July 2005. As a personal trainer, I meet all kinds of people. Some seem to others to magically transform their bodies after simply retaining my services while others seem to have some sort of physical problem which keeps them from getting the same kind of results. They are the "it won't work for me" people. The ones who seem to try everything and succeed with nothing. What's the difference between these two kinds of clients? Simply put, it is mindset. Success or failure lies within the thoughts of the individual. Putting thought to action is where the secret lies.

Let me illustrate this concept by contrasting two real-life situations...the stories of Trina and Darla. Trina is a full-time partner at her company who is married to a paramedic and has two children below the age of 3 years old. She's a professional wife and mother and life just doesn't get any crazier.

When Trina and I met, she was perhaps thirty pounds overweight -- not too bad, but enough for her to be dis-satisfied, especially with her tiny frame. She's barely 5 feet tall. Upon meeting and setting forth a plan for her, she took it and ran with it, or walked as the case may be, and began eating according to the guidelines she decided would be a good place to start.

As each day passed, she got up with a plan for her exercise -- and even in the face of the demands of her day, made sure she executed her daily plan. She walked or did some sort of intentional exercise at home most every day of the week, often involving her family on walks, and diligently journaled her food.

Even in the face of obstacles she got her work done. This past week with her day care closed for the July 4th holiday, her husband was going to care for the children. However a work situation arose for him and she had to figure out what to do at the last minute. Her usual babysitter was available for a bit of time, and between organizing all of that and leaving and coming back to work, etc, she came home at one point to find everyone asleep and jumped on that moment to get 20 minutes of exercise in.

As a result of her conscious diligence, over the course of just 7 weeks, she has gone down nearly 2 dress sizes and is turning heads wherever she goes. Her friends and family are noticing and asking her what she is doing. Her weight loss is noticeable, and she is very happy.

Trina said to me yesterday, "You know, my husband thinks I may be obsessed with all of this because I wake up in the morning and the first thing I think about is when I will get my walk in. If I've woken up too late, I begin to think about how I might fit it into my lunch hour or after work." My response to her was, "You know exactly what time you have to get up to go to work, don't you? And you know when you have to leave the house to get there on time, and you plan for your lunch hour, and for what happens when you leave work in the evening, and what you'll feed the kids when you get home, and every other detail of your day. Why should you think that planning for exercise is obsessive? It's as natural as planning for every other important aspect of your day." And that is the truth. Every successfully healthy person has a plan for their health and executes it on a daily basis changing gears when necessary and continuing onward at every opportunity.

Then there are people like Darla. Darla is a married 20-something professional female with a bit more flexibility in her career's hours. She has no children, 2 dogs and is married to a pharmacist. She and I have been working together for 6 months and she has, perhaps, lost and regained the same 5-10 pounds over and over in that course of time.

I have frequently been left on her doorstep as she has forgotten or has had an "emergency" arise which takes her away from our sessions, and the plan that we continue to tweak because she consistently tells me how she is losing her motivation, almost never gets worked as we plan it. Between travel, family emergencies and the inability to get out of bed in the morning, her success has been limited and she stays in a very frustrated and unhappy state.

As she sleeps in she figures she'll get her exercise in later. As she travels with friends, she figures she'll work off the alcohol she consumes in excess later. As each emergency occurs in her life, she figures she'll get back on track with eating when everything settles back down. And when she gets on the scale, she enters into a demotivated state of depression because she finds that she is very nearly where she was the same time last week and last month.

It is sad to be sure. Beyond encouraging and tweaking the plan to try and make it new and more exciting each time that she asks, there is little that I can do, however, because in the end it is the client who does the work and makes the decisions, not I. All that I can do is continue to stress the importance of the objective, to try to work with her to discover why her lifestyle and decisions are self-defeating, and continue to believe in her and her ability to get on top of things. Hopefully, that will be enough to help her get to where she can begin to execute her plan consistently. I won't give up on her.

I write you this today to let you know that your success -- in all things, is in your hands. It's not in the hands of your parents or your children or your spouses and partners or your trainer or your doctor or your bosses. It is squarely in your hands. Those of you who realize that take control of your lives and make things happen. Those of you who don't continue to despair because of the things that happen to you which keep you from being successful. But what "happens to you" is not the cause of your failure. It is your own failure to plan and take control of things which prohibits your success.

"But you don't understand, I love to eat." Well, who doesn't?! "But you don't understand, I hate to exercise." Very few love it. "But you don't understand, I have a real medical condition." So do I. Get over it. "But you don't understand, work ran late." You could have gotten up early. "But you don't understand......" Yes, I do. What YOU don't understand is that you are simply making excuses. Instead of finding reasons why you can't be successful, begin finding ways to be successful in spite of it all. Quit making excuses. Simply make your plan, figure out how to follow it, and begin living your dreams today!