Category: Goal setting

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Goal setting Hypnotherapy Life coaching

The importance of perspective

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Written by Nat Young – Clinical Hypno-Psychotherapist and Yoga/Pilates Teacher

This morning while I was emptying the dishwasher, I wondered where my cats’ second bowl was. Both bowls normally get washed at the end of the day. I’d taken one bowl out but couldn’t, for the life of me, find the other one. I wondered if perhaps I’d forgotten to put it into the dishwasher last night, which led to me looking around the house for it. No luck. Thinking the bowl would turn up at some point, I walked back to the dishwasher to continue emptying it and looked into the dishwasher from the other side. There was the bowl – lying sideways and in a position that was hiding it from the other side of the dishwasher where I had originally been emptying it. 

So what’s the point of this post? Perspective! 

Perspective is so important. Sometimes things may be hiding well enough that you can’t see them from where you are standing. Stand somewhere else, or have someone else look at the situation differently with you, and you may just have a lightbulb moment 💡 

Would you like to explore a new perspective on an issue? Perhaps: 

  • You’re at a crossroads and wanting to explore different options to find direction in your life or career. 
  • You’d like to boost your self-confidence generally, or in specific situations; for example, driving or giving presentations.
  • You’d like to manage stress and anxiety, and discover coping mechanisms that work for you.
  • You’d like to manage your weight; understand your eating habits and ways to practice eating more mindfully.

Or something else…? 

Online coaching and online hypnotherapy can help. Whether it’s through coaching or hypnotherapy, we can help you understand yourself better, set manageable goals, and keep you accountable to yourself. Get in touch to see how online coaching or online hypnotherapy could help you.

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Goal setting Personal Training Sports Performance Hypnotherapy Yoga

The Strength of the Human Spirit

Written by Nick Young – Personal Trainer.

What a weekend for sport! We had the cricket world cup where England won by the slimmest of margins. We had Wimbledon, where Djokovic won the men’s singles in a thrilling finale, again by very slim margins. And we had a Lewis Hamilton victory at Silverstone, where victory was decided by the timing of a safety car.

On a personal level I was delighted to help out Natalie this weekend at base camp for @racetothestones – a 100km trail run  along the Ridgeway, the oldest path in  the UK – where she was providing a much needed and welcome yoga based stretching programme for the entrants at the end of day one. And what an experience that was!

One thing jumped out at me in this very difficult event where I meandered and talked to some of the participants. There were young and old, male and female, supremely fit athletes looking for a personal best and relative beginners doing it for a good cause alike taking part, but with a shared sense of destiny and achievement. I was in awe of these competitors, and their ability and determinedness to work through their pain and tiredness to achieve the goal they had set out.

Self-Belief

What do all these winning people have in common? Well I think there’s a couple of things. The first thing is belief. As humans, we are all capable of way more than we think we are, we just have to believe in ourselves. Whether you’re a sportsperson taking part in your first or 100th event, or even in the business world or any other part of your life, with the right mental attitude and preparation you will be better at it.

That’s one of the things that elevate Lewis Hamilton or Novak Djokovic above the rest. As a personal trainer I of course know the science behind improving your performance or physical wellbeing. But a much harder nut to crack is the self-belief that you can do it.

Supporting roles

The second thing is the support they have built around themselves. Take a look at any top sporting star and it’s clear they haven’t achieved their goals alone. They have family, coaches, physios, nutritionists and many more among their entourage. These supporting individuals have a hugely important part to play in the success of these top stars.

That’s where I come in as a supporting player in your success. We may not all be sporting superstars, but we are all amazing in our own way. Using various tools such as coaching, goal setting and targeted sports performance hypnotherapy with Natalie, it is my privilege to work with you to bring out the best in you, to help you gain that self-belief and physical fitness that will elevate you beyond what you thought possible.

Any personal trainer (including me!) can come along and give you lots of exercises to do which will make you tired, and may make you stronger and fitter, at least in the short term. But as you can see, the fitness aspect is only one part of achieving your goals. Let’s work on those goals together.

For more information on personal training or personal coaching, click here or contact us for an informal chat.

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Goal setting Men’s Health Mental Health and Wellbeing

Men’s Health Week

Men’s Health

Written by Nick Young – Personal Trainer.

Since I became a personal trainer, lots of people have asked me why I chose to do so. As someone working in the IT industry what were my motivations towards personal training? Well, this week is men’s health week and the answer to this is about to become clear. The folks over at men’s health forum have come up with an interesting set of statistics about us blokes.

First, there’s the physical side of things to consider:

  • 37 – a waist size of 37 inches or above puts you at increased of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Learn more.
  • 150 – men should aim for 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week. Learn more.
  • 5 – we should aim to eat 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. Learn more.
  • 14 – maximum 14 units of alcohol a week. Learn more.
  • 10 – cigarette smokers die 10 years younger on average than non-smokers. Learn more.
  • 120/80 – normal blood pressure. Learn more.

There are some other scary statistics in there too. One in five men will not reach retirement age. Two in five will not reach the age of 75.  So the benefits of living a healthier lifestyle are obvious to see. The simple fact is that having a healthy and active retirement is too often dependent on the choices we make throughout our lives. Even so, it’s never too late to improve your health and fitness.

Simple and small changes can have a big impact on your life. For me, once I faced the realities of my own health and fitness situation, I found that the change wasn’t as scary as I had thought. My subsequent motivation to become a personal trainer was (and still is) to help others through that journey of improving their life chances the same way I have done so for my own.

There’s also the mental health aspects to consider, where 3 out of 4 suicides are by men.

  • 75 – 75% of suicides (3 out of 4) are by men. Learn more.

Men are often programmed from an early age to not talk about we feel. We go through life with the expectation that we need to be “strong” and support our families. Ladies, you have a vital role to play here too. All too often men do not consider it “manly” to talk about their feelings. Please encourage the men in your lives to talk about their feelings, and ask them “How are you?” Make sure you talk to them about your own feelings as well.

As with physical fitness, it’s never too late to improve your mental wellbeing. If you are feeling down, or depressed or need help with dealing with issues such as stress, talk to someone about it. Exercise can also help with improving your mood and stress levels, and mindfulness, meditation and yoga can help with both your physical and mental wellbeing. These are all services we offer so if you’re ever in need of a helping hand, do reach out.

I’ll finish off by setting a challenge for all the men reading this, as well as the ladies in your lives. Look at the figures above and examine your lifestyle. If you’ve read this and would like to make changes – such as stopping smoking, losing weight, getting fitter, or even if you just want some advice on improving your diet but don’t know where to start, we can help you. Contact us for a consultation – we’ll discuss your goals and come up with a plan of action for you from our varied toolbox of mental and physical wellbeing services. And the best thing is if you subsequently use our services, the consultation will be free*

A final word, if you feel you are in crisis and need expert mental health advice, there are many organisations that you can talk to, such as The Samaritans, Rethink and Mind, with experts trained in such situations. They are there to help. My plea though is please don’t leave it until it becomes a crisis before dealing with your worries.

*Terms and conditions apply, contact us for more information.

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Goal setting Life coaching Personal Training

Hypnotherapy for goals: Dream big, step small!

hypnotherapy for goals swindon

There’s a fantastic video to watch below showing the process of making small changes to reach a fitness goal.

Note: This process can be applied to other goals too!

Here’s the process:

  • First identify where you are (and accept it). This is your benchmark.
  • Think about what you like/dislike about being where you are and why you want to change it. This is very important!
  • Decide where you want to be. This is your ultimate fitness goal. Make it realistic and achievable.
  • Think about what small steps you can take to start moving yourself towards that fitness goal. These are ‘mini goals’.
  • As hard as it may be, start telling yourself “I can”.
  • Start taking small steps towards your goal – you’re now making changes!
  • Accept that there will be setbacks and persevere. Change takes time.
  • Take the time to look back on the progress you’ve made regularly. You’ll soon see how far you’ve come!

Why not try adopting this mindset before your next fitness session?

Just watch this amazing lady conquer box jumps in the gym using this process:

Need help with your goal?

If you would like an extra helping hand, we provide hypnotherapy and life coaching to help you reach goals. The goal could be personal or professional.

Contact us to see how we can help.

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Goal setting Self esteem Sports Performance Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy for confidence and self-esteem

Hypnotherapy for confidence
Increase confidence

Acceptance of where you are at a moment in time is important for mind fitness. However, you also need to challenge yourself for change to happen. Many people benchmark themselves against other people rather than looking inwards to identify what needs to change to be more successful. This mindset can be troublesome as we then become reliant on other people to validate our self-worth. This can leads to issues with confidence and self-esteem.

Why comparing yourself with others can be counterproductive

There’s certainly nothing wrong with looking to other people to inspire you. If you’re a competitive athlete or working towards a particularly challenging goal, having a role model to look at is often useful. However, solely focusing on being better than someone else isn’t always helpful to your self-esteem. Perhaps you’ve begun to think you’re falling short? Instead, let’s reframe the situation – why not focus on you?

Set a ‘stretch’ goal

Here’s a fitness-related example of how you could focus on yourself rather than comparing yourself to others.

Set small, achievable goals focusing on what you want to change. It could be as simple as aiming to run an extra 30 seconds, cycling your usual route a minute faster, or maybe swimming an extra length. Secondly, when taking part in an activity you want to improve, practice positive ‘self-talk’. For example, you could say “C’mon, you can do it!” The more this is practiced, the easier it becomes. Your brain is like a muscle and it needs to practice a different way of thinking to get better at it. Your changes might not be achieved overnight but sometimes the smallest changes in your thought patterns can yield the biggest results. Especially when you look back and see where you’ve come from!

Challenging yourself to be better than you rather than other people puts the control of your destiny back into your own hands. The problem with always comparing yourself to others is that you can start to believe you are not good enough. You are good enough. So why not focus on identifying some of your strengths and reframe how you’re going to achieve your goals?

“When taking part in an activity you want to improve, practice positive self-talk”


Need a break?

It’s also helpful to recognise when you’re feeling tired and need to give yourself a break! How you handle setbacks is also important when it comes to improving your self-esteem.

Get in touch

If you would like some help with confidence and self-esteem issues, get in touch.