Author Archives: Dave McGarry

About Dave McGarry

I am a fitness and nutrition coach who has a passion for impacting and transforming lives both physically and mentally! From an early age I loved to work out and push myself to achieve better results physically and mentally. Over the past several decades I have helped hundreds of people get fit and change their lives. Now, I am on a mission to impact and change the lives of 5 million people across the globe. Your health is your wealth and I am here to serve others by sharing my knowledge and passion for health and wellness!

10 great happenings from last year

Posted on by
1

The holidays are just about here and every year around this time I begin to reflect on the year that was. This year is unique because not only do we finish another year, but also wrap up the first decade of the new millennium. I can not believe that another decade of my life is complete. I’ll focus on that later, but today I want to talk about reflecting back on the past year. Last year I was introduced to Darren Hardy’s “How to have your best year ever” ebook and I have to admit I made some better strides in achieving the goals that I had set for myself. Maybe it was his system or maybe after all the years of me reading about people becoming successful I decided it was time for me to actually quit reading and thinking about being successful and actually start doing. Regardless of why I made better strides the real point I am going to make here is that one of the exercises Darren recommends to do is to write down 10 great happenings from last year.

The first time I did this exercise I had a difficult time coming up with 10 great things that had happened. I have to admit it really bothered me that I could not write down 10 great things that had happened throughout the year. However, what I walked away with after this exercise was really insightful. The light bulb finally went off and I realized that like most of us we tend to remember and dwell on the negative things that happen to us instead of the positive things that we experience. Once I had my list complete I realized what an amazing year it really was. Because of this exercise I came to the understanding that when something great happens you need to celebrate and also write it in your journal, so that when you reflect back you can realize that no matter how tough times might be there are plenty of things to be grateful for. So, as we wrap up this year take some time and write down 10 great happenings that you have occurred in your life. Once you have them written down reflect back monthly, quarterly, and at the end of the year to remind yourself of the great things that you have done in the year. Stay tuned for my next posting because I am going to share my 10 great things from this past year.

Coach Dave

I hate to lose…but…

Posted on by
Reply

On Saturday it all came to an end. The Florida Gators lost the SEC Championship game to the Crimson Tide. The Gators 22 consecutive game winning streak, which was the longest in the country, came to an end as well. Now, I am going to be the first to tell you that I hate to lose. I am a very bad loser and typically take it really hard, however, this time was different. I am not sure why, maybe it is my age, maybe it is that after losing a father and brother you realize there is more to life, or maybe it is the fact that at some point you realize everyone is going to lose and losing can provide valuable insight. let me tell you if you are not failing then you are not pushing hard enough. You are probably sitting in a comfort zone. I remember when I  first started my career in the fitness industry and everything came pretty easy. My boss, who owned the gym, handed me clients without me having to drum up my own business. However, it wasn’t until I moved to Dallas and started all over again that I learned about failing. I would meet with new members as part of their incentive to join the club and time an time again all of those new members were thankful for the program I had designed for them, but they wanted to work on their own. I couldn’t close a sale to save my life. I tell you that first summer I spent in Dallas was eye opening and depressing. I was failing and was miserable, but I learned from it. I realized I needed to learn more about sales and business. It was that summer that I started reading and learning about sales, success, and business. Each time I would lose out on a client I would evaluate what I did during my encounter with the prospect. I analyzed what I thought went wrong and made sure not to do it again. You see, losing can bring out the best in you if you are willing to learn from the loss. Take notes and write down in a journal what mistakes you are making and learn from them. The really cool thing about writing it down is years later when you are looking through your journals you see how successful you have become because of the mistakes that you made.

Now, don’t think I am saying to go out and lose because you play to win, but when you lose, and trust me you will lose at some point, learn from the loss. As John Maxwell says, “Fail Forward.” Learn from your loss and move forward. Keep pushing the envelope and make it your goal next year to aim high and guarantee yourself some losing lessons.

Who are you learning from?

Posted on by
Reply

The question I have for you today is who are you learning from? If I was to take a survey probably about 90% of fitness professionals would tell me that they study or learn from the “gurus” in the industry. Now, I will be the first to tell you that you should learn from people in the industry but if you want real growth and real insight you need to study people and businesses in other industries as well. Starbucks, Microsoft, Dell, Mcdonalds have all been in the business of selling their products and services to consumers. These companies have proven strategies and systems that have made them successful. Study them and learn all you can that can apply to the fitness industry. Now, learning and study what a big company has done is only part of the equation that I am talking about today. The second and probably most beneficial way of learning is study people who know how to sell. There are tons of articles and info on sales but I ran across a website that takes the best articles on sales and puts them all on one website.The name of the site is top10salesarticles.com and they find the best articles across the web and post it all on one site to help keep you from having to search for quality articles. What I find unique about this site is the way they come up with their top ten articles for the month. 50% is from the readers voting and 50% from an expert panel. So far I found some really good articles from people in all different industries. Some better than others but overall some good info. Listen my motto is I try to learn something new everyday and learn at least one thing from an article that I can apply to my profession. You may want to set a different goal but start learning from others and apply it to the fitness industry. Now go check out this site www.top10salesarticles.com and learn something from someone else!

We Must Protect This House

Posted on by
3

This past weekend I had the privilege of going to the UF vs. USC game. It was a present from my wife for our nine year wedding anniversary. What a lucky guy I am? Now, most of you know the Gators pulled out another victory and they are three wins away from reaching their goal of repeating as National Champions, but I have a bigger story to tell about the weekend and it centers around Veterans Day.

You see the trip that we took would not have been possible if it wasn’t for our brave men and women who protect this country. Last week was Veterans Day and what I did not know before I got to the game was that we were going to be able to meet the founder of Under Armour, Kevin Plank. Under Armour just happens to be the official sponsor for the South Carolina Gamecocks and for this Veterans Day weekend UA teamed up with the Wounded Warriors Project ( http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/) to raise awareness for these soldiers who have been severely wounded in battle and need additional medical treatment and resources due to the nature of their injuries. It was truely amazing to meet some of these men and women who served out country and even despite their injuries their positive attitudes are to be envious of. It really made me be thankful for the life I have and to be thankful for those that give us that opportunity to go sit and scream at a football game. If for some reason you are feeling sorry for yourself or down about this economy go to the Wounded Warrior website and read some of the stories that these young men and women have endured and their attitudes on their future. Until next time keep looking up because life is short and you need to be thankful for everything you have!

 

Change your Attitude or Else?

Posted on by
Reply

Okay, it happened to me again. I found myself getting sucked into all the doom and gloom talk that is out there. I have carried the label of optimism with me for as long as I can remember but there have been times in my life I have lost my sense of hope and fallen victim to all the naysayers out there. However, I have been able to pull myself out of the dark hole time and time again due to the fact that when I find myself feeling negative I find something positive to read or listen to so that I can break the negative cycle. As Zig Ziglar says, ” Motivation is like taking a bath, you need it daily.” I could not agree more with that quote and I can tell you that when you read or listen to something positive your attitude will change. This is the key point I want to make is that your attitude is everything and if you want your life to be great then you need to start with attitude!

Attitudes of successful people

I. I can attitude

I played sports as a kid and there were numerous times that I would tell my mom that I just can’t do it and almost every time I remember my mom telling me that if I set my mind to it I could accomplish anything. You know of course at the time I was like “right mom, whatever!” However, after reflecting back on the things I have accomplished in my life so far she was absolutely right. Sure I have had failures but when I believed I could do something I went after it and did it. If you have “I Can’t” in your mind and vocabulary you will never reach the potential that you are capable of reaching. 

II. Long term outlook

We are a “I needed it yesterday society.” All too often I hear people say well I tried to do it for a couple of weeks and it did not work out. As the saying goes, “Rome was not built in a day” well neither is long term success. If you were to study people who have had great success you will notice that it did not come over night. It also did not come without setbacks and hard work. So, if you set your attitude to thinking long term you will not be disappointed if it doesn’t happen overnight.

III. Being flexible is key

This is pretty self explanatory. If you are too rigid and not willing to adapt to the situations around then success is going to be hard to come by. When times get tough, and trust me they will, you need to have a positive attitude. Your attitude will be the determining factor in how well you weather the storm.

IV. Turn away from yourself and help others

I have found that one of the most gratifying times in my life is when I have focused on helping others and putting their needs ahead of mine. Numerous times I have had a great sense of satisfaction after seeing one of my clients reach their goals. After seeing success from someone you helped it creates a positive vibe and attitude that allows you continue to help others and make an impact in this world.

So, if you are falling into that trap of negativity then focus on those four strategies above to keep you thinking positive. Let me tell you the longer you stay in that vacuum of negativity and let others influence you with negativity then you will squander opportunities to be successful. Remember you have a choice and I hope you choose to implement these strategies to get you moving in the right direction .