Fitness Coach
Phil Kaplan A simple six-element strategy that has never failed me, or my upscale and high-profile clients. GROWTH Over the course of 35 years, Phil Kaplan has traveled the world learning, experiencing, and helping people change for the better. His education, passion, unique experience, and undying pursuit of truth have led him to be the expert people trust and fitness leaders rely on.
Here’s an exercise we can do together. Put these six words in order. Consider them as variables that will impact your future, and determine, if you were to set out to tackle them one at a time, where you’d have to start. Here are the six words. Habits. Mindset. Rituals. Behaviors. Perspectives. Outcomes. What comes first? If we consider this puzzle carefully, we’d have to start with mindset, as your “state of mind” will determine your behaviors, shape your perspectives, etc. So, #1, Mindset. Right? Right. Well, hmmmm. Maybe . . . . Maybe we have to re-think this.
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Suppose someone habitually wakes up in the morning and moves right into playing a mental movie of “the worst-case scenario” of the day ahead. Wouldn’t that “habit” then affect mindset? Of course it would. So, I guess we have to start with Habits. OK, #1, Habits. If we change Habits, we change Mindset, and then everything else falls into place, right?
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Six Elements Phil Kaplan
Right, except in the case of the individual who holds the perspective, “nothing ever works out the way I want it to.” It’s clear that nothing will change until we can modify that perspective. So . . . perspective becomes #1? The reality is, this is a ridiculous and impossible puzzle, as these six elements are so intrinsically intertwined we can’t possibly state a definitive “start here.”
would “get in trouble.” I’d help my buddies “figure out” how to minimize the fallout or escape consequences altogether. I bring that innate love for strategy to business and it’s no wonder as an adult I was well compensated as a “consultant,” a title I’ve still not learned to embrace, but an undertaking that allowed me to work on another’s behalf to “resolve challenges.” There are my two innate gifts, “helping others” and “being strategic” pulled together in what can only be called my natural course of growth. THEN I FOUND MY FITNESS CALLING
The very good news is this. All six elements are changeable. And if you realize the vital relationship between them, you can completely revamp your path, reset your sights, and re-create your future. I’ve learned this twice. First, I learned it from books, lessons, and mentors. Then, I found myself with what I can only call true expertise. I learned the lessons about the intertwining of the six words the hard way. I got my ass kicked. Hard. And all I had left were these six elements. IT BEGINS AT BIRTH . . . AND THEN WE CHANGE (From Potential to Destiny) We are all born with innate gifts, and then nurture and environment take us from our innate potential to our destiny. We can move from potential to destiny by ascending . . . or by making bad decisions, allowing outside factors to control the course, and becoming victimized by our gradually imposed limits. In simpler English that means, we can grow or we can crumble. Many people crumble. I was born with an innate sense of caring, an elevated empathy, and a mind that is both challenged and nourished by strategy. In fourth grade I had an injury that hospitalized me and bedridden for several months, I devoted an unreasonable number of hours to a military board game called Stratego. I became so practiced I could no longer find anyone to play with me. I’d win in a matter of moves. I learned to anticipate my opponent’s moves, to seek out patterns in his play, and to quickly assess where he might have hidden the prize possession the game deems the victory piece, the Flag.
The desire to help others took me into the fitness field and I immersed myself in learning how to better my own body and health as a vehicle to helping others do the same. When I first decided to start a personal training business, building a lucrative future in this field was unheard of. I met with representatives of S.C.O.R.E., a free advisory division of the Small Business Administration, and their advisors thought I was from another planet as I tried to describe my “business plan.” They couldn’t understand how I could possibly build a viable business going to people’s homes and offices and taking them through exercise routines. I needed strategy, but I also needed to learn and there weren’t many achievers doing what I wanted to do. I didn’t know how to find a mentor who would understand my aspirations and guide me, so I decided I’d learn from experts, not in building personal training businesses, but in human development, in personal betterment, in ascension. I immersed myself in reading and there were four books I read, not once, but religiously, each time with a journal beside me, taking notes, setting goals, and capturing lessons.
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Chess was a natural evolution. In sixth grade I was one of 6 kids in the chess club. Yes, it was nerdy, but I also played sports so I somehow got by without the nerd stigma. In middle school and high school, I was the go-to guy when a peer
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Six Elements Phil Kaplan
Wanna know what the books were? Of course you do: • As a Man Thinketh • The Richest Man in Babylon • Think and Grow Rich • See You At the Top The books taught me the importance of the six elements. My Habits were the acquired behaviors my mind and body pursued with such regularity they became involuntary (only later, when I read “The Brain That Changes Itself” did I realize my Habits were physically “wired” into my brain). If I wanted to ascend beyond the destiny my path was leading me toward, it became clear that I had to change those habits that limited me. My Mindset was the driving force (resultant of my inner programming) that determined what emotions I would attach to given actions, behaviors, people, and thoughts. If I was ever going to take true responsibility for my future, I had to take complete responsibility for my Mindset. Interestingly, I came to realize that my Habits served to create my Mindset and my Mindset served to reinforce my Habits. Change required, not only changing a single element, but ultimately all six! The third of the six elements would be the Rituals we attach to. Leaving a day’s work at a job you hate, meeting friends at a bar, and complaining over the frustration of the day is an example of a ritual that serves only to focus your attention upon the misery of earning a living. Attaching enjoyment to the act of complaining,
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or worse yet, “topping each other’s complaints” is a common American ritual that keeps far too many stuck. My rituals included what I did upon waking from bed, what thoughts I created and gave attention to as I started my day, the discipline I started to employ in going to the gym and focusing on betterment, and what I did, thought, and contemplated before I laid down for the evening. It’s clear that our Behaviors dictate our likelihood of finding growth and achievement, but only when you realize how closely your Behaviors are guided and determined by your Habits, Mindsets, and Rituals can you truly claim authority over your ability to change. Our Perspectives include the global thoughts we give to the concept of achievement and to our own power and capabilities. When we accept the Perspective that our Outcomes need not be random, but can literally be scripted as “memories that simply haven’t happened yet,” the whole puzzle comes together. All Six Elements Work Together to Create The Pathway Learning to employ an integrative Strategy that not only incorporates the six elements, but also fully respects the power of Habits, Mindset, Rituals, Behaviors, Perspectives, and Outcomes in what any one of us deems “The Pathway to Success.” The six-element strategy never failed me. I say that related to both my own growth and my consulting energies devoted to upscale and high-profile clients. The strategy isn’t a “step-by-step” as much as an overall
Six Elements Phil Kaplan
recognition of the reliability of each element upon the other five. It’s always going to be an integration, the respective adjustment of moving parts serving to move the whole. WHAT CAN YOU IMAGINE? In coming back to the puzzle I frivolously pursued at the onset of this article, if there really were a “Step #1,” I’d have to say the best first step requires Imagination. Only when you can imagine an Outcome greater than that which you’re presently accepting of can you begin rewiring, adjusting, and changing Habits and Rituals. My ascension took me from building a personal training business to owning and operating fitness centers, publishing six best-selling books, being paid to speak before massive audiences around the world, and being a guest on over 1,000 TV and radio shows. The shift from being a tentative entrepreneur sitting in the Small Business Administration office pleading for guidance to achiever started with my willingness to imagine each outcome and act upon all six elements to convert imagination into certainty. With time, my Rituals were changed with intention, my Habits evolved based on the emotions I attached to the Outcomes I sought after and believed in, and my willingness to adjust my own Perspectives literally rewired my brain. You can do the same. MOVING THE RIGHT PAWN CAN LEAD TO VICTORY . . . EVEN IF IT SEEMS YOU’RE IN “CHECK” I began to think of business as a chess game. Each individual in a company has his or her own “way of moving.” Each goal set out by a business leader will be faced with obstacles. In planning strategically, making the right moves, and learning to “resolve” the bad moves, we can maintain certainty in an outcome manifesting. Skill, the environment, leadership ability, and communication will determine how quickly a business Outcome manifests. It all comes down to Strategy and the Six Elements. That’s why, when Hurricane Wilma hit, I knew there was a new Outcome ahead, and only I had the power to create it. My belief was rattled, my world was flipped upside down, and I literally lost everything, except my recognition of Strategy and The Six Elements. I won’t share the long story here. I’ll simply share enough to give you a sense of the magnitude of the struggle I found myself in and the reliability of Strategy and the Six Elements.
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Six Elements Phil Kaplan
In October of 2005, Hurricane Wilma blew the roof off of my office, training studio, corporate headquarters, and warehouse. The following day a tropical storm left 3 feet of standing water inside the building. Everything was ruined. Exercise equipment, furniture, half a million dollars in inventory, electronics. records, and worst of all, the daily “home” of my staff. The Hurricane wasn’t the problem. It was the turning point. The stress over my extreme desire to “fix” my business led ultimately to a divorce. The financial loss crippled me. That, however, wasn’t the source of what I’m referring to as a struggle. It was much bigger than that. Months after the storm hit, as I was tangled in trying to find solutions and sort through some of life’s largest stressors, I became ill. My symptoms ranged from extreme lung inflammation and a gut-wrenching cough to tremors, pain, cognitive impairment, and an inability to complete a sentence without severe stuttering. After extensive testing I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. I said I’d keep the story brief. I lost my health insurance, couldn’t collect on my business insurance for the financial losses, and had difficulty holding on to the still remaining elements of my business. Eventually the whole thing crumbled. According to the doctors, my options were disability, a reliance on medications, and finding ongoing medical care without insurance. According to my belief . . . there was another answer. There had to be. I knew I couldn’t accept the Perspective of the doctors. I knew I couldn’t allow my Mindset to shift away from certainty in a new and thrilling outcome. I worked hard to maintain my power of Imagination . . . and I kept searching. Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker in Pocomoke City, Maryland brought me a new turning point. He gave me the most beautiful words I’d ever received. He said, “You have mold toxicity.” Why are those beautiful words? Because they were preceded by “You don’t have Parkinson’s. You have mold toxicity.” After a short bout of appropriate treatment, my symptoms diminished and ultimately went away. After a few months I returned to conducting seminars. Every night I invested at least 90 minutes in creating new Habits, Mindset, Rituals, Behaviors, Perspectives, and Outcomes. A new forward path opened up. A new Perspective became prominent. I realized that If I had simply listened to the doctors, accepted a new mindset based on the Perspectives they threw
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at me, had I adopted habits and rituals involving medications and assistance, I would have lived the rest of my life in extreme compromise. I started to think of all the people diagnosed with chronic disease, people who might have accepted the labels and with those labels, a Mindset of futility, and I saw a new opportunity. My career path changed. I moved away from helping people find “great glutes and abs” and moved toward helping people reverse chronic disease. I studied Mindset and Neuroplasticity at a new level. Today my business is a far cry from its original manifestation. I’ve found a home in the space between Fitness and Medicine drawing both ends toward the middle. I’ve created protocols for reversing Weight Loss Resistance and the risks that come with it. I’m working to change the medical field in the realm of treating, and I daresay “curing” chronic disease. I’ve developed new lifestyle, exercise, and nutrition programs incorporating mindset and healing.
Six Elements Phil Kaplan
IT’S ALL DIFFERENT NOW, AND THAT BRINGS A NEW LEVEL OF GRATITUDE The Strategy I employed required a recognition of my new resources, the virtues of my recent experiences, and the new power I might have failed to recognize had I not held on to the belief that ultimately, I am in control of my Outcomes. I can’t control every environment, the weather, unexpected turmoil, or the actions of others, but I can control how I strategically recognize and affect the power of the Six Elements. My gift to you is simple. Know that you have power over your destiny. Know that you have the resources, although yours, in specificity, are different than mine. Know, that at times, your greatest resources take some introspection to find. Know that you can grow, ascend, and develop whatever you choose . . . and know that the power lies within your willingness to take ownership over those elements that allow you to create whatever you choose. Habits. Mindset. Rituals. Behaviors. Perspectives. Outcomes.
It is clear that our Behaviors dictate our likelihood of finding growth and achievement, but only when you realize how closely your Behaviors are guided and determined by your Habits, Mindsets, and Rituals can you truly claim authority over your ability to change.
Strategically, Phil Kaplan
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