More often than not, when I meet people who really inspire me through their dedication to their business, health and fitness or family life, I find that they are committed to their own personal development. That is, they are on a continuous path to learning new ways to be a better person by reading books, attending seminars, listening to audio books or having conversations with people who inspire them.
Unfortunately, most people are never exposed to such learnings or are closed to the opportunity to grow personally. Having been involved in the Fitness Industry since 1992, I have witnessed first hand thousands of people either benefit from embracing personal development material or miss the opportunity completely. Personal Training is completely leadership driven. A Personal Trainer needs to be very personally developed as the most important skill they require is the ability to coach someone towards their goals. Similarly for someone to achieve and maintain their goals long-term in any area of their life, they need to take responsibility for their actions.
Whilst I have always been a fairly driven person, I didn’t embrace Personal Developmen t until I was in my late 20’s. I am not proud to admit that I only read my first full book at about the age of 27. During my time at school I managed to scrape my way through exams by reading the summary guides of the books I was supposed to read.
In about 1998, I conquered my first book “The E Myth” by Michael Gerber. It completely changed my life. Since then I have read a countless number of books and now am almost obsessed with continual learning. I believe this has been a major contributor to the success of Vision Personal Training. Upon reflection however, I wished I had have embraced this earlier in my life. Like me in my early 20’s, I unfortunately see so many people closed to the concept of reading personal development books. However, once they get a taste of it, dont look back and their success in life dramatically improves.
My biggest tip for entering the world of self improvement is to find a subject that interests you. If you are interested in golf, read Greg Norman’s book “The way of the shark”. If you are interested in computing, read “The Google Story“. These books will more than likely insoire you to read the next book and you will be on your way.
If you are interested in the books that I recommend to the leaders in the Vision Personal Training network, visit my readings list at LinkedIn.
About Andrew Simmons
Speak Your Mind