Being a “Product of Your Product”

Many years ago as a student in middle school I had the pleasure of being on the Girls’ Softball Team. During practice one afternoon our coach hollered something I found interesting to say the least. “Do as I say not as I do!” Those words were intriguing to me. They were the distant cousin of that other oh-so empowering phrase I had heard often enough while growing up,

“because I said so!”

“Does life really work this way?” I wondered. Do we get to become adults and tell others what to do without actually being the example we’re trying to instill? It sounded easy enough and soon became my philosophy.

Even though I had read many books on self-improvement and was quite a deep thinker, I wasn’t much of a doer. I would dispense advice with the notion that it was The Network M a r keting M agazine.com Page 1 fine and normal for people to do as I say, yet not as I did.

At one point I remember discussing tricks and tips in regard to weight- loss to anyone who would listen since I naturally enjoyed the subject. I had lost weight before and even though I had gained half of it back and felt out of shape and disconnected from fitness, as long as I knew what I was talking about I could easily direct people, correct? I mean, my coach was employed by the school system and she said it was ok to be exempt from BEING the example I was trying to set. I figured I must be on the right track.

This is where instincts come in. I FELT wrong. I felt like a hypocrite. If my advice was so sound, why wasn’t I following it? Why didn’t I look fit and healthy? Why did I need to lose 40 pounds if I had all the answers to being slim?

I had finally realized that as much as I loved discussing health and well-being, the only way I would be able to do so with any amount of dignity was to BE the example.

I had to feel the pain and go through the motions I was enlightening everyone else about. I had to connect with the very same process I was teaching to others to implement and the reason it took 20 extra years to figure this out was because I had a recording playing in my subconscious telling me it was perfectly acceptable to talk the talk rather than walk the walk. Isn’t that what “do as I say not as I do” means?

As a fitness professional, I had to become the client first. I had to directly understand what I was coaching. I had to BE what I was The Network M a r keting M agazine.com Page 2 telling others to DO! I had to do the same work, feel the same pain and go through the same process that I now coach. I had to become a “product of my product.”

So now when I instruct my clients, instead of “do as I say not as I do”, it’s “do as I’ve done since I’m living proof that it works”. It gives leadership that easy to digest flavor of truth!

Dana Gore is an Author and Certified personal Training Specialist, CPTS. Having spent many years practicing unhealthy habits that led to obesity and eating disorders, she found her passion and became formally educated in the area of Exercise Science through Fitness Institute International School of Fitness. She is now lean, fit, healthy and in a position to coach and inspire others how to incorporate good-sense and healthy habits into their daily lives.

Dana understands the power behind thoughts. In a society where information about health and wellness is abundant, she focuses on becoming excited and connected to the process of well-being rather than the goal of weight-loss itself for permanent lifestyle changes.

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Dana contributes to several written publications, has been a guest speaker for internet radio shows and along with her husband, instructs people on how to utilize safe and structured fitness routines based on their own individual needs, medical histories and personalities. For more information, Dana can be reached at fitness@bodyoffitness.com.

Her website is www.bodyoffitness.com.

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