“Successful people do whatever it takes to get the job done, whether or not they feel like it.” 
― Jeff Olson

Have you ever created a workout routine plan and then actually did it? And I mean really went for it: did the fitness class 4 days a week, ran a few miles a day, did 100 crunches before bed... What happened? You got in shape, right? You became healthy and fit; the action produced a result. 

So you took the daily action and the results followed, and then what happened? You got busy, you ”developed” that extra five pounds of “frosting” again. What changed? Surely not your diet, right? Oh wait, did you stop going to the gym? Did a 7am snooze button override the sweat session you had planned? Of course it did! You stop going and the results are soon to go away leaving you wondering “what happened?!” and you wait until January 1st to start over. 

This epidemic of a roller coaster ride is woven into the fabric of many parts of our lives. I know it is easy to relate to the gym analogy because that is so familiar this time of year.  But what about your career? In your day to day life, what little actions, routines and things did you put into a plan, start doing, and then stop, leaving yourself wondering, "What happened? Where did my results go?"

In the book The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson, he talks about this epidemic of action and consistency.  He talks about the oscillation between things going well and things not going so well and that ultimately, the big difference is in our daily actions and choices.  Your “big problem” started with one small choice.  Your five new pounds of weight gain did not happen overnight, it started happening the first day you decided to forgo your workout, and the next three, and then the habit became a new habit; not going to the gym.

And some more shocking news: your ship’s not coming—it’s already here. Docked and waiting. You already have the money. You already have the time. You already have the skill, the confidence. You already have everything you need to achieve everything you want.” 
― Jeff Olson

Each one of us possesses the skills to do exactly what it is we have set out to do.  We all have the ability to demonstrate daily habits that add up to completing big goals, so why doesn’t everyone hit their goals and succeed? Jeff explains that it is because we stop doing the small things everyday that took us from failure to good, that we don’t keep reaching success.  Instead, we regress to things not going well again and have to start over.  For me, the focus recently has been on what Jeff talks about, keeping my focus on the small daily actions and less on the outcome.  Know your goals, be clear on where you are going, and then get to work and don’t stop.  It’s when we (I) stop and do not maintain the daily actions that we begin to lose momentum and regress.  

Moral of the story: Do not throw in the towel on small action steps each day: your morning routine, 20 minutes of cardio, 10 pages of a good book. Do not stop. And once you arrive at the goal, still don’t stop; there is no arrival. Instead, create a sustainable routines that can go the distance. This whole deal is a marathon, not a sprint.  

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Lindsey Rainwater is a consultant and coach to the fitness and wellness industry.  She specializes in business development and leadership. Currently she is working with the Fitmarc Team helping Health Club owners all over the south central region of the united states propel their business forward via group exercise solutions.  For more information about Lindsey, follow her @lindseyrainh2o, all content posted at www.lindseyrainh2o.com 

Leadership, a word with a tremendous amount of baggage and sometimes totally misused and labeled without regard for the core meaning of the word. For many years when I was younger I had the word leadership tied up with a position or rank and only to do with work. Today, my definition spans out to reflect years of being in positions of management, but also peer to peer interactions that has molded my definition into what it is today.

I want to suggest that Leadership can be a way of being in the world that can affect every aspect of your life! I have discovered that when I apply the principles of leadership to all areas of my life, the result is one of consistent upward trajectory that feels super delicious!

Here are three of my favorite ways to be a Leader. (And trust me there are many more!)

1. Do the basic little things others are often not willing to do. 
I remember being 18 years old and working at the YMCA and watching my executive director walk the hallways and fitness floor and stopping, at every speck, paper, or gum rapper and picking it up along the way. Often carrying a rag with him to dust off equipment as he walked through the cardio floor. I will never forget that, he role modeled for me the life skill of taking responsibility to caring for anything you see out of place. To this day, I have a habit of picking up bits of paper or trash I see that are out of place. Be a good steward of what you are given.

2. Be more interested in what you can do for someone than what you can do for yourself. I have had countless leaders model this to me and I hang on to it as one of my favorite ways to strive for being in the world. In all of my relationships, striving to help instead of take away leaving each circumstance better than I found it. The most impactful lessons I have learned are when I am engaged in service and helping others.

3. Let life move you, feel your feelings and the impact of life. I realize that I am not in my 50’s, which is the age that I iconicized as knowing “a lot,” however, I have experienced a lot of life and what I appreciate the most about my experiences is that I felt them, moved with them and learned. Being a student of life and never reaching the point of arrival (which there is no arrival, spoiler alert!) has been the most life altering choices I have made. At no point will I be done learning, done shedding tears over sadness felt, butterflies in my tummy before a big talk. My favorite way to be a leader is model full participation in life!

When evaluating what you are planning for 2016 and the goals you have, I urge you to add a layer of Leadership to each goal. By doing so the potential to be impacted and impact others is so rewarding! Remember that Leadership has little to do with the job tittle you have at work and a lot to do with how you make your bed, what you do when you are alone and how you talk to strangers. It is a way of life. 

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Lindsey Rainwater is a consultant and coach to the fitness and wellness industry.  She specializes in business development and leadership. Currently she is working with the Fitmarc Team helping Health Club owners all over the south central region of the united states propel their business forward via group exercise solutions.  For more information about Lindsey, follow her @lindseyrainh2o, all content posted at www.lindseyrainh2o.com 

A little over a year ago I was on a flight returning to Denver, tenaciously typing out a 12 month, bi-weekly content calendar with the intention of posting four times a month in 2015. I remember thoughtfully planning what I wanted to cover, how I wanted the posts to flow and when I wanted to post.  I picked the Hashtag "#TotallyTrendyTuesday" to use as a way of categorizing all of the trends and topics to support leadership in the fitness and wellness space. And I created #WakeUpWednesday to bundle my posts focused on tools for leaders choosing to explore ways to be more emotionally intelligent and AWAKEN their lives.  Today I celebrate that completion. For the past twelve months I have followed that calendar, stayed consistent and published what I said I was going to! I want to thank two people specifically: Bryan O'Rourke for his inspiration for blogging in the first place. In 2011 he taught me to blog and I began writing; without him I never would have done this! And Amy Schmittauer: she helped me envision a content calendar and demonstrated that it is possible to stick to a plan and execute content week after week.  I feel excited about what 2016 has in store and the content I will be creating.  The new calendar is well under way - stay tuned! 

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Lindsey Rainwater is a consultant and coach to the fitness and wellness industry.  She specializes in business development and leadership. Currently she is working with the Fitmarc Team helping Health Club owners all over the south central region of the united states propel their business forward via group exercise solutions.  For more information about Lindsey, follow her @lindseyrainh2o

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving day and we have officially launched into the "holiday season."  Today I can't help but reflect about what that means to me.  Why do I celebrate, what is my reason for the season and more so, why is this a "season?"

A season implies "temporary" or specific times and places we gather "because of" the holidays.  I want to propose the notion that everyday is a holiday! Every single day we are alive is worth noticing and pausing from the hustle and bustle to be with the people we love most, eating what we love most, and treating ourselves to the gifts life has to offer. 

My reason for writing about the topic is to raise awareness for the purpose of our celebrations.  

I love the lyrics to Katy Perry's Holiday song:  

"Every day is a holiday
When you're the reason to celebrate
Every day is a holiday
When you're the reason
Every day is a holiday
When you're the reason to celebrate
Every day is a holiday
When you're the reason, you are the reason" -Katy Perry, song lyrics: Every Day is a Holiday

You are the reason, you are the holiday! How fun would it be to create a world for yourself where you wake up each day and do your favorite things, spend time with your favorite people and treat yourself and others as if it was a holiday?! 

My thoughts for you today are to think about what makes each day special, and focus on what it is that you could do to make each day you are alive a holiday. You are worth it; your life is worth celebrating. 

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Lindsey Rainwater is a consultant and coach to the fitness and wellness industry.  She specializes in business development and leadership. Currently she is working with the Fitmarc Team helping Health Club owners all over the south central region of the united states propel their business forward via group exercise solutions.  For more information about Lindsey, follow her @lindseyrainh2o

November is upon us! A month where the idea of gratitude and thankfulness enters the minds of many. While I love that so many choose to turn their minds towards this each year approaching thanksgiving, I wish that was the case all year long.  A long time ago I was challenged to make a list everyday of ten things I was grateful for in an effort to see what I already had going for me.  Fast forward to today, as a result of that activity I now see the world differently. By focusing on gratitude for a concentrated period of time, it is now part of my psyche to see the world through the lens of gratefulness.  So what does it take to see the world through a appreciative filter? How do you start to see everything you have as enough?  Like putting in your contacts everyday, or putting on your glasses, after time it becomes the way you see the everything. 

 Here are 3 tried and true tips on how to create a new mindset around gratitude.

1. Start by learning and recognizing what gratitude actually is and if a mindset shift is really what you want. 

Gratitude can be commercialized and looked at as a seasonal way of being, but true recognition, thankfulness and gratitude that changes your state of being requests from you an elevated way of being in the world.  One that is free of victimization, and more so one of responsibility and the choice to see circumstances as your ally, good and bad.  Choosing to focus on what is happening, and to see it as a gift and a teacher is a challenging aim, however when adopted, albeit "hard" at times, truly is a remarkable way to  live.  It has been my experience that once you choose to see the world in this way, as your ally and to take responsibility, it is a more fulfilling way to live, but not necessarily "popular." 

If creating a mindset of gratitude is for you then: 

2.  Find one person in your life you can have gratitude conversations with and do it daily. 

Here is the deal; measurable long term change is most effective and fun with another person. Community tends to propel behavioral change.  So find a friend, someone you like, and ask that person to partner with you to focus on what is working vs what’s not working.  You would be shocked if you evaluated the topics of conversation with your friends.  Chances are what you talk about is primarily focused on things other than what you love in your life but rather gossip and what is not working in your life.

Once you find your gratitude pal: 

3. Track it, notice and repeat.

Systems ,systems, systems. If you really want to experience a measurable change, you have to create a system to measure your progress and celebrate re-commitment.  I have gone to a host of workshops and courses and left with a ton of amazing ways that I want to use to shake up my routines and try new self care practices. The reality is that if I do not create a system to remind me to incorporate this new habit, I will forget.  Some ways this has worked for me in that I use my Reminders app on my phone to set a daily note, scheduling myself just like I would a meeting for work. This is also another reason for a friend to join you: they can help with this part. Text each other daily!  And once you have put together a few days in a row of your new habit celebrate that you are doing what you set out to do! And, when you go a few days not doing what you said you were going to do, re- commit! Do not throw the baby away with the bath water and quit, just re-commit and start again.  Changing your mind and behaviors take discipline.  

To develop a Gratitude habit resulting in a new perspective, it takes measurable effort requiring behavioral changes.  It is by no means impossible, but to really enjoy the lasting benefits of gratitude it does take time and effort.  The reason for doing so? A life that includes a genuine appreciation is one that is rich with context and meaning.  To me, it's a catalyst to enjoying your life to it's fullest!

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Lindsey Rainwater is a consultant and coach to the fitness and wellness industry.  She specializes in business development and leadership. Currently she is working with the Fitmarc Team helping Health Club owners all over the south central region of the united states propel their business forward via group exercise solutions.  For more information about Lindsey, follow her @lindseyrainh2o