Most people struggle to overcome feelings of insecurity and imposter syndrome when developing new abilities. 

If you do not have the necessary skill sets, hire someone to teach you. If you lack motivation, create a system of accountability partners to keep you on track. And if you lack structure, create a routine to follow so you can eliminate decision making fatigue.

Unfortunately, a lot of people never put these pieces in place at the beginning of their journey and repeatedly fall into the same trap. 

People love starting health kicks, but they repeatedly go about it in an unsustainable way– they jump from one unhealthy extreme to another, get burnt out, and find themselves back where they started.

The question people really need to answer for themselves before starting a new diet or training regimen, especially early in their health journey, is “is this action sustainable?”

If your diet or training isn’t sustainable, is this really the program you should be following? 

But I didn’t always think of life this. 

When I was in my twenties, I worked hard during the week and partied harder on the weekends. Every Monday, I would make a new commitment to myself that I was going to “be healthy” now. Every Thursday I found myself back in the bars, ordering Tequila shots for everyone and following this up with pizza at 2:00 am.

Now, 15 years later. 

I have become a different person– my life as a hybrid athlete and entrepreneur has forever changed my outlook on skill development. If I look at pictures of myself from my early twenties, I don’t recognize myself. I have learned this it is possible to redesign your life to prioritize health and wellness– but it’s something that you cannot do alone or overnight.

My physique and lifestyle really began to change in 2007. 

I hired a personal trainer named Henry who helped me start on my health and wellness journey. I needed Henry for two reasons: one, I had no idea what I needed to be doing in the gym – my training knowledge consisted of bicep curls and bench press. At that time not only was I deficient with technical understanding, but I also lacked the motivation, and the structure. 

Henry started me with CrossFit style workouts, before CrossFit was really a thing. This was back in 2007 and 2008, and I was doing complex lifts while running, rowing intervals, or biking in between the lifts. Essentially I was lifting weights with my heart rate elevated.

The second reason I needed Henry was because I needed someone to hold me accountable for showing up. Once I booked a session, I wouldn’t miss it because I was paying for it. Finding an accountability partner early in your wellness journey is critical because most people don’t have the will power to stick to a program alone–I didn’t.

In my experience with sport and business, I have always been able improve the fastest by getting around people who are further ahead in the learning process. They have the knowledge you need to be able to excel and the systems and routines in place to get you where you want to go faster.