Your biggest barrier may even not be lack of money to pay for expert help, gym memberships or getting hold of the right information you need to train effectively.

Your greatest challenge may simply be down to being courageous enough to make the changes to your current life!

Admitting defeat and being brave enough to tell yourself that it is your own mistake that has got you in to the worst body shape of your life!

Being brave enough to make substantial changes to your eating habits, especially around your friends and relatives who expect you to eat the way you always have eaten is hard. The conversations I have with many of my clients about sticking to nutrition plans usually revolve around how they struggle to get through social occasions, family meals or business lunches without having to explain why they will not eat certain things or avoiding alcohol.

You see it takes courage to admit you are following a specific nutrition plan, different to your usual!

Rather than getting support from close friends and family, quite often you get the exact opposite.

Many people fear alienation or ridicule from their social circle when they start a new program. It takes courage to say no to the “few” beers after work. I truly believe this is tougher for guys … “What do you mean you’re not drinking, are you turning in to a light weight!”

Telling your wife/husband/significant other that you are trying a new training regime is difficult for many people. You may be worried they will not give you the support you are looking for, you just ‘know’ they are going to sabotage your efforts!

One particular client insisted that she would not tell her husband about her new training program or the work she was doing with a personal trainer. It was not until she had lost 8kg and dropped 2 dress sizes that her particularly non-attentive husband started to ask questions!

Stepping in to a gym for the first is also very daunting for many people. That first time sat in the changing area, pulling on your trainers, wondering if you are doing the right thing, is damn right scary. It may surprise you to learn the author of this article HAS been there! I am NOT a gym kinda guy and I believe the majority of people in the world are also NOT gym kinda people!

Joining a gym class for the first time is horrific, not knowing any of the moves, worried that you will do something stupid. It is no surprise that many people just don’t turn up to classes they have signed up and paid for! I never underestimate what it is like for our first timers at our group classes in the forest… it’s scary!

So how do you get over these fears?

Many psychologists will tell you, in a bold and commanding way, to “CONFRONT YOUR FEARS HEAD ON”, OK great advice, but that really doesn’t help if you are petrified by the actions you are about to take.

Your way to success and developing courage may be a slightly more softly, softly approach, by simply expanding your comfort zone just a little bit at a time. This doesn’t necessarily mean your results will be slowed, it just means exposing yourself to those situations where you need courage, bit by bit.

If you commit to cutting alcohol for 30 days for example, will mean skipping a few social occasions, and when you do go out, just be smart about how you ‘manage’ the drinks in front of you. Nobody is really watching you to make sure you are “keeping up”.

Telling your husband or wife may be as simple as telling them a little bit about what your are doing each day rather than telling them out right that you are changing your nutrition, social activities, joing a gym and hiring a coach all in one go. Just mention a class that you have started doing to get a little more exercise in your life, adapt your nutritional habits by saying you want to try doing a little more REAL cooking for example.

But at some point you are going to have to tell all, but by them you’ll be so confident of the new you, you will certainly not lack the courage needed.

This is not easy, courage for new fitness goals is massively underestimated and misunderstood by those people that have never had to worry about their body, we are not all ‘natural’ gym goers, exercisers or good with our nutrition.

Be a little bit brave, pushing your comfort zone slightly each day and you’ll find your courage will develop with your confident new body shape and quick weight loss.

Taking the first step is often the hardest which is why Tim Goodwin, fitness professional from luxembourg, provides a simple workbook to set some exciting new goals and a step by step guide to go about achieving them. Download your copy of the Goal Achievement Strategy by entering your name and email address in the boxes below: