Have you ever considered the power of some of the words you use?

I know many of us have read and listened to things discussing how important the way we speak to ourselves is…

But often that even misses the little words that really change our mindset most.

Honestly the power of words is why I will always say “Act as if” and never fake it till you make it.

We don’t realize even sometimes how we are framing things until we see the changes they create.

Or realize the mindsets holding us back.

When I first started out as a trainer, I could have easily said I was faking it.

When someone asked if I could help them with (insert any countless things I hadn’t yet worked with as a newbie trainer), I always said I would find a solution.

And guess what?

I did.

I dove into the research, staying up late on a Friday night with a textbook even on the couch. Following and questioning fellow trainers till they probably felt like I was a mosquito they wanted to squash.

But I learned so much because I never turned down the opportunity.

I honestly never saw it was faking it.

Which is when I realized what I was doing…

I was acting as if.

I was embracing the habits, routines, experiences, lifestyle of someone who would be in the position I wanted to be in.

And that realization paid off in so many areas of my life.

Because as simple a tweak as it seemed to rephrase the thought this way, I realized how much more positive it was.

With “faking it” you didn’t believe you were this thing or necessarily even could become this thing. You weren’t growing into the role. Seeking to live it.

You were FAKING it.

Acting as if though is all about truly doing what is needed.

It changes your perception of your behaviors.

And this lead me to assess other areas I felt small changes to how we thought and phrased things to ourselves could really pay off.

From this, I found two 3 letter words that had oh so much more power than we recognized.

Two 3 letter words that could both detract from our success or encourage us to pursue our goals.

The first word that I found had a big impact is…

BUT

A friends says, “You look fabulous!”

You say back, “Thank you! BUT I have so much further to go.”

So often we put a BUT on accepting a compliment. We put a BUT on our success.

Part of this is in our head to not be bragging, but ultimately what this does is take away from our hard work and wins so far.

It puts us down.

It focuses only on how far we have to go.

And then we wonder why we aren’t happy with the journey. Why we can’t see our own small wins as they add up.

It’s because we always see the BUT in everything.

As tempting as it is to qualify your success, catch yourself next time you go to and just say…

“THANK YOU! I’ve worked really hard to get here!”

Recognize that you’ve put in the work to reap the rewards.

And if you choose to include BUTs when talking to yourself, only use them with your failures.

“Yes, I didn’t hit my macros this week BUT I did do all of my workouts!”

Use but to not detract from your wins but even help you recognize them.

We have to remember we can always reframe things with how we speak to ourselves.

And our thoughts become our actions….whether we realize it or not.

As cliche as the line is…whether we believe we can or we can’t, we’re right!

The other word is…YET

Guess what?

There are lots of things we all can’t do….YET!

And I’m not saying you’ll choose to or want to achieve every goal out there.

And I’m not telling you not to be realistic.

But too often we talk about a goal we want to pursue and say we “can’t” do it.

Maybe a 4 minute mile isn’t in the cards for you.

But why not at least give yourself the respect to realize you can improve!

If you catch yourself saying you can’t do something, put that positive on it. Give yourself the respect to attempt to move forward by saying YET.

I can’t do a pull up…YET.

I can’t hit my macros…YET.

I can’t fit into my fabulous black holiday dress…YET.

Because there is always room for growth. There is always room to improve.

We just haven’t gotten there YET.

But respect you can test those boundaries and prove so much possible if you give yourself the chance.

With YET we take something “concrete” and give ourselves the opportunity.

We can always improve.

Give yourself the chance to mentally by just recognizing you may not be at your goals YET!

SUMMARY:

The language we use with ourselves…well…we hear everything we say to ourselves, positive or negative.

And it makes an impact.

Those beliefs impact how we act.

Changing how we speak to ourselves can go a long way.

And if you want to see just how often we aren’t talking to ourselves like we would a friend, really listen to what your friend is saying to themselves and how you battle against their beliefs.

Really consider if you would be saying what you are to yourself if you were a friend encouraging growth.

I’d love to hear what words you realized were holding you back from embracing your greatness. I’d love to hear you tell me what goals you haven’t achieved YET but plan to while sharing a BRAG without a but about how far you’ve already come! Comment on my Fitness Hacks Blog Post or message me on Instagram or Facebook!