Imagine, Plan and Manifest the Future you Desire
One of the most powerful tools we encourage fitness clients to use is visualization. We activate the power of their imagination and ask them to describe how they want to look and feel in the future. Then we develop a plan to lead them there, mapping out paths through relevant areas of concern: nutrition, cardiac conditioning, strength training, mobility, etc. We examine past obstacles and failures as well as successes and overall mindset, working back from that hopeful destination to a realistic and thorough understanding of the client’s starting point and next steps. Each business has its unique way of delivering a program that leads clients to their desired results, and if you excel at getting your customers to where they want to be, you become unstoppable. The same visualization process we use for a client’s success can and must be used by owners and entrepreneurs in the fitness industry. To reach your business goals, you need a clearly defined destination with measurable milestones along the route.
Set A Destination
Use the tool of a vivid imagination to describe how your company will look and feel at some future point. Envision your successes and be able to distinctly describe each of the parts of your business as you see them in the future, just like personal trainers do with their clients. Be as descriptive as possible, no matter how big and audacious your goal. Not everyone wants their own facility. Not everyone wants to be a social media mogul. While one individual craves intimate one-to-one personal training paradigms, another wants online anywhere freedom. What is your vision of your optimal future?
In 2020, when COVID hit, I needed hope. I sat back for a full day and dreamed big. I cast my imagination out to 2028 when I envisioned a debt-free enterprise generating $1M in profit revenue. Then I set milestones for 5 years out, and 3 years out, and charted the daily activities that could move me through each stage.
Clarify Purpose and Product
The first two questions to trigger your visualized future are: “Who am I?” and, “What is my product?” I, myself, am an owner and operator who wants to grow a multi-location business, achieve a specific level of financial freedom and move away from the day-to-day minutiae of frontline business. I know what my avatar is: I train women, aged 35 to 55 who feel invisible and want their groove back. I know I want to retire in five years. That’s me. Other people want to open a place of their own in five years. Do you have clarity of purpose and product? Can you define what you like to do, and who you want to serve?
Find Mentors
Find mentors, particularly within the fitness industry, and use them to help plan and support your process. You’re not opening a restaurant or selling a widget, you’re selling yourself and your personality and pushing hard to your destination, and those who have walked the path before you can help. Learning from and expanding on their experience, you will be able to break down the steps that must be accomplished monthly, weekly, and daily to hit your target. Collaboration and accountability can inspire you to put your head down and rev your heart up to work like never before.
Manage Your Mindset
There is strong scientific proof that the simple task of writing down your plan sets an energetic process in motion. Your intrinsic motivation awakens, and your mind begins to figure things out and send subtle messages to pull your vision into manifestation. That’s why we “sleep on things.” Our bodies are amazing creatures that contain an innate ability to figure things out when we decide to act on a clear vision. Your subconscious and conscious mind conspire to complete the steps necessary to realize your vision – how to generate the qualified leads you require, the optimal marketing plan and sales funnel, and the useful communication and retention tools that will get you to the future you imagine.
Manifestation requires action. And a resolute mindset is what enables you to act, to put the pedal to the medal to get where you want to be – regardless of setbacks because there are going to be a lot of setbacks. There will be days when you wake up at 4:00 AM and don’t get home until 10 or 11 o’clock at night. There will be days when you will have to put in your own funds to make payroll. Days when the landlord wants $1000 more for parking, when your service delivery systems are completely down, or staff quits… You still must believe in yourself. You still need the intrinsic motivation to overcome the obstacles that the fitness industry inevitably delivers. With clarity of purpose and product, a solid future forecast, mentors, and an abundance mindset, you will succeed!
Curt “C.J.” Chavez is the Creator & Owner of eVOLV Strong Boutique Fitness Clubs, which serve over 25,000 individuals in New Mexico. A graduate of the Harvard School of Business, TEDx Speaker, and OCB Pro, his Rise of the Phoenix is Southwest’s largest Transformational Challenge & International Fitness Show.
