi put a 100-dollar bill on the wall about 3 inches higher than his vertical jump. He said if you touch the bill, then it’s yours. The guy took off his dress shoes (losing about 2 inches in the process) and then jumped up and touched the bill. He earned a quick 100 bucks and Mr. Parisi explained if there is a big enough “Why”, then you will figure out a “Way” to get it done. It was an excellent lecture and everyone was “fired up” at the end of the talk. One final comment I remember from this convention was a speaker mentioning that people are much more likely to do something out of a fear of failure. After 10 years in this business, a few college degrees, lots of seminars, and thousands of training sessions I have my own opinions on this topic.

As boring as it is we need to start off with a few definitions. Let’s look at the difference between motivation and inspiration as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary.

Motivation – The state of being motivated.
Motivate - To provide with an incentive; move to action; impel.

Inspiration - Stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity.
Inspire – To fill with enlivening or exalting emotion.

Motivation is from an external stimulus provided by someone like a personal trainer. Inspiration is something that happens internally from a conscious decision to positively change. Motivation causes action by providing a reward or fear of failure. As the speaker at the IHRSA convention mentioned, fear of failure is the more powerful motivator. Inspiration, involves our feelings, passions, and genuine love of the process and / or destination. Motivation is an external stimulus that is tough to maintain over the long haul. Inspiration is self-sustaining and lasts much longer due to the emotions involved. Inspiration, not motivation, is what allows people to achieve greatness.

I personally got involved in two different abdominal contests last year. The first contest was with the other male trainers at F.I.T. I wanted to win, but the reward of winning wasn’t that great and I didn’t have any fear of failure because everyone knew certain trainers are always very lean (yeah you Johnny). The second contest I did was with the guy who cuts my hair. I’ve known this guy for over 10 years and he’s a friend, but I couldn’t stand the thought of losing a contest related to exercise when my industry is exercise and his is hair. I had a big fear of failure so it pushed me to a much higher level. I lost the first abdominal contest and won the second. The difference was the motivation or more specifically the type of incentive related to the motivation. I believe the speaker was right; people are more likely to do something out of failure. However, I didn’t maintain my state of leanness after the contests because I lack the inspiration; i.e., the passion, feelings, or conscious decision to do so in part because I don’t think it is healthy to be that lean long-term.

Enough about me, let’s bring this back to the issue of motivating clients. It is true that trainers motivate clients by providing some sort of incentive to reach their goals. This incentive might be putting their name up on the white board next to other clients who have done the same workout. Another example might be educating the client about the benefits of exercise so that the client has a reason to keep exercising or fear of failure if they quit. Now, as bad as it sounds in my experience these techniques only work if the client wants them to work. In other words, if the client has some inspiration (has made an internal decision to change), then the training that we do with clients helps them achieve greatness. If a client lacks inspiration, but comes to us and expects us to provide all the external motivation and training knowledge, then I believe the results will be sub-par until that client gets inspired. Perhaps the better title for this article would be, “Are you inspired to reach your training goals?” If you are inspired, then I can promise you we will do our part to get you to your goals. If you are not inspired, then it is important to understand the information in this newsletter article in an attempt to figure out what will light that fire within you.