Is it true that if you believe in yourself enough, you can achieve? In some ways it sounds a bit like a trite sound bite doesn’t it. For starters, how do you believe, and also is it really possible for everyone to achieve absolutely everything they want to? I would say that it depends on what you want to achieve, but you’ll certainly have the best possible chance of success by ensuring that your goal is realistic.

For example, if I decide that I want to climb Kilimanjaro then it may or may not be realistic because a lot of factors would be involved, not simply my physical ability to do it. But if I want to improve my half marathon time then it would seem to be very realistic because it’s completely within my control to train at the necessary level to succeed.

Having said that, even with a realistic goal, other factors can affect our ‘Va, Va Voom’. For example, exercising outdoors during the long, cold winter of 2012/13. And, so even when you’ve been able to get yourself out of the house and are doing your best to get on with your training, you just may not be ‘feeling it’. The session then seems so hard and even demoralising to the point where you think that you just can’t do what you’ve set out to do.

Sometimes all it takes is one small ray of hope, and a smidgeon of confidence to jolt you out of a  spiral of self-doubt, and then you will be free to move onwards and upwards towards success. As a Personal Trainer, I will certainly challenge you to succeed in your goals, but I am also one of your biggest supporters and advocates, and I will help you to see what is possible.

Your goal may sometimes seem unattainable, but one thing always holds true, and that is that our bodies are stronger than we think they are. But our minds are equally powerful, and I spoke of our conscious and subconscious mind in my last article Give yourself the power to make changes. So we need to conquer and overcome the limitations placed on us by what our minds believe we can or can’t do, overcome obstacles, believe in our abilities and feel that most wonderfully visceral emotion of achievement.

Perhaps Kilimanjaro is possible after all