I use “Never Quit” or “Never Give Up” A LOT. It’s not just a slogan I like to wear on a t-shirt. I mean it. I believe in it. 100% of the time.

I am a Coach. My brain and my heart are hardwired for helping people. They just are. I can’t help it. I have discovered this truth after years of my own training and personal journey.

This is a fairly tricky thing to balance out for me. I am a professional, I provide training, inspiration, guidance and education simultaneously I must maintain a high level of passion for helping people and so this mixture leads to personal vulnerability. It’s a tightrope that coaches walk each time we take on a new client.

If I coach you, I will give you everything I have to help you reach your goals.

As a client you need to understand that this means i’m giving you a small piece of myself. In order for this to work, you have to reciprocate. At the same time you have to have some internal motivation to get you to where you want to go. I cannot make you do the work. I can lead you, I can inspire you, I can certainly help you in just about any way you may need. But I cannot make you do it.

You have to get up and dig in. You have to persevere through it all.

However through all of this, I am a Coach. When your priorities shift or you change your focus, I can’t help but feel that you are actually giving up on your goals. Maybe you’ve shown me pictures of what you want to look like. Maybe you’ve written down your motivation. We’ve probably talked about defining your “Why”, so you know why you’re doing all this…

Yeah, you’ve worked pretty hard the past couple months. I know that the work has gotten more difficult. I know that you have other things, like your family, career, home, pets, car, hobbies, all the things that pull against your time. We all have that happen to us in life. It’s life, it’s not easy. It happens to me too.

This is why, when things gets difficult. When this happens you have to double down on the work you need to do to achieve your goals.

Here’s the part you’re not going to like hearing: 
I’ve seen you give up when things gets really hard. I’ve seen you stop giving your best effort. I’ve seen you slip and cheat the rules we setup when we first started working together. I’ve read your food journal with good healthy entries and then I’ve seen on Instagram where you’ve actually eaten a whole pizza and then missed 4 days in a row.

I was there when you weren’t there when you were supposed to be there doing the work you’re supposed to be there doing.

This is why i’m here, this is why you hired me.

To call you out on these things.

To redirect you back to the work.

Even when you don’t want to hear it. Even when you don’t want to do it.

You probably think, that in the long run, these are small things… yes they may be. But, I believe 100% that the way we do the small things is the way we do everything.

When we’re dealt a shitty situation, like an injury for example, it’s what we do after it that matters. Do you just accept it and give up on your original vision or goal?

No.

Hell no…

You don’t let anything change your vision or your goal. You adjust things, yes, but you keep getting after it.

If you can’t workout, you fix your nutrition even more.

If you can’t train, you still show up to class and watch and learn things.

You find out what you can do and you go do that.

If you really want to achieve your goals, you’ll do it, you won’t be thinking about quitting, much less talking out loud about it.

You told me once that you don’t ever want me to think that you are a quitter.

I don’t say this to insult you.

I say this because, believe me or not, I respect you. However:

“You ARE quitting. Don’t lie to yourself…”

To accept anything less than what you told me you wanted and to change your trajectory to anything less than that which you set out to achieve is just that…

Quitting… It’s intellectually dishonest to believe otherwise.

I am a Coach. I am a professional. I can handle it if you want to go somewhere else. Or if you outgrow what I can offer. Or if you don’t jive with my style. Or if you’re not getting what you want with me. I can handle that, truly.

You see; I’m left feeling that you are quitting because I challenged you to get to the next level. So i’m left feeling like it’s my fault, like I pushed you away from your goals by expecting too much out of you, maybe expecting something out of you that you didn’t really want in the first place. If your priorities shift and you want something different out of life, that’s cool. I’ve got your back, believe that.

But know that if you really want to grow, you’ve got to acknowledge what the truth is. In order for me to commit to you, I have to give you a little bit of myself. A little bit of my heart and passion. There is only so much that I can spare, so to me it is precious.

In the end though you don’t owe me anything. I understand that. This isn’t a pity party for poor old coach here.

But you do owe it to yourself to think through whatever the truth that you’re hiding from might be…

Don’t leave something undone and have regrets later in life. Especially since maybe it’s just because something became more difficult and you had to work harder at it. You’ll just grow older and always dream about what could have been.

You can get to where you want to be. You just have to really mean it.

I really hate seeing people not get what they want out of life because they can’t stick with the work long enough and can’t fight through the pain long enough to achieve it. Average people do that, they start along a path and then when it gets tough they quit. They walk away.

I believe in you. I do not believe you are average. That’s why I gave you that little bit of what I have.

If you want to get back and work on those goals, I am here. 
If you don’t want to do it with me, I respect that too.

Just please don’t give up on yourself.

Never give up.

Never Quit.