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These two Fitmates from Moonee Ponds Boot Camp have a fantastic attitude towards their exercise.

Since joining in early 2011, Jenny and Wayne T have not missed one single session (except when  they went away on holiday).

By way of explanation, they said that while people quite often make excuses about not having the time to exercise, their attitude is more about making time.

Jenny and Wayne T received our award for the highest attendance for 2011, an awesome achievement.

Their attitude towards training focuses more on  the benefits they receive along the way to achieving their ultimate fitness goal. They see reaching their goal as an added bonus to the many benefits they experience attending a regular exercise program. Their greatest impetus is feeling more energized, refreshed and healthier every day.

Jenny and Wayne remind us that while it’s great to have a goal, it’s also important to focus on the journey towards achieving that goal. No matter how focused you are on outcomes, if the journey brings you misery and unhappiness your road to success will be full of huge potholes and detours.

When commencing any regular exercise regime you need to first prepare yourself both physically and mentally. The biggest challenge faced during the initial stages is the shock to your system as your body adapts to a different type of stimulus. It’s during this stage that your focus and commitment may wane.  Your enthusiasm level drops as your desired goal seems like a distant reality.

But there’s a well known saying that holds true here: to climb a mountain you must start by taking small steps.

By having a great mental focus at the beginning, your goal can be broken down into more achievable bite size pieces – and this makes it much easier to succeed. Begin every new endeavour with a solid foundation of mental preparation, commitment and belief that you will ultimately achieve the goal.

Written by Andrew Talati

So if you’re feeling that your excuses are outweighing your commitment, think of Jenny and Wayne T.  They’re just two ordinary people demonstrating how true commitment is a necessary step towards achieving your goals.

Written by Andrew Talati

Cadel Evans Tour de France win was an amazing effort from a truly inspirational person. It’s also a great story that highlights the importance of never losing sight of your goals.

After coming overall second in the 2007 and 2008 Tour de France by tiny margins (23 seconds and 58 seconds respectively), even Cadel admits most people had written him off.

Yet his refusal to give up, no matter how extreme the situation, shows us all that we, too, can be triumphant when we focus on our goals. I like the saying:
perserverance overides resistancee.

It was a do or die moment. Cadel faced a seemingly insurmountable task that could have lost him the race. After three failed attempts at the Tour de France, and with only the narrowest of losing margins, it would have been quite easy to give up.

But this was moment that Cadel’s fighting spirit, self belief and extraordinarily strong-minded determination allowed him to overcome a very desperate situation and excel.

We all have our personal battles, small or large. However, we can climb those personal mountains if we truly believe in our abilities and the possibility of success.

Too often our limiting beliefs stop us from achieving levels of greatness, even if the challenge is as small as making simple changes to our diet to reduce the chances of diabetes or cardio vascular disease.

I really like the idea of using Cadel’s “never give up” philosophy as a tool to believing in ourselves.

Life can be as wonderful and awesome as you make it. Cadel’s win is testimony to the fact that years of heartache, anguish, frustration and anxiety can lead to a wonderful crescendo of happiness and fulfilment.

Written by Andrew Talati

Inspirational people, Paul De Gelder, a Shark attack survivor who has overcome horrific injuries to resume.

After a vicious shark attack in 2009 left Paul requiring Amputation of his right leg and right forearm he has overcome adversity to the triumphant. What is truly amazing is Paul’s belief in himself and mental strength which she attributes to his military training.

After being discharged from the hospital two months after the attack, Paul had to rebuild his life by learning how to walk and reestablish the life he once had. While many people could easily succumb to depression, Paul overcame the initial negative feelings and thoughts of how he could possibly resume his life as it once existed.

The pivotal moment was the realisation that no matter how he felt about the situation, at the end of the day he would still be without limbs. While facing his own mortality and not being held back by the fear of death, it gave him a sense of freedom. This gave him the strength to cease taking the painkilling medication and prepare himself both the mentally and physically, it’s about leaving your comfort zone.

What is truly inspirational is Paul taking control and not dwelling on a medical negative aspects of the situation. Like many people negativity can quickly spiral out of control and fortunately Paul acknowledged the lethalness off negative thinking at an early stage. It was all about not giving up and not seeing failure as an option but rather holding onto his goals and keep trying no matter what. As Paul said it was easy to say but hard to do.

After starting his own rehabilitation with very intense physical training and setting small goals of how far he would walk or how many stairs he would climb. This echoes the best strategy in achieving those big hairy audacious goals, those goals that seem insurmountable at the time that are achievable when broken down into small pieces. As Paul’s goal was to walk eventually, his immediate goal wasn’t to walk but rather a mini goal of moving so far.

We all have these negative little voices saying he can’t perform if it’s too hard, I can’t be bothered Paul had positive thoughts of not giving up and being stronger.

While there are those moments of remorse and questioning that moment with the shark he turns this around just as quickly and looks at the situation more philosophically that there are many other opportunities in his life we made being impaired or killed such as his motor bike riding or being deployed to work in Afghanistan as a clearance diver.

While it may be in the case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time the overall experience made him stronger and to perform at a higher level than he may otherwise have. Paul goes on to say about the mind being like a hammer, that can push a person far beyond what their own expectations are. So rather than focusing on what is happening, it’s more about focusing on the outcome, about having the right attitude to overcome these hurdles placed infront of you.

It’s easy to lose focus and lose direction even for an Olympic athlete.

To fall Olympians and world record holder Geoff Huegill, he had it all at the age of 25.
With Olympic silver and bronze medals, five world championships and eight times world record holder and on top of that five Commonwealth games medals.

However how can such elite athlete spiral out of control to 140 kgs. Well at the tender age of 26 with such her collection of world-class wins spanning his short career, Jeff decided to call he was highly disciplined lose his way so easily, by adopting a lifestyle of poor eating, lots of partying and not much exercise. Ultimately Geoff lost motivation and lost his way.

Well for Jeff it was all about not having any goals, if you don’t have any direction in your life, you don’t have any purpose, and without that purpose there is little motivation to even get out of bed in the morning.

Inspirational person Geoff

Well one of the most amazing comebacks in recent history fills you with inspiration and hope that anything is possible once you establish the direction of where you’re going. At the age of 30 Jeff recommenced training and managed to attain his ideal racing weight to qualify for world class events.
The goal was the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and beyond that the 2012 London Olympics.

You may ask how can and overweight former athlete make such an amazing comeback to win gold in the Men’s 100 m butterfly at the Dehli Commonwealth games?

When setting goals it’s always about having a long-term plan, as Jeff says if you want to climb to the top of Mount Everest it’s all about having steps and the vision over a long period.

An unhealthy lifestyle happens slowly, so equally adopting a healthier lifestyle take time as well, it doesn’t happen overnight.

Don’t miss out on these awesome films about extreme adventures across the globe.

Everyday we are confronted with challenges and obstacles that limit our ability to continue and move forward. We can either give up or all soldier through with the belief that it can be accomplished. We all have our own mini Atlantic crossings that seem impossible but these film demonstrate what can be achieved if your mind is in tune with the end result. These are ordinary people, no different to the Jessica Watson’s or Susan Boyle’s of the world.

Make things happen, anything is possible.