Fitness Failure: The Road to Success in Your Journey

If you fail, you’re doomed. Failure is not allowed. You should give 110% every day: for every workout, balance every meal perfectly. However, fitness failure is where your most valuable knowledge comes from.

Learn how failure makes you perform better and achieve your fitness goals.

Failure is an inseparable part of your fitness journey. But it’s also one of the most valuable ones.

Being in perfect shape, motivated to ‘crush that workout’, and making personal records every time is undoable. Even if you try, sooner or later, you’ll burn out.

So let’s skip this part and look for more sustainable ways to keep your fitness journey going, shall we? 

Failure is a part of everything new.

Whenever you’re a beginner or set a new goal, you go through some trial and error.

You have a basic plan in your head about how to build your workout or improve your diet.

Let’s say this plan is not working the way you imagined it will. You failed.

Fitness failure means you know what’s not your thing.

That’s why failure is a valuable part of your journey.

So switch whatever isn’t working. Think whether you should look for expert advice or you prefer to explore more options yourself. But don’t get upset.

Remember: Every body type and person is different. It may take time until you start seeing significant changes.

All you need to do is put in the work, be patient, and results will show up.

Be curious.

Explore the health and wellness world the way you want to.

If you’re willing to try a new workout/ program your favorite fitness influencer posted, go for it. Do you want to change your diet to paleo? Go to make your shopping list.

Try the things that sound good and doable for your everyday life.

Something’s not working? Change it. Fitness failure is an inseparable part of your journey. But it’s also the one through which you’ll succeed.

The only advice I can give you here is: stay away from quick fixes. ‘7-days beach abs’ workout won’t give you the flat tummy you dreamed of. Your body needs time to change.

Choose wisely your way of change, be patient, and enjoy the process.

Remember the big picture.

Your body might not change a lot in a month worth of workouts. Despite you’ve done everything perfectly.

As we already discussed, your body usually needs much more than a month to change.

Your body’s composition is not affected only by your workout routine. So many stuff do matter - your diet, water intake, sleep quality, stress levels, environment, etc.

Keep the big picture in mind.

Try to take notes of all those factors. Focus on what went well for you this week/ month. For example, you crushed your workouts. You added an extra serving of vegetables to your diet.

Give yourself a high five.

Then, write goals for the next month, like getting more sleep. 

Whatever works for you today might not be suitable for you tomorrow.

That’s right. Your body (and you) is constantly changing.

You may have eaten gluten all your life and be perfectly fine with it. But you suddenly find out it makes you bloated now.

That is why it’s a good idea to keep a journal of your habits, changes, eating and workout patterns, etc. It is evidence of you changing your preferences, reactions towards diet types, or workout programs.

Get to know your body and stick to what’s effective and feels good.

The big step is to set a goal and go for it.

Initiating change itself means you’re on the right path. Nobody said that there won’t be some detours on your way. Don’t let the downs make you give up. You have a goal.

The moment you desired and went after it is when you knew you deserved to accomplish it. And you will. Failure will be there, following you inseparably. But it should only motivate you.

Fitness failure is your friendly reminder that you’re evolving.

The habit that will keep you accountable for your progress.

Keep a journal of your journey. You can write down the changes in your diet, workouts, how you feel overall, etc. This way, you will keep track of what’s good for you and what’s not.

Also, take pictures of your body occasionally so you can see the actual change in it. If you want to know the best ways to measure your progress, you can read about it here. 

Reflect on the changes during your journey.

Your failure will tell you what you need to improve, not what you’re doing wrong. It takes time to learn your body, your preferences and build a routine. Let yourself fail, get up, and learn from it.

Why is failure a good friend of yours?

Because it will:

• Gain you more knowledge;

• Motivate you to keep pushing harder;

• Let you learn from your mistakes;

• Be a crucial and one of the most valuable parts of your journey.

Face it, embrace it, and learn from it.

You will fail, even if you have the best plan. You don’t have control over everything. What you can control is how you’ll deal with a situation.

How you’ll feel that you skipped the gym for a week this month. Or how you’ll handle that you couldn’t make your breakfast today and ended up with a muffin from the cafeteria.

Learn from your mistakes, see what you can improve, and what you can stick to consistently. One day of not being perfect is not dooming your whole journey.

• Know that not every workout will be perfect.

• Not all of your meals will be ideally balanced.

• You might get less sleep sometimes.

• You may have this presentation at work that stresses you out.

Those moments of ‘failure’ will only give you feedback. Life happens. And you don’t fail. You keep going.

You learn from your experience and apply it to accomplish your goals. Often those times motivate you and push you towards completing them.

The key is called balance. Find it, and start doing what you’ll be able to do consistently. 

So, let’s summarize it.

• Don’t be afraid to experiment. Try things that sound right to you.

• Remember the big picture. Your health journey has many elements (workouts, diet, stress levels, sleep quality, etc.). So it depends on every one of them.

• Your body is constantly changing. Keep a journal of what’s working for you, and reflect on it.

• Set a goal, go for it, and don’t let any obstacles make you quit.

Don’t forget to celebrate your victories.

You worked hard for it, so you deserve it.

Put in the work, fail as many times as you should, learn from it, keep going, and success will be just around the corner.

Remember that your health journey is a combination of ups and downs. Success and failure always go together. You can’t recognize the one without experiencing the other.

Take everything as feedback, learn from it, improve, and start thriving today.

I hope this article motivated you to keep going on your fitness journey with more confidence.

Also, let me know about your fitness struggles down in the comments or fill out my survey. Once I know what’s bothering you, I will put an end to it.

If you found the article helpful, share it with your friends. Don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter so you can start thriving while smiling today.