No 5 - News You Can Use - June 09

Welcome to our 'new style' newsletter. Following your feedback I have changed the format and thank you to Ab Hamid from Hunter Allen Resourcing for encouraging me to get this done and to Ed from Ofec Consulting for putting it into action. I have recently joined a gym to get stronger and fitter as well as to lose some of the 'winter kilos' I put on over the last few months whilst being in the office working. My choice of fitness solution is a form of Military Fitness provided by someone who has an elite ex-military background, who was trained in the parachute regiment and has been running his fitness club for over 15 years.

This seemed the right choice for me because I need encouragement in this field! Working with my trainer Martin Dilworth from "Get Sweaty" is great fun, as it is working with a professional from that sort of background; someone who has done it himself, knows what exercise (and having to go through the pain of it) is like and someone who 'walks the talk'. This makes him credible and a real leader who earns respect and trust. I compare this to someone who is just up for the money involved in being a personal trainer, has some qualifications as a fitness instructor perhaps but has never really experienced "real" training.
I then looked back to the time when I went to a traditional gym a number of years ago. I paid $10 a month plus a joining fee of $200. The staff then put me through a fitness assessment that lasted about 45 minutes, wrote me a plan and off I went. Only four weeks later, I discovered that on some fitness machines there was a waiting time because during peak time, the work out machines got really busy. Was the gym interested in that? No! Was someone making sure I did the exercise correctly? No! Was someone passionate about supporting my success? No. Were they sincerely interested in me getting fitter? No, not really. Was someone making sure that I paid the monthly fee on time? Yes! Was someone there to send me a reminder when the payment was late? Yes! Was someone there when I brought a friend who was interested in joining? You bet!
I thought I would share this story with you as this is another great example of what is happening in the world. There are still companies out there who are only interested in making the most money they can, disregarding anything else and the outcome others may get from their business ventures. They employ thinking patterns such as my friends at the gym might say, "If it only makes a little difference, so much the better because this person will then stay longer with us and continue to pay us the monthly fees." However, as the world is changing, there are more people now who will see through this. I also bet that a large percentage of so called fitness instructors would not even survive one day doing the kind of workouts and exercises that an ex-para does.
A real leader is someone who knows what it feels like, someone who has experienced it, whatever "it" may be and someone who went through failure, pain and success to get there. In short, a person who walks the talk. Do you walk the talk? 

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See you next time and have a great and successful June.

Peter