Your mindset can make or break any attempts at accomplishing health related goals. This is why athletic coaches place so much emphasis on mindset fitness training. Most of the players in any given sport are equally talented, and with all things being equal, what separate the high performers are usually their mindsets.

The players that score more, or are better on the offensive side go through mental rituals that condition their brains to believe they can achieve their desired results from each game.

You don’t have to be a professional athlete to benefit from conditioning your mindset to accomplish your fitness goals.

Companies run commercials to program our minds to associate and crave their brands.

Why not consciously and proactively program or condition your own mind in a way that allows you to make better decisions about your health?

If you’re interested in discovering ten simple fitness mindset tips that you can put into play starting today, continue reading.

Let’s do this…

1)) Establish Your “WHYs”

The first step you should take when beginning your journey towards changing your mindset is to determine the reasons for why you must live a fitness lifestyle.

You could think of each reason why as a motivational energy boost that you draw on when inspiration is needed to get you past roadblocks.

Especially during those times when you don’t feel like exercising or maintaining a healthy diet.

Example Why: I will lose weight and get into the best shape of my life because I want to be here for my family, create an awesome career doing something I’m passionate about, because I deserve it.

Create your own list of WHYs that resonates with you, and then read them at least twice per day, once in the morning and right before bedtime.

2)) Set Realistic Goals

One of the biggest reasons people fail to get into shape or maintain it is because they set goals that need more time to be accomplished or are just plain unrealistic.

For example, let’s say you’d like to lose 40 pounds of fat.

Is that goal achievable?

It most certainly is, but not in a 30-day time-frame.

As a general rule of thumb, a person should only lose 1 to 2 pounds of body fat per week in order to avoid losing lean muscle, which is responsible for burning calories.

If you attempt to drop weight too fast, a large percentage of it will be your lean muscle tissue, which will work against your objective of burning off fat.

The less lean muscle tissue you have, the slower your metabolism will be.

This is one of the main reasons why you hear people complain about not being able to get rid of those last 5 to 20 pounds after they’ve quickly lost weight.

So, the key is to set realistic goals based upon the time frame that is needed to accomplish them.

Taking this commonsense approach will reduce your chances of setting yourself up for failure after failure.

3)) Seek Exercises You Enjoy

There is no one exercise type that fits all, which is fortunate for you, which means you’re not restricted in options.

When the word “exercise” is mentioned, the images of lifting barbells and dumbbells or walking on a treadmill come to mind for the mass majority.

When it comes to working out, there’s an almost infinite number of ways to exercise and variations on top of variations for each of those.

Here’s a partial list of the different exercise types…

I haven’t even scratched the surface of all the other types of exercises you could try out to see if you enjoy them enough to incorporate into your weekly workout regimen.

Going forward, you now know that you never have to limit yourself to the classic dumbbell and barbell workouts again.

I recommend testing each exercise type for at least 2 weeks to see whether you enjoy it and to measure any progress or lack thereof as a result of implementation.

Remember to be realistic in your expectations.

4)) Get a Workout Buddy

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to get at least one workout buddy on your team for accountability and support.

If you pick a compatibility partner, he or she will not let you off the hook by making excuses not to work out or sticking to your diet.

This person will remind you of the reasons WHY you must continue your journey no matter what roadblocks you face.

Just knowing that you have one or more people that will hold you accountable will do wonders for reinforcing your fitness mindset.

Tip: Be certain that you offer support to your workout buddies, because you should always go to mutual relationships to give, otherwise you’ll be seen as a user. Being a good workout buddy is a 2-way street.

5)) Don’t Compare Yourself To Others

One of the worst things you can do is compare yourself to others, because there will always be people that you’re better than in certain aspects and those that are better than you.

That’s why it’s pointless to torture yourself using silly comparisons.

Besides, there are no standards for beauty, because it’s in the eye of the beholder, and we’re all the beholders.

No matter what your body type is, focus on developing it to the fullest potential possible.

Don’t let anyone put you down and force you into any superficial beauty standard mold.

However, there’s a positive way to compare your body type to others using a dream board approach.

This is where you find before and after images of people that have a similar body type as yours, then cut out and paste them on a poster board.

Making this type of comparison can inspire you versus the negative approach of tearing you down the way it’s done using body-shaming.

The big takeaway is to not compare yourself to others using negative approaches.

6)) Add a Variety of Exercise Types

Earlier, I talked about finding exercises you enjoy, which can go a long way towards helping you to remain consistent with your workout routines.

One of the biggest complaints that exercise enthusiasts make about working out is boredom.

There’s no reason to get bored because the type of exercises and variations are infinite.

Sometimes people aren’t aware of all the options available to them.

Once the average person find out about the plethora of exercise types, they become excited and enthusiastic about trying them out.

If you suffer from getting bored easily, simply begin exploring and testing out different types of exercises, and strategically implement the ones you like into your weekly workout routine.

7)) Ditch the No Pain No Gain Attitude

It’s common to hear the phrase “No Pain No Gain” being thrown around in the fitness arena.

This phrase is taken completely out of context, which oftentimes causes more harm than good.

It’s meant to motivate people to push past their comfort zones to make physical improvements.

My advice is to not take this phrase literally, especially if you feel pain from an injury or beginning to develop one while exercising.

The only time you should push through the pain of an injury is under the watchful eye of a physical therapist during a session.

So, if you feel pain from an injury, no matter if its pre-existing or starting to develop, immediately stop the exercise movement and allow that body part to recovery and / or visit your doctor.

There is never a good enough reason you should push through an injury to prove a point or for bragging rights.

I’m pretty sure you transitioned into a fitness lifestyle to build your body, not tear it down by purposely creating injuries.

8)) Implement a Rewards System

What’s the fun in dedicating yourself to a healthy lifestyle if you never treat yourself for hard won milestones?

Working out and sticking to a healthy diet in our overworked microwave society isn’t the easy feat to pull off consistently.

If it was easy, everyone would be walking around with the body of their dreams effortlessly.

Of course that’s not the reality we’re dealing with in today’s society.

We have one life to live, so why not implement a Rewards System to make the exercise journey more enjoyable.

9)) Create Powerful Affirmations

One of the absolutely best ways to boost your mindset is by using Affirmations on a daily basis.

According to Wikipedia, an Affirmation is a declaration that something is true.

This statement can be truthful, meaning that whatever you are declaring can already exist or it can be something that you wish for; For example, like already having lost 15 pounds. Of course you know that you haven’t actually lost those pounds yet, but if you tell yourself that you have over and over using affirmations, you will boost your positive thinking levels, thus creating so much momentum, you will most likely achieve your goals of losing those 15 pounds in even a shorter period of time than you imagined. In my opinion, this is only considered lying to yourself if you don’t actually put in the work needed to lose the weight.

To help develop your fitness mindset, I recommend creating your own list of affirmations.

Here are a few examples to get your mental juices flowing…

Example 1: I’m so proud of myself for losing those 15 pounds in 30 days!

Example 2: I love having all this surplus energy!

Example 3: It feels so good to get compliments from my family and friends!

Example 4: I look great in my outfits!

After you create your list of affirmations, you should read them multiple times per day to reinforce your fitness mindset.

10)) Use Visualization to Attract the Body of Your Dreams

If you’ve never used visualization techniques before, you are missing out on a timeless and proven method for strengthening your mindset.

Visualization is a way to see your future in advance.

I’m not talking about some magical hocus-pocus nonsense.

Whatever you focus on, your mind move towards and allows you to see resources needed to accomplish your goals.

Visualization can make you extremely resourceful, especially in your quest for greater health.

A dream board is the perfect complement to Visualization.

You can stare at the before and after images of the people you put on your dream board, close your eyes and imagine your body looking the same after it’s been transformed through exercise and a healthy diet.

This visual imagery will stimulate your brain and consciously and sub-consciously get you to take the necessary actions needed to develop a healthy mind and body.

Combining visualization with affirmations creates extremely powerful results when implemented consistently.

Before you write visualization off, I highly recommend giving it a try for at least 30 days.

Conclusion

I just handed you the Top Ten Fitness Mindset Tips in which you can begin implementing today.

All creation and change begins in your mind.

The more effort that you put into developing a fitness mindset, the better your physical results will be.

The people that get and stay fit have developed their minds, whether aware or not.

The biggest reason people fail at getting fit or staying in shape is because they haven’t been taught to train their brains.

Once you strengthen that gray matter in your head, you’ll immediately begin noticing positive changes in your body.

You’ll drop those extra pounds and keep them off.

Sticking to a healthier diet will become easier.

Those are just some of the positive results you’ll experience once you start developing a fitness mindset.

Try out these ten tips for at least 30 days and you just might be amazed at the results.

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