It is inevitable, we will all get in a rut. No matter good you are at something or how passionate you are, someday you will find yourself in a hole. A hole that, if not careful, could snowball, and create havoc on your goals, fitness or otherwise. As I discuss in my book 12 Steps to Fitness Freedom you must “ride the waves” in order to be successful in any aspect of life. Challenges will come and how you respond will dictate the end result.

I am reminded of a perfect example for present day, my beloved University of Kentucky Wildcats. Currently we are preparing for the Final Four in Dallas, something that was expected before the season started and anything less would of been considered a failure. However, what happened after the season started and how the regular season ended you would called someone crazy if they thought this would come to fruition.

The Wildcats hit a rut. They were immature, made poor decisions and didn’t play well (that is putting it lightly). They had succumbed to the pressure. Their talent was high but there performance was lackluster. They were in a funk.

After an exhilarating win against LSU, UK dropped their next two games against non-tournament teams including a jaw-dropping loss to SEC bottom feeders South Carolina. To the fans, the season was over. Many gave up on the young Cats. Their on and off funk had taken over their season and it showed.

Miraculously, the team entered SEC tournament play on a mission, prove everyone wrong. After a few “tweaks” the Cats blitzed their first two opponents and nearly knocked off the best team in the country, Florida. A month later and four big time victories later the Wildcats have gone wild and “shot” themselves out of their funk and are two games away from a National Championship, the school’s ninth. How did it happen? How did they get out of their funk?

If you are in a funk, in any part of life here are three steps to “shooting” your way out of it:

1. Simplify don’t complicate

Life is easier when you isolate a situation and simplify it versus throwing your hands up and over complicating it by letting your frustrations impact your decisions. Every situations has it’s own set of legs, do not let one frustration creep into other aspects of your life. Had the Cats let their turnover issues creep into their passing, the season would of been a loss. Thankful, with help, they isolated their problems and improved collectively.

2. Keep going

The old saying goes, “if you are going through hell, keep going” applies here. It is easy to quit, it’s easy to let your funk get the best of you but you must keep going. Miss a day at the gym? Go back tomorrow. Slip up on your nutrition today? Eat better tomorrow. Life not go the way you planned? Keep pushing and never look back.

3. Be consistent

If the shots are not falling, keep shooting until they start dropping. Consistency during a rut is key because your first reaction is to change something and sometimes drastically. Changes maybe necessary but you must evaluate each individually and game plan for what needs to change. UK is who they are, they haven’t changed. They have just changed their perception and the way they approach the game. It has worked.

Nothing is perfect and nothing will go as planned. How we react to failure and frustration dictates our success pattern moving forward. Like the Wildcats have done, shoot your way out of a funk.

My 11 years in the fitness industry has taught me a lot about life. It has taught me what to do and in some cases what not to do. Life often emulates art and I have always thought of personal training as art, it makes sense that I have learned some important life lessons. In no particular order, these are the 5 things I have learned about life from being a personal trainer:

1. Anything can be achieved with passion.

I’m not the best personal trainer and I am far from perfect. I am however passionate, a word that is thrown around in the fitness industry more than anything. My definition is simply one who eats, sleeps, breathes their work. That I do. Fitness taught me how. Through ups in downs, passion has let me conquer personal issues as well as professional. An unrelenting quest to be the best version of myself was taught to me from my experience in this industry. I attribute everything I have accomplished personally and collectively due to that passion. Without it, I have nothing.

2. If you want something bad enough you will do whatever it takes to achieve it.

My clients and clients of other trainers have taught me this. My client Rolodex is full of people who conquered the odds, all because they wanted it bad enough. In my book 12 Steps to Fitness Freedom I tell a story about a woman from Columbus who lost an extraordinary amount of weight and developed a community of enthusiastic people wanting to do the same. Or the woman who I have trained for many moons, who at first just wanted to be fit but now owns her own personal training business, all because wanted it more than other people. If you want it bad enough, you’ll go get it.

3. No one gets to where they are, alone.

I didn’t get to this point by myself. I had help…a lot of help. That help came in the form of support from others a long this 11 year journey. It also came in the form of detractors and negative people who taught me what I didn’t want be. No matter how successful you are, you got there with help. If I was never given a shot to train at Gold’s Gym in 2004, I would never be here today.

4. Bad times will always pass.

Obstacles are put in front of us not to stay and best us down but to leave after we have conquered it. I’ve seen it a thousand times, some one who goes through turmoil but keeps at it and never quits, always turns out for the better. If I have learned anything from working with trainers and clients is, regardless of the situation, if you keep at it, never waiver and never quit you will come out of the dark and into the light. It’s that simple.

5.Look to add value versus make money.

Money comes and goes like the wind blows. No matter how much you have you cannot take it with you. Having money is not impressive, adding value to other’s is. I have learned this through experience in the fitness industry. I have seen people with lots of money that truly had nothing, nothing because they were not adding value to others. The single most important lesson we can all learn is how to add value to someone else’s life. Whether it is to listen, be a shoulder to cry on or help a friend in need, adding value to someone means so much more than money. “Choose legacy over currency,” is a favorite quote of mine and it means to simple to add so much value to someone that you build a legacy and are never forgotten. A very important lesson.

I could write a list longer than this but for time purposes I will keep it short. Being in fitness has taught me so much that I feel honored to talk about it day. The lessons I have learned are so important not only to my life but the lives that interact with on a daily basis.