The business owner mindset
You can be well educated and highly informed but if you don’t have the right growth mindset you’ll never get far as a personal trainer. Find out how to switch yours.
The number one factor between being smart but floundering and a smart personal trainer who gets what they want is mindset.
You can read all the books, do all the courses and be the most technically proficient at what you do, as a personal trainer or PT business owner, but without the right growth mindset, the results won’t come. Too often, people declare things to be “too hard” and direct blame at people and even things. The reality is that a different attitude and mindset would have made things very different.
Two major mindsets
Which description matches your approach to life?
The Fixed Mindset: These people see their qualities as fixed traits that cannot be changed. Those who hold a fixed mindset believe that they are either good or bad at something, they avoid challenges due to fear of failure or difficulty, give up easily and ignore useful negative feedback.
The Ownership Mindset: When you have an ownership mindset, you make yourself accountable for what happens. You take responsibility and ask how you can improve things rather than shifting blame when things don’t go your way.
A word of warning: it’s not that easy living life through the lens of an ownership mindset. You will be challenged continuously. There will be situations where you want to fall back into a fixed mindset of thinking, as generally this serves you better or makes things easier in the short term.
Why do we get stuck in a fixed mindset?
Having a fixed mindset relates to your ego. Ego is described as the voice in your head… the one who puts doubts, fears and worries into your conscious mind.
Some thoughts that our ego tells us are: “Don’t do that, it’s scary and you might get publicly embarrassed” or “If you try that and fail you’ll look stupid to others.”
We all have this inner voice! But some of us have worked out how to ignore it.
Here are a few fixed mindset patterns that might be familiar to you:
This isn’t applicable to me
Oh, I already know this
My PT clients won’t use this
You guys are successful, you wouldn’t understand where I'm at
Personal growth mindset alternatives:
How do I apply this to myself?
I’ve never actually applied this before, I need a refresher
Parts of this might be helpful to my PT clients
You started in the same spot, how did you get past it in your personal training?
How to move past a fixed mindset
The first step here is awareness; knowing when to pull yourself up when you fall into a fixed mindset.
Unfortunately, awareness isn’t enough in most situations. You’re going to need to unpack why you’re so stuck in a fixed mindset. For this we use the Fixed, Ask, Answer, Grow Method.
FIXED: Identify the fixed language you’re using.
ASK: What am I making this mean… often we attach a meaning that stops us from employing a growth situation, typically this will be connected to a fear or insecurity.
ANSWER: Find the story you’re telling yourself that’s keeping you fixed
GROW: Consciously choose to change to a growth mindset and identify what that looks like.
Here’s a walk-through:
FIXED: “I don’t promote my PT services online because I am worried I will stuff up”
ASK: “What am I making this mean?”
ANSWER: “If I make a change I have to leave my comfort zone.”
GROW: “My PT skill set is sufficient to get me over the first hurdle. It’s ok that it won’t be perfect straight away, I’ll still be learning as I go.”
Ownership mindset
Successful people tend to have an ownership mindset.
You can pick this up through people’s words and attitude.
Examples of this are: “I’m not getting enough clients but everyone else is because promoting themselves just comes naturally to them.”
Someone possessing this mindset will rarely achieve their goals because they are focusing on other people.
The ownership mindset means taking responsibility for everything in your life.
“Whether it’s your fault or not, it’s still your responsibility.”
Someone with an ownership mindset believes, regardless of how a situation came to be, that it is their responsibility. Alternatively, someone with a deflective mindset will look for something external to blame.
Just like the growth mindset, mastering the ownership mindset will positively impact what you achieve in life, in personal training and outside of coaching.
Why do we avoid the ownership mindset?
To best learn how to embrace ownership, we need to be honest with why we don't in the first place.
EGO: Our ego is the voice we have a dialogue with in our heads. Its main role is to prevent us from getting hurt.
When you don’t get what you want, it’s easy to blame your competition, your kids, the weather or even the fact that you didn’t have a coffee that morning. We pass away ownership so we don’t have to experience the pain of blaming ourselves.
It is easier to pass on blame than to sit with “I could have tried harder.”
Using the ownership mindset will deliver you better outcomes 100% of the time.
When you take responsibility for everything, understand you can always improve and that failure is a chance to learn, you become unstoppable regardless of your environment or level of talent.
How to foster an ownership mindset
It’s unlikely you’ll be able to lead with an ownership mindset 100% of the time. It’s a constant challenge that requires deliberate thought and action to master.
Any time you find yourself blaming anything or anyone else for your current situation, stop and complete the steps: Deflect, Ask, Answer, Own.
DEFLECT: Identify how you are deflecting ownership
ASK: Why is my ego stepping in right now?
ANSWER: Be honest, what feeling are you trying to avoid by taking responsibility
OWN: Take ownership of the situation
Examples
DEFLECT: "I couldn’t call my PT client today because my phone was out of battery."
ASK: “Why’s my ego stepping in?”
ANSWER: “I don’t actually feel capable.”
OWN: “What alternative could I have come up with that would have helped me get in touch with the PT client? Next time I will just log into my laptop and message them on social media, and I will remember to get a charger to keep in my car.”
Awareness of these mindsets is the first step. Nobody is 100% perfect all the time. Encourage yourself to move past a fixed mindset and into an ownership one and it will gradually become more natural for you.
