As a fitness professional, I see countless people making the same mistakes over and over again. If you are serious about making a permanent physical change, read this article and find out what you can do to make sure you don’t make these common mistakes.

Mistake #1

Not setting specific goals Decide exactly what it is that you want. ‘To be in better shape’ is not exact. What does that even mean? I don’t know. You probably don’t know either.

You must have a meaningful, measurable, and specific goal if you really want to succeed. For example, ‘I want to lose some weight’ is a meaningless goal. On the other hand, a goal like, ‘I will fit into a size X and wear a bikini to the beach by May 30 is specific, measurable, realistic. ‘I want to lose weight’ is none of those things.

Mistake #2

Not having balance in your training program If you head into the gym and do the same exercises every single time, your body will adapt and become more efficient at performing that exercise. In most things efficiency is a good thing.

When you desire fat reduction, muscular and neurological efficiency is an undesirable adaptation to a certain extent. The trick is to perform a set of exercises until your body begins to adapt to the program.

Then shifting gears in the program and moving on to another phase of the adaptation cycle. For example, in my training programs I put people thru stabilization, strength, power, and finally a fat loss phase. And in each of those phases there are micro phases of adaptation.

But that is another story for another time. Just know that you must have constant progress in your training program if you are planning to succeed.

Mistake #3

Trying to do ‘it’ alone Attempting to do anything by your self, without the guidance and assistance of others is pathway to futility.

When your car breaks down do you try and fix it yourself? When you get sick do you go to the medical school library to diagnose yourself?

When you have a weight reduction goal do you try and make it happen on your own or do you go and get advice from people that have the answers - working with trainers, nutritionists, and personal coaches?

Mistake #4

Giving up when results are not immediate Can you stick with something until you complete it or do you quit when you don’t transform overnight?

With body composition change there will be many days, weeks, even months when you feel like you are not making progress. If you stick with a proven plan, however, success is inevitable.

Many ‘health’ companies market their products as being the miracle cure you’ve been looking for.

No work, commitment, or effort required! What the. . . ? When a farmer plants a tomato seed in the ground he knows that it will take time, patience, discipline, focus, and daily work to eventually have good tomatoes.

What if this farmer gets inpatient and decides that he wants his tomatoes NOW – pouring gallons of water on the seed one day, putting a heat lamp over it the next, pulling on the sprouts a few days later, and after three days of seeing no results decides that this farming stuff doesn’t work.

That is ridiculous right? You know that you cannot expect a plant to grow in just a couple of days. Likewise, you cannot plant a fitness seed on Monday and expect to be in shape on Friday. If you plant a fitness seed you have to nurture it everyday with patience, discipline, focus, and care.

Mistake #5

Comparing yourself to others Lets go back to the tomato seed for moment. Imagine for a moment that our tomato seed; we'll call him Terry, can think.

What if we planted that seed next to some fully grown tomatoes that were planted early in the season, are now ripe, and ready for harvest – how will that seed feel?

If Terry is like most people he will feel bad that he is not already ripe and pour ‘miracle grow’ on himself. If he is smart seed, and he is, he will realize that those ripe tomatoes were planted earlier and the season and are not a basis of comparison in the moment but rather an example of the results that he can expect in the future.

Mistake #6

Not holding yourself accountable If you have a workout partner, friend, or group that will hold you accountable to do the things you said you would do you will be much more likely to follow through.

A team is always stronger than an individual. Find someone or a group of people that will challenge you to do what you say you will do.

A little peer pressure is a powerful thing. You know this. Just remember junior high school, or high school. Remember that one time when you all got together and went out and . . . wow! Can’t believe you did that, huh? That is peer pressure. Use it to your benefit now.

Mistake #7

Being negative If you go into ANYTHING with a less than optimistic attitude you will have less than satisfactory performance, most of the time.

If you have already played out the scenario in your mind, countless times, seeing it thru your own eyes, feeling the sensations of success in your body, you know success is assured.

Then you keep moving toward your goal, get more feedback that proves you are moving in the right direction, which gives you more optimism, which gets you closer . . . and the cycle continues.