A guest blog post on, success advice that applies to your fitness quest as well as all areas of your life, from the owner of Australia’s current PT Business of the Year – Scott Williams.

1. Do whatever works, whatever is useful. Formulas and systems are helpful to provide structure and action plans. But if they become sacred cows and are followed even after they stop working, the system inhibits creativity and guarantees mediocrity. Do what works for you. Getting results is more important than blind loyalty to a “system” or “guru.”

2. There’s no failure, only feedback (results). As long as we are taking action in pursuit of our goals, we cannot “fail” – we simply produce results. It is up to us how we interpret those results. “Failure” can be valuable if you reframe it as a great learning experience. The only way you can really “fail” is if you quit. Keep at it, and keep learning.

3. Consistency is king. Even a super strategy will be sabotaged by inconsistency. It’s not what you do once in a while that counts; it’s what you do repeatedly day after day that counts.

4. Keep your plan flexible. The person with the most flexibility is the person with the greatest power. The person who believes there is only one way is the person who is the most limited.

5. Find out what works, and then keep doing that. If what you’re doing is not working – do something else! If what you’re doing is working, don’t second guess yourself – stay your course and do more of whatever is working – regardless of what anyone else tells you.

6. “The opposite of courage is not cowardice, it is conformity.” If you follow the herd, you’re going to have to step through a lot of manure. Have the strength and courage to trust in yourself and follow your own path.

7. Choose your friends wisely. You will become just like the people you spend the most time with. Get out of negative and draining relationships like you’d get out of a burning house. Avoid the “energy vampires.”

8. Be the best YOU that you can be, forget the others. Don’t try to be better than others, be better than you used to be. Success isn’t beating someone else. Success it is the satisfaction that comes from knowing you did the best you could with what you have.

9. Focus on what you want, not what you don’t want. What you think about, talk about and thank about, you bring about. If you focus on what you don’t want, more of what you don’t want will be attracted into your life. As Thomas Troward wrote, “The law of flotation was not discovered by the contemplation of the sinking of things.”

10. To grow, you must step out of your comfort zone. The easiest thing for a human being to do is to stay with the familiar and to pull back into the safety of their circle of comfort. Nothing great was ever achieved by staying inside the comfort zone. All great advancements occur by stepping outside of your comfort zone. You are either moving forward, or you are moving back…

11. Work hard and earn your just rewards. There’s no such thing as something for nothing. There will never be any scientific breakthrough or magic bullet that can replace hard work. Continuously seek more knowledge, increased efficiency and better ways to do things, but avoid the quick fix. You can have anything you want in life… just pay the price and it’s yours.

12. Balance stress & work with recovery. Stress and intense work are not bad things. They are essential for growth and advancement. Non-stop stress however, will ultimately cause a breakdown. Don’t be afraid to push yourself very, very hard, but balance that stress with rest, and recovery.

Scott Williams

Owner, Succeed the current Australian PT Business of the Year