March 15, 2026

So it’s March and the the long winter has taken its toll.

You feel like crap. You’re heavier than you want to be and you feel lethargic.

You know it’s related to your diet and your exercise. Time to consider a gym membership.

You make an appointment at the gym to start working out. We talk with you about your goals and recommend what it will take to meet them.

And so it starts.

And it’s all wrong.

Not really. That’s just for dramatic effect. But it’s definitely not optimum.

I’m reading Atomic Habits by James Clear (All quotes below are from that book) and it’s changing the way I look at self-improvement.

It’s Not Focus on the Goal that Gets the Job Done: It’s Focus on the Systems.

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

“If you you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.”

Nearly everyone wants to be fit and feeling good. We all have similar goals.

But what we don’t have is similar systems – or habits – in place to meet these goals.

Getting fit is like moving a block up hill. Your motivation is pushing you toward your goal and your habits are the grade that you’re pushing against.

The focus shouldn’t be solely on the goal. It should be on building habits that will help us reach our goal.

Habits are Powerful

“Habits are a double edged sword. They can work for you or against you, which is why understanding the details is essential.”

“Good or bad, your habits have put you where you are today. They were established over decades and will pull at you relentlessly to maintain them.”

When you are stressed or busy or tired, your habits will take over. They are your default programming.

You may have a temporary boost of willpower and discipline for a while to overcome habits for a short time, but when that wanes, you will go right back to your old ways.

A Better Way to Change

Once you know the best way to move you toward your goal is to focus on your habits, you can take constructive steps to advance your jouorney.

According to Atomic Habits, there are Four Laws of Habit Change:

1. Make it Obvious: Raise awareness to what needs to change.
2. Make it Attractive – so you want to do it.
3. Make it Easy. Small steps over time is key!
4. Make it Satisfying. Think rewards.

In my opinion, Law #3 is the most impactful. Changes should be small and compounded over time.

Big changes require big willpower and discipline for extended periods of time. Little changes in habits or ‘tweaks’ require much less energy to make and are easier to stick with.

Instead of measuring success against progress to a goal, e.g. weight loss, you measure it by the number of new, good habits you have adopted.

And here’s the GREAT news: success with changing little habits begets more changes. Success builds on success through “habit stacking”.

If you need big changes in your life, it is best to make little changes over a long time vs. big changes over a short time.

Much more likely to stick longterm.

Changing Our Gym Model

We, like most other Personal Trainers in the country, have been conditioned to focus on customer goals.

We encourage customers to state their goals and we tell them what it will take to get them there.

Just like fad diets, this model works some of the time on some of the people, particularly those that have high willpower and discipline and/or low stress.

Even our challenges of the past, like Fat Blast or Stay Off the Scale, focused on making radical changes. I have often thought that if participants could just stick to a couple of the good habits they established during the programs it would be worth it.

Even though these challenges weren’t perfect, they turned out to be beneficial. They actually checked a few boxes with the Laws of Habit Change. They raised awareness, made losing weight a group effort, and offered rewards.

We ran Fat Blast 2 years and it included weigh-ins. Most participants that lost weight in the first program kept it off when we started the program again the following year.

We have actually known about the power of habits in our heart of hearts for a long time. We have told countless people that its important to start slow and that it’s more important to just show up. We even did a Habits Workshop about 15 years ago.

We are going to focus our energy in the future on a habit changing model – one that supports small changes over long periods.

Here’s our plan:

1. Educate on how habits work and how best to make adjustments
2. Establish a baseline of good habits.
3. Help people apply the 4 Laws of Habit Change in their lives.
4. Have challenges to offer group support to members making habit adjustment (Laws 1, 2, and 4).

Healthy Habit Challenges

Healthy Habit Challenges will be a cornerstone of our changing attitude toward Goal Achievement.

There will be a fee for the challenge. Barb and I will be putting a significant amount of time into the projects, but it is also important for participants to pony up for their commitment to make changes. People that have “buy in” to the process are much more likely to follow through to get their money’s worth.

Our first Challenge is in April. We hope you’ll join us.