Even Successful Fitness Pros Are Making It Up as They Go, and That’s Okay

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I heard this advice years ago from small-business guru Michael Gerber, author of the E-Myth books, and it led me to where I am today.

After 30 years as one of the top business coaches in the country, he said he was still making it up as he goes.

Gerber helped me realize that even "experts" don’t always know what to do.

Instead of looking for solutions from others, I started to define the principles I would use to guide my decisions. Those principles would eventually allow me to construct a set of constraints, within which I’m free to innovate.

The process is never-ending, of course. But the more decisions I make, and the more I learn from the results of those decisions, the more I trust my intuition.

It tells me when to push to the outer limits of my constraints, and when to play it down the middle. And sometimes it tells me to redefine the constraints so I can make a bolder move.

Making it up as I go, but doing so within my own framework, based on my own principles, has made me a successful businessman. Success, in turn, has made me confident.

I can’t guarantee it will work for you. But experts can’t guarantee their advice will work any better.

You can either operate within constraints you’ve constructed, or within someone else’s.

It’s your choice. 

Quote of the Day:

“When you can do a common thing in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.” —George Washington Carver

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Jonathan Goodman is the founder of the Personal Trainer Development Center, the largest independent community of fit pros in the world. He’s also the founder of the first-ever certification for online fitness trainers, the Online Trainer Academy. Originally from Toronto, Jon travels the world with his wife and young son in the winters.