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  <body>&lt;p&gt;As a personal trainer and small business owner, the principles I use to help my personal training clients are the same principles I use to make my business successful. I call these principles the 4 P's. Purpose, Passion, Plan, and Progression. Almost anything you set out to do in life should involve the 4 P&amp;rsquo;s. What is the purpose of you doing this, what are you trying to accomplish, what is your focus, what is your vision? You can&amp;rsquo;t be vague in your mind about this. You have to have a crystal clear mindset about what your purpose is in your workplace,&amp;nbsp;or the gym. Your livelihood and health deserve the deepest insight and self reflection you can give. Vague idea = vague mediocre results, Focused purpose = specific results.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Passionate people excel. Apathetic people stagnate and burn out. If you don&amp;rsquo;t embrace your journey in business&amp;nbsp;or fitness with a positive attitude and passion you will not succeed at the same level as someone who is fired up. What is it you love the most about your business? What drives you and makes you want to get out of bed in the morning? Get excited about the greater success waiting for you. Be passionate about striving for perfection, even in the areas of business or fitness that you don't enjoy or are fearful of.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Plan for success. Without a specific plan for how to accomplish your goals, how do you realistically expect to get anywhere? What if you showed up at college and your professors didn&amp;rsquo;t have any curriculum or course materials planned? Yes there is room for improvisation, but you still need some form of a plan to guide your way. Plans need to come in all shapes and sizes. You should have plans for different aspects of your business, such as advertising, hiring, sales, accounting, product or service development, etc, just like you need plans for different aspects of your fitness such as exercise, nutrtion, sleep, stress management, etc. You also need plans for different time horizons. I encourage all my clients to make goal sheets which plan out performance goals and results goals. The goal sheets are mapped out from long term goals which would encompass 6 to 12 month blocks of time, medium term goals which encompass blocks of 1 to 3 months, short term goals which encompass 1&amp;nbsp;to 4 weeks, and ultra short goals broken down by the day or hour. This can be applied to business just as well as fitness. It isn't just about being organized or having good time management though. It is about organizing the small goals so that they are effective stepping stones in the big picture to accomplishing the longer term goals.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Progression. This fits into having a plan. If you keep doing the same&amp;nbsp;thing over and over again for weeks, months, or years, you are not going to see&amp;nbsp;growth or great results&amp;nbsp;because you are not progressing. Planned progression for&amp;nbsp;someone starting out&amp;nbsp;should take place&amp;nbsp;more frequently because they have more room to grow. This may seem counter intuitive since it seems the more experienced and knowledgeable you are the faster you should be able to grow. Think of your business, or your fitness ability like a child growing up. At first it is so small and not capable of much, but then in leaps and bounds makes huge changes through childhood and adolescence, but eventually levels off as an adult. You need to plan in what aspects of your business,&amp;nbsp; or fitness program you are going to progress by challenging yourself to do better every opportunity you get. Every day you're at work or at the gym, you need to know what your next steps are to get to the next level. Every day potentially holds an opportunity to take another step towards something greater, or deeper growth, but if you don't make a conscious effort to apply that, it is very easy to get complacent and become stagnant and lose momentum.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Build your foundation on the 4 P&amp;rsquo;s and achieve the business success, income, family, body, confidence and health you&amp;rsquo;ve always dreamed of. Apply the same principles to&amp;nbsp;all areas of your life and you will be unstoppable.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;P.S. The secret 5th P is a &lt;strong&gt;Personal Mentor or Coach&lt;/strong&gt;. You might have the potential to accomplish everything on your own, but your chances improve a lot by having a mentor or coach push you and help guide your way. If you want to speed up your business success then get a business coach or experienced mentor. If you want to improve your health, body, or athletic performance then get an experienced qualified personal trainer or strength and conditioning coach.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Now you know what they are, so go out and put the 5 P's to work in your business, and in your health and fitness.&lt;/p&gt;</body>
  <created-at type="datetime">2009-10-14T10:02:41Z</created-at>
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  <permalink>the-4-ps-of-success-in-fitness-and-business</permalink>
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  <published-at type="datetime">2009-10-14T07:57:04Z</published-at>
  <reviewed-at type="datetime">2009-10-14T14:58:08Z</reviewed-at>
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  <summary>Darren Cobin, a personal trainer in Bellevue, Washington, shares some success principles that he uses to help his clients succeed in health and fitness. These same principles can be applied to succeeding in business as well. </summary>
  <title>The 4 P's of Success in Fitness and Business</title>
  <topics-count type="integer">1</topics-count>
  <updated-at type="datetime">2009-10-14T14:58:08Z</updated-at>
</article>
