The Vehicle That Drives You to the Best Version of Yourself | DFS 338

Music, welcome to Destin for success. I'm your

host, Jennifer Takagi, and today I'm excited to have a new guest

with me, Chad Austin, and his top title for his podcast

interview is the vehicle that drives you to the best version

of yourself. This is so in line with all the success, things

that I talk about, share about and other gurus have shared with

us, Chad, let's just get right to it. Where are you from? What

are you doing, and how did you end up on this path?

Yeah, absolutely. I'm honored to be here. Thanks

for having me on the show. I'm so I'm a personal trainer and a

fitness author. I live in Shawnee, Kansas as just outside

of Kansas City, been here doing this for about 20 years now, it

was actually a career change for me. I was a PE teacher and high

school wrestling coach for three years before I started doing

this, and I honestly thought that personal training was just

going to be a temporary stop for me until I found my next

teaching job, but it just ended up being an even better fit for

me. And I bet I've loved it. I've been doing it ever since.

But yeah, I think just my my own attraction to exercise, I think

I didn't even realize so I was a trainer for several years, but

clearly I was attracted to exercise because it has been my

best medicine just to be the best version of myself. And I

think once you really find something like that out, it

really just feeds the passion you have to kind of share that

with everybody else.

Oh my gosh, I love that. I was just, I'm here

in Spain right now, and I was talking with my girlfriend that

I'm here with, and we were talking about getting into

exercise and like, all or nothing, and I've seen a lot of

my friends and relatives get all hardcore into an exercise

routine, and then, like, they miss one session, and somehow it

just goes away. It's like in podcasting, they call it pod

fade, where you do several episodes and it just kind of

fades away. It's almost like exercise fade. Have you

experienced that with your clients? And how do you overcome

that? It

happens a lot. I feel like we're that is, like

one of the biggest misconceptions in fitness is

that it's gotta be perfect. Everything's gotta be perfect.

We are taught that with new year's resolutions. We're taught

because we all we know stats about New Year's resolutions,

but I bet you can't say any positive stats about New Year's

resolutions. We always know. We always know how people are going

to fail by six weeks into the year, right? 90% of people, or

something like that. But who determines my failure? If I if I

miss one workout, or if I mess up and have to go to the drive

through one time? So I didn't plan ahead. And does that mean

I've done I might as well just wait till and start till over

next year. I mean, that is how we think in fitness, is what you

make a mistake. It's over and and it also the other way we

hear that is with phrases like, it takes 21 days to build a

habit. I'm sorry, but that is a myth. It takes way longer than

21 days to get something to stick in your life. If you think

you're going to do it for 21 days and then go on autopilot.

You're going to fail by day 25 for certain, there's there's no

clear path from your goal to from where you start to your

goal, or to from where you start to the finish line. There's

going to be two steps forward, one step back, all the way

there. There's going to be ups and downs along the road. And so

what I have to help. I help help my clients realize that that

nobody is perfect when it comes to making fitness a part of your

life. No fitness professional or no matter, I don't care what

highlight reel trailer they're sharing on their social media,

they fail from time to time. Everyone does in fitness, just

like anything else. We're all human, and so I mean being

perfect, that's an impossible bar to set for yourself, and so

you have to expect failure. But the good part of that is you

don't have to be perfect, and it's actually the failures, the

days that you mess up, those are the days that set you up for the

most success, because you get to learn from those, and you get to

get back on track. I always feel like those days. I remember what

my dad told me growing up, but is this the best advice? I think

I think I use every day still in fitness, because it fits so

well, but it's like, it's what you do next that counts. It's

like we're we're supposed to make mistakes as part of the

journey. But the stronger, the strongest days are those days

that you've gotten right back on track after you've messed up.

Oh my gosh. I i love that so much. And I did a

talk in January of 2024 and it was probably I was putting the

information together around the 10th or something. And there was

a New York Times study that early in the calendar year that

something like 70 or 80% of people had already given up on

their New Year's resolutions, and it hadn't even been a full

week yet, like, just like, ah, yeah, I'm not going to do that.

So I have a lot of thoughts and feelings around this subject,

just from personal experience, because obviously I'm not a

professional like you, but it seems to me that one of. The

ideas that can create that first obstacle of failure. I'm doing

air quotes for those of you who are listening to the audio, the

failure piece of that is they set two grandiose a goal without

enough incremental wins to keep them motivated. Do you

experience that? Or have you seen that with your clients? I

think there's a lot to that. A lot of times, if you

if you have a big goal and it's a long way to the finish line,

you know we have to have patience as the biggest

challenge when it comes to fitness, especially if we have a

really big goal, and if we just focus on what we haven't done

yet. It can seem like we're never going to get there, and

it's so hard to keep going. And instead, it's so important to

celebrate every win, every win along the way, no matter how

there is no such thing as a small victory, every win,

everything every day. You have to celebrate wins every week.

And so I make sure I do that regularly with my clients. I

think it's, it's very important if you focus on everything that

went well, and don't focus on what you haven't done yet, but

you keep focused on what you did well every win, even if it's,

you know, I messed up yesterday, but I got right back on track

today. That's a win. But you keep stacking all those wins and

celebrating those, you know, eventually it's going to be so

hard to see that the finish line's so far away, because

you're going to be focused on all the things that you've

improved and that you're going to start to love the process of

it more, and that is how you cross the finish line as a whole

different person. Because it really should be when you're it

should be an identity change. It should be you're becoming that

person who has fitness is a priority in their life. You're

becoming that person that works out regularly and improves their

quality of life through fitness. And you do that by kind of

falling in love with the process.

I love that. Years ago, I went to water

aerobics every Tuesday and Thursday night from 615 to

seven, and my father one time said, Well, if we're going to do

that on a Tuesday or Thursday? It has to be at 730 because

Jennifer won't come if it fits before that, because I was so

committed to it, like those are my two days I went, and I was,

like, hardcore into it. Nothing was going to shift that

commitment that I had made to going. But it took a while,

right? Like you, you don't necessarily get in that right

off the bat. So what are some other strategies that you

recommend? And I'm all about celebrating the win. I was on a

special project years ago, and like, I swear, I ran down the

hall every couple days when something went right and was

like, Victory, victory. I declare victory because I had so

few wins. If I didn't celebrate the wins I had, I was not going

to was not going to last emotionally in that setting, one

so important

thing, it's not only important just to celebrate

your wins, but celebrate with people that are going to

celebrate with you. And that's so important. It's especially on

the fitness journey. It's so easy to surround yourself with

the wrong or not so much. Surround yourself with the wrong

people so you don't have to get rid of those people, but make

sure you surround yourself with the people, enough people that

are supportive of what you're doing and on the journey with

you, because you're if you're telling your wins the people who

are just going to dismiss them and pop your balloons all the

time. That's not the same as celebrating your wins. That's

not That's not what celebrating your wins is. So you got to make

sure you are celebrating with the right people who are going

to help build you up and and see the victory for what it is. But

that is, that is, that is an important strategy all by

itself. But I think other ones just so how we get stuck on that

inconsistency roller coaster that we're kind of starting to

talk about, where we kind of fall off track with fitness for

a while is because we're doing something that no longer fits in

our life. And so I think the biggest strategy every new

client that they come to me, the first thing we do is we define

what fitness means to them right now. So I was on a podcast. It

was probably two years ago now, but where I was, I was asked the

question that seems so simple, but it just really stumped me.

And the question was, just, what's your definition? What's

your definition? What's the definition of fitness and and

when I got off the podcast, I asked my wife, what's the

definition of fitness? And she pulled out her phone and said,

Hey, Google, what's the definition of fitness? That

seemed like one of those questions, right? But to me, I

had kind of a different approach, and I actually refused

to answer. I told the the host, I'm like, this is a question I

can only answer for myself, because everyone has their own

answer to this, and I think everyone's answer changes over

time. So like, what is, what is your definition of fitness?

Another way to say it is, what does fitness mean to you right

now? And that as our life change and as fitness fits differently

in our life, our definition of fitness changes too. So I think

it all starts by by saying, What is my current definition of

fitness? How? What do I want to get out of this? Why am I doing

this? What and so that those are important places to start.

I think I hired a personal trainer. We were

together almost two years, and she had a baby. And. And took

off a while, and we never reconnected, not that we're not

gonna, but we haven't yet. But I had gone to an all inclusive

resort, and it was fairly flat. It wasn't like I was walking up

and down hills, and I've had some knee issues, and I've since

had my knee replaced, which was like a perfect game changer.

That was really good solution at that point, finally, but I told

her when we started in January, the next December, 11 months

later, roughly 12 months I was going back to the same resort,

and I said, I want to be able to walk from end to end easily,

with no joint pain without like wanting to sit down and have a

cocktail in between, because it's too far, because it was a

pretty long walk. And so, like, that was my goal, and I went on

the vacation, and the next time we got together was in January,

advantage, because, well, a year ago, you wanted to be able to

walk that whole thing. Could you do it? And I was like, Oh my

gosh, yes. Like I had forgotten my own goal that I had set for

our our journey, and it it made a huge difference, right?

Because I was, we were working towards that thing, but I was

able to do so much more, right? That was just a benefit. In the

end, that's

awesome. I love stories like that. It's so it's

we don't realize at the time how much of a gift that is, because

we're when we have struggle with something, because what we're

given as a fitness Gage, and so that when we come back next time

and we're able to do it, it shows how all the work's paying

off. But my wife has a surgery coming up here in December,

actually. And I'm, we're, we've talked about it so much. I'm so

she's been limited for from stuff, and this, this surgery,

is going to really fix that problem. And so we can already

see in the future, all the the rewards she's going to get from

these things that she couldn't do or struggled to do this year,

that it's going to be, you know, it's going to feel like she's a

whole new person. And so, I mean, but it's, it's so

important when you have those gages, but, but, yeah, your

trainer, they did a good job of bringing that book up, making

sure you saw that. Is it almost, it seems like you were going to

over. You weren't going to notice it.

Yeah, I just kind of Skid right over it. It

was like, wait, what? Oh, yes, I we just had been working

together for so long, and she's actually in England, so we

worked out over zoom and so just, you know, you forget it,

right? You're just like, oh, wait, so what so in your

fitness, do you focus more on like, the physical side of it,

like, like body composition, like lifting weights, cardio,

that kind of thing, or is nutrition an equally important

piece of of your philosophy. Well, both the

diet and exercise, nutrition and exercise, whatever

word you want to use, those are both real important for all my

clients. But I think my strength right now with the fitness

pivot, so I've evolved so much where I just, you know, in 20

years in fitness, I started at a gym, and I realized my first

lesson as a trainer, that, you know, short term results lead

the short term motivation. Because everyone comes fueled to

a personal trainer with short term motivation, right? There's,

there's something coming up they want results for, and that's

what got them to come in the door that they want fast results

for. And so seeing all those people, I helped get those

results, had them just be temporary results. That

definitely changed the way I thought. And that led to a book

series, I have make fitness a priority, where it was, make

fitness a priority one book became three, and that became my

my community is make fitness a priority. And then that was my

name of my first studio, too, is priority fitness. So it's all

going at the the mindset of, how do I help people get long term

success? So I want to make an impact a lot longer than short

term, right? And so we were in businesses, helping people,

because we want to make an impact for a long time. But then

eventually, what led to the fitness pivot was that I was

seeing even my people that were the most dedicated and

passionate about fitness have been with me for a while, even

they fall off track from time to time. And myself, in the 20

years I've been a fitness I have fallen out of out of fitness

several times, and so everyone does, because no one is immune

to life's obstacles. So once I realized that it's life's

unexpected changes that really throw us off track with our

fitness plan, and it doesn't have doesn't matter if it's a

good change or a bad change, you could get married, you get

divorced, promoted, fired, you could start a family, or your

kids could move away. All those things are major changes, and

we're really good at adapting to change. When it comes to our

family, our career, our faith, things like that, with our

health, it always becomes something we're going to get to

later. Like fitness always becomes a thing. Well, we'll

pick that back up later. And meanwhile, you know, fitness,

like I said, and fitness, I believe, is the vehicle that

drives us to be in the best version of ourselves. I There's

so much proof of that to me. I know when I take good care of

myself, I'm exercising regularly, I'm eating healthy,

I'm getting good sleep, staying hydrated, all the stuff I know

that's important. I'm a better husband, I'm a better son, I'm a

better friend, I'm better at my job. I have less i. Anxiety,

have more energy, all those things. I'm the best version of

myself, and it just overflows in all areas of my life. But when

I'm not doing those things, and fitness is not a part of my

life, because I'm waiting for a day where I feel like it will

fit better, I become like the opposite, basically, is true,

like I don't have the energy, I don't handle my stress anxiety

very well. I'm really the worst version of myself, probably, and

it which hurts my relationships and everything too. So fitness I

just is so important to be able to keep and so the reason I can,

I can what changed my business name to the fitness pivot with

the idea is when Plan A no longer fits What's plan B? How

do you pivot to Plan B? And what it's all about is helping people

adapt to life's changes when it comes to fitness. And so if I

can go, if I can help people adapt faster, so they can keep

fitness a priority in their life, then I can make an impact

for a long time. And then, and those clients I've really done

that, those are the ones that are the most rewarding to me.

And they're, they are who I call a fitness fisherman. And so a

fitness fisherman, this is you've you've heard the phrase

before, where, if you give someone a fish, you feed them

for a day. If you teach someone to fish, you feed them for the

rest of your life. So I want to give my clients the tools that

they said they can adapt to life's changes fast, so they can

show up as the best version of themselves, whether things are

going good or bad in their life and and that is what the fitness

pivot is all about.

Oh my gosh. I love that, because life happens.

I you know, when I think back just over the last 20 years of

my life, I've had sick parents, a sick mother in law, and then

my mother in law passed away, then my parents passed away 12

days apart, that was catastrophic. I had job changes

in there, and then I became an entrepreneur in the middle of it

all. And so, you know, with all those changes, it's like, what

are you going to prioritize? So I love that, you know, you gotta

pivot. How are you going to show up and what's going to work for

you? So if we have a listener that has not been making fitness

a priority, what is one thing that they could start doing

today to start adding fitness as a priority into their life?

Yeah, well, sign up for a coaching session with me,

and first of all, and we'll go through this, but what I do with

people is I take them through the cleanse and reset coaching

call so I have a people can sign up just to get to know you. Call

doesn't cost anything for us to speak like an icebreaker

strategy session that is always important to have. But the first

thing I normally recommend to people is to do a cleanse and

reset coaching call. It's 230 minute coaching sessions with

me, and we go through the two most important parts. I feel

like I was starting a fitness journey, but it's the cleanse.

It's the doorman cleanse. It's called, is named after a client

of mine that I had for years that is basically helping you

redefine what fitness means to you right now is like we talked

about earlier, what's your definition of fitness and why?

What will you gain? Those kind of important questions to kind

of start from, and then the second coaching call is the

fitness reset. And so it's resetting how fitness fits in

our life. So it's like now that life has changed, our fitness

that we used to do for fitness does not fit in our life

anymore. We could try to force it. That's one of the biggest

lessons you learn in fitness, is that what you do for fitness has

to fit in your life. If it doesn't fit, it won't stay there

very long, and you can force something for a while. But if it

doesn't really fit, it's either it's it's either not going to

get you the results you want, or it's going to hurt the other

priorities in your life, like your family, your career, things

like that. And so what it has to fit. So how does fitness fit

right now, after the life change? And so those are the

kind of things I work through with clients. And it's a

priceless thing. It's a priceless coaching course that

gives you you go you learn how to do it once you know how to do

it for the rest of your life. So anytime a next life change

happens, where it's good or bad. I mean, anyone can look through

through their life. They can count back all the times they

were in great shape, okay? And they can look at all the gaps

they have when they were without fitness for a while. There's

always a life changing go back and point to this thing just

happened in my life, and that's and right after that, fitness

wasn't a part of my life for a while. I can do that as a

fitness professional. I'm like I I started 20 I left 24 hour

fitness. Started my own business. I started my own

studio, and we had independent contractors. I wrote a book, and

I got an I was in a relationship, and then I got

married, and then I bought a house, like every time something

major happened, that's when I fell off track on fitness, and

everyone kind of had that track line. But what if I would have

adapted to fitness faster? What if I would adapted to my life

change faster? I would have kept fitness a priority that whole

time, and it wouldn't have to go through all that that I did, but

that's where people start with me. Sign up for a coaching call,

and we can get you started with the cleanse and reset course,

but you can do that at the fitness pivot com, or there'll

be a link in the show notes for a coaching call too.

Oh my gosh, I love that. And it's, it's.

Important, because we do have all these shifts and changes and

turns in life, and it does impact how we show up and and

what we're able to do, like for fitness, like we might have been

able to do an hour and a half every other day, and now we may

not have quite that timetable, and we need to shift. Ah,

awesome. Excellent conversation. Chad,

yeah, I do have this has been such a such a good

podcast. I knew the destined for success. This has gotten my name

written all over it. I want to talk to this person. I want to

talk to this audience. Make fitness a priority. I mentioned

earlier, everyone, if you're if you're listening to right now,

then that is my gift to you for listening to the whole show, but

there'll be a link in the show notes. You can go get your own

copy of that book.

Oh my gosh, that is so generous. I really

appreciate it. I've written books too, and you know your

heart and souls in there. So thank you for that generous

gift. As we wrap up, do you have any final words for the

audience?

Well, to kind of wrap up what we said earlier, I

think is important, just case you didn't hear us the first

time that failure is, you know, part of the journey. Failure

does not define you, and you're going to fail from time to time

and making fitness a priority in your life, just like anything

else, there's no such thing as being perfect at anything, but

there's no such thing as being perfect. When it comes to your

fitness plan, you don't have to be perfect. So it may take you

longer than 21 days to build your habits, but the good news

is you don't have to be perfect. Either you can make mistakes and

you can, you can. You can fall off track from time to time.

What matters is how you respond, how what matters is what you do

next, and so just get back on track and stay with it. Stack

the consecutive days.

Oh my gosh, Thanks, Chad, this has been such

great information. I appreciate your time and all the valuable

information you've shared.

Yeah, absolutely thanks for having me on.

I'm Jennifer Takagi with destin for success,

and I look forward to connecting with you soon. You.