Keep Fit - Stay Healthy - Be HappyAugust 06, 2009Issue #033Come and join the fun on Better4Fitness.com by adding your story, advice, reviews or pictures. We appreciate all submissions and love to have a social network where we all help each other succeed with fitness. => Click here now to get started and I'll email you a special surprise (which changes each month) with each submission you make =) Why Some People Quit And Some People NEVER Give UpHi < It's been another strange week in the life of Asad. I'm starting to get used to the weirdness of life, or maybe it's me that's getting "weird-er", who knows! =) I saw my GP last week for a cut on my arm that got infected (yes, it looked disgusting!). He gave me antibiotics and noticed I hadn't had my Tetanus jab for over 10 years, so booked me up for that too. Grrrreat(!). The antibiotics made me feel sick and rundown, and the jab had me in bed for 48 hours. T'wasnt fun. All-in-all, it meant 10 days out of my workout routine. It's unseen stumbling blocks like these that often trip folks up. It's so easy to let things get on top of you and revert to old habits. Luckily for me, I'm an old hand at setbacks and it takes ALOT more to trip me up. And strangely enough, when I got back to my workouts, I instantly felt stronger than before. I had kept my nutrition strict whilst not being able to exercise, but I hadn't expected to feel so strong getting back into things. That feeling motivated me to push harder and keep going strong. On the subject of motivation, alot of you have been submitting the fitness survey on Better4Fitness.com - Thank You! If you haven't completed it yet, all it takes is 1 minute of your time and greatly helps us in providing you with the best service possible. Click here to complete the survey. The most popular request so far, is how to stay motivated. Whilst I have written about motivation here and on the site, I thought I'd get a good friend, Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT to write an article for you. Tom is the author of Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle, one of the web's best selling e-books EVER! I always take advice from Tom, and that's why I've got him to write for you. Here it is... Why Some People Quit And Some People NEVER Give Up Throughout my 18 years in the fitness industry as a trainer, nutrition consultant and motivational coach, I have noticed that some people who start a nutrition and exercise program give up very easily after hitting the first obstacle they encounter. If they feel the slightest bit of discouragement or frustration, they will abandon even their biggest goals and dreams. On the other hand, I noticed that some people simply NEVER give up. They have ferocious persistence and they never let go of their goals. These people are like the bulldog that refuses to release its teeth-hold on a bone. The harder you try to pull the bone out of his mouth, the harder the dog chomps down with a vice-like grip. What's the difference between these two types of people? Psychologists say there is an answer. An extremely important guideline for achieving fitness success is the concept that, "There is no failure; only feedback. You don't "fail", you only get results." This is a foundational principle from the field of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), and the first time I ever heard it was from peak performance expert Anthony Robbins back in the late 1980's. It's a principle that stuck with me ever since, because it's a very, very powerful shift in mindset. A lot of people will second-guess themselves and they'll bail out and quit, just because what they try at first doesn't work. They consider it a permanent failure, but all they need is a little attitude change, a mindset change, or what we call a "reframe." Instead of saying, "This is failure" they can say to themselves, "I produced a result" and "This is only temporary." This change in perspective is going to change the way that they feel and how they mentally process and explain the experience. It turns into a learning opportunity and valuable feedback for a course correction instead of a failure, and that drives continued action and forward movement. It's all about your results and your interpretation of those results. Dr Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, did some incredible research on this subject and wrote about it in his book, Learned Optimism. Dr. Seligman noticed that the difference between people who give up and people who persist and never quit is what he referred to as "explanatory style." He said that explanatory style is the way we explain or interpret bad events or failures. People who habitually give up have an explanatory style of permanence. For example, they hit a plateau in their progress and explain it by saying, "diets never work" or "I have bad genetics so I'll always be fat." These explanations imply permanence. Other people hit the same plateaus and encounter the same challenges, but explain them differently. They say things such as, "I ate too many cheat meals this week," or "I haven't found the right diet for my body type yet." These explanations of the results imply being temporary. People who see negative results as permanent failure are the ones who give up easily and often generalize their "failure" into other areas of their lives and even into their own sense of self. It's one thing to say, "I ate poorly this past week because I was travelling," (a belief about temporary behavior and environment), and to say, "I am a fat person because of my genetics" (a belief about identity with a sense of permanence). Remember, body fat is a temporary condition, not a person! People who see challenges and obstacles as temporary and as valuable learning experiences are the ones who never quit. If you learn from your experiences, not repeating what didn't work in the past, and if you choose to never quit, your success is inevitable. About the Author: Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle." Tom has written more than 200 articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds of websites worldwide. For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: => Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle Your Friend and Motivator, Asad T. The Fat Loss Success System P.S. Reply to this mail -- asad [at] better-exercise-fitness-for-life.com -- and ask me any questions you have about VEGETARIAN meal plans. Thoughts and QuestionsAs always, if you have any questions you'd like to ask me, simply reply to this email and I'll respond as soon as physically possible. If you've been sent here by a friend and enjoy this issue, you can sign up for future issues of Fitness Wonderland, click here - you'll also receive a FREE fat loss report. Keep Fit - Stay Healthy - Be Happy Asad Tufail => www.Better-Exercise-Fitness-For-Life.com Fitness FUN => Share Your Fitness Photos and Tips Read about me and my fitness journey => My Fitness Journey Missed the 4 free gifts? => Free Gifts (they're at the end of "Asad's Thoughts") Join our Facebook group => Join The Community Are you on Twitter? (it's free too!) => Join The Get Fit Tweeps Video Blog Login: => Turbulence Training Transformation Video Blog => Password: gKpd6748 (case sensitive) New! 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