Five Keys to Being Successful at ANYTHING

1. Consistency

The biggest key to success is just being consistent with what you're doing.  Sometimes things won't work out perfectly, sometimes it's hard to squeeze everything in that you need to squeeze in.  But if it's something that's worth doing, it's worth going all in and being consistent.  Making your goal part of your routine and prioritizing exactly what you need to do to accomplish your goal will get you a lot further than constantly starting and stopping.

For me, I find I'm most successful in my own business and health goals when I just DO what needs to be done.  Sometimes that means making little sacrifices, like listening to a podcast during my runs instead of music so I can get in some personal development.  Or getting up earlier to complete a workout because I'm not sure if I'll get it in later in the day.  And it most definitely means getting in my nutrition through eating right and drinking my Shakeology every day.  For me, my health and fitness IS my business, and I find I can inspire more people when I am consistent and showing them that if I can make it happen, they can too!

2. Support

It's really hard to accomplish something independently.  Like, almost impossible.  You have to have some kind of support.  It could come in the form of family members who help you make time by taking care of your kids, a friend who encourages you and checks in on your progress, a co-worker who works along with you, a team that helps keep you set realistic goals and pushes you to strive for more, a podcast or book that teaches you what you need to know to continue to better yourself, or a spouse who stays up late with you to help you see the ultimate achievement.  Or a combination of all of those things.  We all need someone to bounce ideas off of, vent to, celebrate milestones, pick us up when we fall, and make sure that we are equipped for success.

I have all of that.  I have an amazing team, more resources that I can shake a stick at, a family and community that loves on me, people in my life who want to work out with me and work a business with me, a husband who picks up my slack in other areas when I need more time to myself to work on business, a sweet little girl who wants to do whatever I do, and friends who have joined me in my quest to better myself.  I can't put a value on the kind of support my Beachbody team, friends, and family have bestowed upon me, and my support system just keeps getting bigger!

3. Maintainability

You have to have a goal. I probably should have included that as one of the keys to success, but I feel like it's a little obvious.  So not only do you need a goal to work for, you need to be able to continue to grow after you meet your goal.  Most people set smaller goals to work toward a larger goal, but you have to be able to maintain your success after you reach your original goal.  You need maintainability.  A lot of people set financial goals, educational goals, or weight loss goals.  Those are great goals to have, but your success is pointless if you can't maintain what you worked for.  Financially, you may set a goal to save a certain amount, but then you can't turn around and blow all your money, you have to continue to invest appropriately and save for the future.  In the case of education, you may set a goal to earn a certain degree, but we all know that the times are changing, and pretty much any degree you earn will need updating and continued training and learning in order to continue being successful.  As far as weight loss goes, you may want to lose a certain amount to be at a healthy weight, but you can't go back to old habits immediately after meeting your goal, or you'll just fall back into your old situation.

Beachbody On Demand and Shakeology have presented me with the best option for maintaining my health goals.  Shakeology helped me lose weight more effectively during my initial milestone goal of losing about 20 pounds, but it has helped me maintain gut health (think: less bloat, more regular solid waste), more energy, muscle mass, and immunity to sicknesses to keep me going strong the next day after a serious workout, and better overall vitality to just keep my mood boosted.  But... All Access Beachbody On Demand? Even better chance to keep growing in my health goals.  I have access to every single Beachbody program.  All of them.  In addition to the nutrition plans that go along with them.  So, let's say I hate working out and need to just get moving? I can do Country Heat and just enjoy getting in movement while doing some SERIOUS caloric burn.  Then, when I'm feeling stronger, I can move on to something a little more intense.  Or, if I want to build muscle, Hammer and Chisel or Body Beast are great options for more advanced workouts.  Or maybe I'm marathon training (because that totally happened)... I can do something to improve flexibility and stamina with the Yoga Suite or 3 Week Yoga Retreat.  No matter what my goal, I can move through different programs and never have to pay another fee.

4. Success

You have to find your successes.  While you are working, sometimes it can feel daunting, or like you'll never reach your major goal.  You have to be able to celebrate the little successes along the way.  I mentioned having milestone goals before, and that's really important to getting to a bigger goal.  Just knowing that it's a process and enjoying the journey is really important.  If you can't find the little things to celebrate, it can feel very depressing.  

A big way to measure success for me with my healthy lifestyle journey was by observing and celebrating NSV's or Non Scale Victories.  Being healthy is WAY more important than a number on the scale.  In fact, sometimes the scale showed a larger number, even though I knew that I had been doing really well with eating right and exercising, and my pants were fitting more loosely.  Great NSV's include things like running a faster mile, lifting heavier weights, modifying a workout less, having the confidence to rock some shorts that you never would have worn before, taking the stairs when the elevator was still working, saving money over the course of a month because you chose to buy healthy ingredients over multiple fast food trips (seriously... it works)... You have to identify your little victories, minor successes, and celebrate them!  You have to know that you're being successful to want to keep going.

5. Failure

Well this seems counter-intuitive, right? You need success AND failure? Yep.  One way to look at it is failing forward.  Goals were made to be failed.  One of my first BIG running goals was to run a 5k in less than 30 minutes.  After setting that goal, I failed.  I think my time was only 12 seconds off (30:12) but I did not hit that goal.  So I decided to actually do some training.  It made me more serious, gave me direction.  It was important for me to understand that I needed to tweak my method.  Following that, I made a goal to run a half marathon in under two hours.  I haven't met that goal yet, my first one was 12 minutes too long.  So I decided to get more serious.  I haven't met that goal yet, but next time I have a half, you can BET I'll be training harder and setting my sights on pushing harder and going a little further.  The important thing is understanding that failing is part of the process.  Sometimes I lift a little heavier, but can't do as many reps.  That's failing forward. Sometimes I run at a quicker pace, but can't run as far.  That's failing forward. 

I know that sometimes failure can hurt.  Sometimes you want something so bad you can taste it, and you do everything by the book, and still fail.  The important thing is, as cheesy as it sounds, getting up ONE more time than you fall.  It doesn't matter how many times you fall, as long as you get up and you try again.  You have to strike out before you can hit a home run.  You have to throw more darts to hit the bulls eye.  You will fail.  It's okay.