The Mindset Hack To Change Your Fitness Journey

That mountain? I wanna climb it. That heavy thing? I wanna lift it. My best life? Yeah, I wanna live it.

What would happen if you started viewing your fitness journey like this, instead of centering it around hitting a certain number on the scales, or even a certain dress size?

I have a pretty good idea..

Based on my many test subjects, (okay - my grow girl clients), I reckon, if this shifted in your mindset you’d be happier, more consistent and oh yeah, smashing it in the gym too.

It’s a simple re-frame. When we start looking at our bodies for what they can do, rather than solely how they look, we shift our relationship with it.

It’s just like when I speak about cultivating your money mindset! When you switch from a place of scarcity or fear, to a place of abundance, the money starts flowing in.

Similarly, when we stop looking at our bodies with ever a judgemental eye, and start showing up with feelings of excitement about what we might achieve WITH our bodies… that kind of synergy creates real impact!

So start with your why. What’s the reason for your fitness journey?

Is it empowering, or judgemental?

Don’t get me wrong, I have ZERO problem with aesthetic goals, but they can still come from a place of love & empowerment.

Instead of:

‘I need to lose my baby belly’ - ‘I’d love to have a toned stomach’

Instead of:

‘I hate my non existent bum’ - ‘I want a strong, perky booty’

But even if you do have aesthetic goals, don’t forget about what your body could do

If the zombie apocalypse hits, wouldn’t it be quite nice to pull yourself up, out of a crumbling building, out run a zombie with your badass cardio threshold and flykick a possessed pigeon? (okay, and maybe you sashay away with that bubble butt too).

Wanna find out what your fitness regime is missing (zero bro science included)?

Take the free quiz here, to get your personal action plan

The Real Secret To Success

If I tell you that I’m about to share the one true key to success with you, what would you expect to hear?

5 am starts?

Smart investments?

A healthy body and mind?

Whilst alllll of those things sound like tips straight outta the grow girl handbook, it’s not where I was going with this…

Don’t get me wrong, these are all factors that might well aid you towards success, but I would argue that they’re not the KEY driver, the mother of all success strategies, if you like.

Purpose.

Purpose is what will really push you to success!

Why? Because when it gets hard, when you’re facing doubt, overwhelm, obstacles & tbh you’re just tired AF of the grind - all the spreadsheets in the world won’t keep you going.

That deep sense of purpose though, that’s what will keep you pushing onward.

Before you click off, thinking that you’re not a visionary, you aren’t spiritual and you don’t think you have a true purpose - let me stop you there.

Because I believe we all have a purpose, it’s just that only some of us are aware of it.

Your purpose doesn’t have to be something incredibly profound, like discovering the new planet that humankind should move to. It doesn’t have to be inventing the newest technology that will change the world.

But whatever it is, you will change the world in your own little, (or large), way.

It’s the impact you want to leave on this place, and the people in it.

My purpose is to empower more women to live the life they dream of. Whether that be to become CEO of their dream company, or just to be happy and free of constant anxiety and stress. Whether I do that through coaching someone on their business skills, or just helping them to change the way they view their most recent break-up, isn’t as important as that purpose that i’m trying to fulfil.

Because the ‘how’ will often change and evolve, and this is where success can evade us. I mean, let’s look at technology, which is changing all the time. ‘Blockbuster’ evaded success because the ‘how’ changed. DVDs and videos were becoming extinct. Perhaps if they’d focused on their purpose, which I can only assume was to ‘entertain’ people through tv & film, they wouldn’t have turned down the opportunity to invest in ‘Netflix’! Why? Because they’d have seen it as an opportunity to continue to fulfil their purpose, albeit in a different format than they perhaps anticipated.

My point of this little side story, is that things will always change, but your purpose will act as your glasses, providing you the clarity to find your route again.

But what if you don’t know your purpose?

I’m 99.9% sure that it’s there to be discovered. You just have to peel back the layers to reveal it. It takes a little self work and reflection, but i’d argue it’s the single most important thing you’ll learn in your ‘grow girl’ journey.

Wanna know the exact steps to take to identify your purpose? I break this all down in this FREE mini course coming soon, but available for a limited time only! Check it out here.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR MONEY WORK FOR YOU

Moolah, dolla, coinage (okay imma stop)… whatever you wanna call it, we can’t ignore it. 

When you’re on your grow girl grind, you have to address the coin situation as part of your strategy. Why? Because money is the flow that facilitates your business & your purpose!

And yes, there’s a clear distinction there – at Grow Girl HQ, the ethos is that purpose comes first, the dollar follows second. 

So, in the pursuit of your boss babe credentials, you’ve got to control your money – not let it control you. Here are the top money management tips I’ve learnt:

“in the pursuit of your boss babe credentials you’ve got to control your money, not let your money control you”

1.    Money Mindset

Prepare yourself, it’s about to get a bit ‘woowoo’ up in here. To make money, you have to attract it! The mind is so powerful, and your consciousness is always listening to it. If you feel deep down that you aren’t going to make target this month, that message gets passed on! You won’t take the actions needed to hit that target, because your subconscious is hearing what you’re thinking about, and trying to make that reality. Don’t let your limiting beliefs create your reality. Start believing in your product or service, and how worthy of your customer’s money it is! If you genuinely don’t believe this, go back a step and tweak your offering until you 100% believe in it.

2.    Save Before You Spend 

I’d heard this so many times before I implemented it, I should have been doing it in my sleep. But that’s exactly the point, it’s easy to say, but not as easy as it is to get a bit trigger happy with your visa card, come payday. One quick look around the shops and oops, I guess I’ll start saving from next month.  To actually get this underway requires real discipline and organisation! Which leads me on nicely to my next point…

3.    Spreadsheets = Life

Oh how I love a good spreadsheet. Get it on paper, then get it done. Formulating a spreadsheet with a breakdown of everything I need to pay when I get paid each month was the best thing I ever did. Include your specified amount to save in this, so it’s no longer an afterthought, but a part of your fixed monthly costs.  They say you should save 10% of your earnings, so that’s a great target. But let’s not fall into the trap of thinking it’s not worth starting until you can save exactly that. Tweak that percentage as needed, to find a figure you can put away every month! Whether that be 5, 4 or even 3% - something is better than nothing! Just have a word with yourself and make sure you’re being honest about how much you can put away. 

4.    Make Your Money Work For You 

 Money can either come in and go back out on our expenses – or it can be used to multiply itself. Start getting conscious on your spending habits; which are dead end costs, and which are a form of reinvestment? Whether you are investing in online marketing and ads or in a CPD course, mentor or coach, try to dedicate a percentage of each month’s income to your availability to make more. 

Need help making your money work for you & your business? Check out the ‘dream = reality’ programme here.

3 PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS FOR FREELANCERS TO BOOST YOUR WORKFLOW

Type A gals, where you at? This one’s for you…

If you love list making, if colour coding makes you heart race faster & if marie kondo is your girl crush… you are a loser. JK! if the above is true for you, you are most likely my soul sister.

But productivity isn’t just for the borderline OCD types & #humblebrags on Instagram *ahem…guilty*. Boosting your productivity can actually be the, somewhat unsexy, yet totally underestimated hero, that moves you towards your goals. 

“Boosting your productivity can actually be the, somewhat unsexy, yet totally underestimated hero, that moves you towards your goals. ”

If you can get more done faster, well, not only are you going to hit your goals sooner, but you’re also going to free up the mental space to cultivate more weird & wonderful ideas that will drive your business forward. 

So how you can give your productivity flow a kick up the backside? Try introducing these time saving apps into your life..

1.    Wunderlist

Wunderlist is a game changer, like seriously. Does flipping from notebook to crumpled post-it, to - at your lowest moments, the back of an old receipt from the bin, searching for that precious note you jotted down earlier, sound at all familiar?

As if it’s not overwhelming enough running your own business, without the constant scramble of ideas your trying to hold onto. So, what to do? Take a dump girl … the brain kind I mean of course (lol). Get it down, then get it out of your head. Create the space to think clearly again!

Wunderlist is great because you can segment all of your goals into sub-lists, and set due dates on everything, so the app will automatically compile your ‘must do today’ list every day!  I have an ongoing list for ideas that pop into my head. That way, when inspiration strikes I can safely store that idea away for later and carry on with my workflow uninterrupted. 

2.    DocuSign

It’s 2019, who’s seriously still accepting paper copies? Personally, it took me far too long to digitise this side of my business – but there was no looking back once I did. Forget trying to keep track of endless sheets of paper, let alone a freelancers biggest dilemma; where to find a printer?! Docu sign makes it easy for you to send your contracts over to clients, for signing digitally. It makes it easy for you & easy for the client, plus you’ll always have your copies backed up and saved. Enough said!

3.    Calendly 

If a big part of your service is being a physical provider like me, you may find yourself chained to your phone, scheduling and re-scheduling appointments like you don’t have a business to run or something? It’s the nature of the game when you work with people – plans change and so will your schedule. But the amount of admin that comes with slotting appointments in and out, is not time well spent. This is a low value task that takes you away from working on building or improving your business! Calendly took the pressure off for me. You can plot out your availability for different length appointments in advance. Then whenever someone wants to reschedule, they can plot a new appointment into your calendar without any need to go through you. The only downside with this if that you need to make sure you plot out the slots you want to offer in advance – but in my experience this bit of admin time more than makes up for itself over the course of a week! 

HOW TO OVERCOME A WEIGHT LOSS PLATEAU

Working out regularly, dieting and the weight was just falling off? But then it just stopped, more abrupt and unwelcome than the end of the last season of game of thrones? Nobody likes that feeling.

And what more can do you do? Were you doing as much cardio as you could possibly fit in around your manic schedule, and your diet - well you couldn't cut any more calories out without being rendered in a vaguely comatose state.

“What if you could workout a little less, have a bit more time for yourself, and stop cutting calories any further?”

The answer may actually mean not pushing that strategy any further, but instead trying something altogether different. What if you could workout a little less, have a bit more time for yourself, and stop cutting calories any further? Sounds like the pitch that comes right before I try and sell you a 'magic' protein shake right? But actually, there's no magic tricks - you have to do the hard work. But I sense that motivating yourself isn't the problem here - it's the actual workouts that seem to have stopped working!

What if you substituted some of your cardio sessions for a few days of weight training per week? And what if instead of reducing your calories any more, you just tweaked your macros?

I know what you're thinking; 'I want to lose weight, not gain!'. Weight train means getting bigger right? Nope. This is one of the biggest fitness myths, an assumption fuelled by the imagery associated with weight training revolving around larger than life bodybuilder types.

Weight training is actually exactly what the doctor, I mean trainer, ordered when it comes to obtaining a lean, toned physique, that you can sustain!

So how does it work? Weight training is essential for building lean muscle, and lean muscle is vital for a fast and effective metabolism. In short, the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism - and thus the rate at which your body burns fat! That's why implementing some lifting is key to getting out of the 'cardio only rat race'. No longer will you need to chase losses with longer and longer workouts to burn those calories. Instead, change the rate at which your body burns energy, even at rest.

I know, I know - but the weight section is scary! And how do I venture in there unsupported without impaling myself with a barbell? You got this girl. That free weights area is just like your first blind date, nerve wracking and uncertain beforehand but, (catfishes aside), a fun growth experience by the end.

Thirsty for more tips and guidance? Download my free ‘Shred’ handbook here to start putting these steps into practice!

Still a bit apprehensive? Take a look at joining my ‘TRIM & grow girl’ programme which combines all of these tactics into a supportive & easy to follow coaching programme!