What are your expectations producing in your life?

Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy. ~ Brian Tracy

How many times in conversation do you say to someone or they say to you, “Well….what do you expect?” Think about it – when you do specific things in your life, are you doing them mindlessly, or are you doing them with specific expectations in mind? I think we’re all guilty on both counts, or maybe there’s times when we’re not really truthful and we tell ourselves, “Wow…I didn’t know that would happen.” Say you’re driving 95 in a 65 and you’re surprised when you see flashing, red lights in your rear view mirror. I mean, “C’mon – what do you expect?” Now I’m sure you weren’t driving fast hoping you’d get pulled over. We all know there are consequences for our actions, but why not plan the outcome by managing expectations wisely?

Our expectations always imprint our hearts and form our inner image. You may tell yourself, “I have bad genes; all of my mother’s side of the family is obese. There’s no amount of exercise or dieting I can do to be lean. This is just the way I am.” If that’s your attitude, then you’re right – you will never be at a healthy weight because obesity is what you’re expecting in your life. Or maybe you never furthered your education by getting a degree and you go through your career thinking, “I’ll never be promoted, they only promote those with college degrees.” If you expect to live a defeated life, then regardless of the potential you have within you, your expectation will produce that defeat in your life

What do you believe about yourself? What is your value? I’m not talking about just changing your thoughts in order to change your life. That’s all well and good, but true transformation takes place at a much deeper level. It’s what you believe that produces freedom and transformation in your life. Let me say that again – it’s not just what you think, but what you deeply believe. First you must believe in yourself, which in turn supports your behavior. That transformation comes from your heart first, not anywhere else.

What image are you projecting in your life? If you don’t like what you see, then change it! By changing your inner image by what you believe about yourself, you can potentially change your outer outcome. You have the ability to choose your expectation in any circumstance of life. Freedom of choice is a beautiful thing that we humans have, as no one can dominate our attitudes or take our choices from us. The same thing goes with others in your life. Often people will become what you expect them to be. What are you expecting from your children? Just because they may bring home less than desirable grades at times, do you expect that they’ll be losers all their lives? Hopefully not! Start expecting good things from them, and watch what a difference it makes in their attitude. And since we are all products of our parental influence, you can positively shape your children’s lives by your expectations of them.

You will live up to the level of expectation you place on yourself, or you will live down to your expectation of yourself. No matter what your story is, start believing in yourself. Do you want to improve your health, your fitness goals and ultimately your life? Then decide what you want, start believing it in your heart, and begin to EXPECT those good things and changes to take place. The changes will reflect over your whole persona. Then when someone gives you the standard question “How are you?” You can reply with a smile on your face, “I’m great - I’m EXPECTING!”

Share with me your comments about what you’re expecting – I thrive on encouraging others!

Create your Own Stimulus Package by Giving

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. ~ Albert Einstein

The price of gasoline is slowly creeping back up, bank-owned homes are still flooding our neighborhoods, and high school and college students are lining up for summer jobs. Many restaurants and higher-end retail stores continue to pull out of their leases. I’m not going to get on my bandwagon and give my two cents about what the government is or isn’t doing to stimulate the economy. Rather, I ask myself, what can I be doing – me alone. How can I make a difference?

While these troubling times are seeing people hold on to what they have or take the mindset “my four and no more,” it’s time to look beyond ourselves. Rather than look at what we don’t have, why not take inventory of the many blessings in our lives that we do have and share them with others? And I’m not talking about doing things with a big arrow pointing to yourself saying, “Hey, look at me. I’m so generous, I’m doing something wonderful!” Paying forward to others from your own blessings shouldn’t just be the popular thing of the day, but rather a lifestyle.

This reminds me of the Starbucks “Pay it Forward” chain in Sacramento last year when a woman who was in the drive-thru went to pay for her coffee at the window, and she was told that the person in front of her taken care of it. This, in turn, caused the woman to do the same for the person behind her, resulting in a 109 car pay it forward chain! I’m sure that there are thousands of these types of random acts of kindness that have gone unpublicized. Imagine the woman who started it all and how she suddenly opened herself up to an outpouring of blessings in her life. That’s the way it works – doing something nice, without expecting anything in return just creates the right energy to attract good things your way.

It seems that often national tragedies or disasters are what it takes to bring people together. I still hear how New York City is a different place since 9-11 where people united together without those walls that kept them apart before; same thing with Hurricane Katrina. Do we need another disaster or “Great Depression” to cause us to see outside of ourselves? Many say we are in another Great Depression, and who’s to say we are or aren’t. But the point being - when we look outside of ourselves, we open ourselves up to a whole new avenue of opportunity that may otherwise remain dormant.

Someone will always be hurting worse than you. Why not ask yourself - what can I do to make a difference in someone’s life today? What do I have that I can share with others – maybe it’s just a smile to someone you pass on the street. That smile may be just the thing that gives that person hope in an otherwise gloomy day, creating a desire within them to smile at someone else.

I hope this message inspires you to start your own pay it forward campaign and do your part in stimulating not just the economy, but stimulating the lives of others. Are you doing everything you can with what you’ve been given? Maybe you have some gifts and talents others around you would love to be a part of. Why not become a beacon to others by mentoring someone who is interested in learning more about your gifts and talents?

To be that positive light, you’ll need to stimulate wellness in your own life. Our bodies were created with everything necessary to thrive; but it’s our own lifestyle choices that can make the difference in whether we are walking in health or not. Let me stimulate your thinking today to treat your body with the proper nutrients, nurturing, and fitness program designed for you. I want to pay forward, not only my knowledge in the health and fitness industry, but also my gift of encouragement.

Why not ask yourself today, “How can I pay forward my talents or simply my good fortune?” I’d love to hear from you on how you are paying it forward – maybe you’ll inspire someone else with your ideas. The results could create a chain that can make a difference in not only your life, but in the lives of others.

What Matters in Your Life?

People who matter are most aware that everyone else does, too. ~ Malcolm S. Forbes

I recently stood behind a woman in line at the grocery store who was being so rude to the clerk. She wasn’t doing something right with the credit card scanner and it wasn’t registering. The clerk told her she needed to run it through again, and she sighed saying gruffly, “My ice cream is melting, and my husband’s waiting in the car!” The clerk apologized as she re-ran the card through the machine, but she was still muttering under her breath. When it was my turn, the clerk said hello and I asked him how he was. He replied sarcastically, “It’s just such a treat to be up here.” I brushed it off and said “Well, life is too short to get so upset.” He seemed to lighten up when I realized I was going to be a nice customer. As I took my bags out to my car, I noticed the woman had been walking so slow that she was just barely getting into her car and was complaining to her husband as she got in. I felt sad in my heart for this woman, as I have no idea what she was going through or why she seemed so bitter and unhappy. Above everything, she certainly didn’t look very healthy.
It reminded me of the lyrics of a song I recently heard by Rascal Flatts called “Things that Matter and Things that Don’t.” It’s a great song and oh so true. Things in our lives are just that “things.” It’s the people and relationships who matter most. In doing research for this blog, I found a book by Ira Byock, M.D. called The Four Things That Matter Most. Dr. Byock is a doctor who has handled seriously ill patients for numerous years as well as those in hospice care towards the end of their lives. You see he has learned in working with these patients who are facing death’s door the importance of four sentences:

1. Please forgive me.
2. I forgive you.
   
3. Thank you.
   
4. I love you.

Last week I talked about living with regrets and how we’re not guaranteed a certain amount of time on this earth. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to wait until I’m knocking on death’s door to think about these phrases and try to make changes then. Now is the time that matters and we can start today. So many people go through life holding on to unforgiveness in their lives, never even realizing how they are keeping others, much less themselves in bondage.

These phrases really do make you think about how you’ve lived your life and how you’ve handled people along the way. We’re not immune to sudden illnesses or accidents that may come our way, so you don’t want to wait until it’s too late to express forgiveness, say thank you and I love you. If someone comes to mind right now, pick up the phone and call them, send an email or even mail a handwritten card or letter. (I think people still do that!) Maybe you’re not forgiving yourself for something you’ve done in the past. If so, write yourself a letter. How freeing is that!

Since we’ve established that relationships are what really matter in life, what are you doing to transform yours? I’m not saying I’ve “arrived” in my own relationships as far as these thoughts are concerned, and there are still lessons I am learning as I go along. However, I do know this much - I have chosen to be a “builder” or an “edifier” in my life. I am so passionate about fitness and total wellness that I hope at least a little of it has rubbed off in your life. Living a life of wellness is not only for your benefit, but for that of your loved ones. None of us want to be a burden on loved ones now or later in life, so keeping yourself as healthy as possibly can improve your ability to enjoy your life and your relationships with others.

I celebrate the friends and family who have impacted my life, and I love and appreciate you very much. And to all of my “social media” family, a big THANK YOU for your support, your comments and enthusiasm in this wellness message that I so passionately try to convey. I am honored that you believe I have something worthwhile to share, and I hope I’m making a difference in your life. Now if you haven’t exercised today…get off your badonkadonk and MOVE!

No Regrets

LIFE HAS NO GUARANTEES – BUT WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

“A man is not old until his regrets take the place of his dreams.”
~Yiddish Proverb

Regrets – we’ve all had them. “I wish I had more education.” “I wish I had waited longer to get married.” “I should have traveled more before I settled down.” Should have, would have, could have… But we all know, we can’t change the past, and living those regrets just keeps us hung up in the past preventing us from moving forward.

A friend of mine recently shared that a 60+ woman she works with was looking at photos of other employees during a company outing, and this woman commented about a younger 30 something woman who was overweight. Her words were “She needs to lose weight.” Then she went on to say, “I know I am fat, but I’m old.” Wow…You see this woman was about 50 pounds overweight herself, but because of her age, she accepted the way she was, chalking it up to the fact that she was 60+.

You may have heard the Serenity Prayer that begins with: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” That’s a great prayer and something we hear quoted quite often, but have you ever thought about the reverse – accepting what you CAN change? I think that’s called a “cop-out.” You see we can always make excuses about what we haven’t done, or aren’t willing to do, and we do a pretty good job at convincing ourselves. Accepting the way we are just because we’re a certain age - whether it’s being overweight, out of shape, or chalking things up to our “genes” are all cop-outs. Yes we are all aging – that’s inevitable, but is there a way to age healthy? I believe so, and it starts with you and your choices.

Most people live their lives regretting more of what they didn’t do rather than what they’ve done. We’ve all made mistakes and hopefully we’ve learned from them. That’s what life experiences are all about, and that’s how we grow. But have you reached a place in your life where you may be regretting that you didn’t start earlier on reaching potential goals? Maybe you feel like it’s too late to go back to school, meet someone new, start a new career or even get back in shape. If that’s the case, then I’m here to encourage you to stir up your dreams and your goals, no matter what age you are.

I’m a firm believer that it’s never too late to start working out, even if it’s beginning with 10 minutes a day and increasing gradually. Everyone knows that exercise is good for your heart and keeps you slimmer, but did you know that exercise also:

• Improves your balance
  
• Helps you sleep better
  
• Keeps you in a better mood
• Increases your energy level
• Improves your sex life (maybe I should have had this one at the top to keep your interest!)
• Keeps you living longer!
  

My point being - Don’t let your life be a life of regrets. You are not a victim of your DNA, your culture or the fact that you’ve slacked off a few years. Let today be the day you make a pact with yourself to become a healthier you, whether you are 20, 50 or 70! The small steps you take in the right direction will become easier tomorrow and even easier the next day.

None of us are guaranteed how long we are here on this earth, but the benefits you will reap through exercise will certainly increase the quality of your life while you are here. Your life is a gift – so don’t wake up tomorrow regretting what you could have done today that could mean the difference between years of disability or years of healthy aging. I’d love to help you get back on track.

Taking the Risk Towards A Great Outcome

"Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it, establish your priorities and go to work." ~H. L. Hunt

Decisions – we all make them throughout each day; what time we get out of bed, what we wear, where we go, people we interact with, what we eat and so on. In most of our daily decision-making, we don’t think too much about consequences. Many of us just make decisions without thinking through all the potential scenarios. Often we end up making spontaneous decisions that can leave us living with the regrets that go along with poor decision-making consequences.

Recently I read a book by Ben Carson, M.D. which is actually a call to action book: Take the Risk: Learning to Identify, Choose, and Live with Acceptable Risk.” Dr. Carson, who is a director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Maryland, has created a different way to think about risk. He calls it “Best/Worst Analysis (B/WA) formula,” and it’s simply asking yourself these four questions when a decision is on the table:

1. What is the best thing that can happen if I do this?
2. What is the worst thing that can happen if I do this?
3. What is the best thing that can happen if I don’t do this?
4. What is the worst thing that can happen if I don’t do this?

Once you take your decision in question through the four steps, you review each answer and then you’re going to want to make your decision based on the most positive potential outcome. This can apply to any area of your life – relationships, (“Should I commit to this person or not?”) career opportunities, (“Should I bite the bullet and take the new job I’ve been offered?”) or large purchases, (“Is this the right time to buy a new home?”) The list is endless, and no decision is really too trivial to not take the time to run through these four questions – even if you don’t write it on paper and it’s only in your mind.

I started thinking closely on this subject and began to dissect everything that crossed my decision-making path. Of course, I started to analyze the exercise factor and thought about those who always have a reason why they don’t exercise or belong to a gym:

• What’s the best thing that can happen to me if I exercise today? “I’ll feel very good about myself when I complete my workout.”
  

• What’s the worst thing that can happen to me if I exercise today? “I could fall down and hurt myself.”
  

• What’s the best thing that can happen if I don’t exercise today? “I won’t be sore tomorrow.”
  

• What’s the worst thing that can happen if I don’t exercise today? “It will be easier for me not to exercise tomorrow or the next day.”
  

• What’s the best thing that can happen if I join a health club or gym? “I’ll get in shape and become healthier.”
  

• What’s the worst thing that can happen if I join a health club or gym? “I’ll pay the money and never go.”
  

• What’s the best thing that can happen if I don’t join a health club or gym? “I’ll use the money that I would have spent and take my out-of-shape self to happy hour or buy “things” that I won’t remember a month from now.”
  

• What’s the worst thing that can happen if I don’t join a health club or gym? “I’ll stay the way I am, possibly becoming more out of shape and experience poor health.

The above examples make it pretty easy to see what your best decision would be. OK, so maybe your answers wouldn’t be the same as these, but you get my point. If you take the time to assess your decisions and then analyze what the potential outcome could be, it helps you put things into perspective and make the best overall decision. Try it with any area of your life. It has helped me see things differently especially in my business decisions.

So whether you are contemplating a change in a career, relationship or even a health and wellness decision, ask yourself Dr. Carson’s four questions. You might just risk a great outcome!

How Are Your Communication Skills?

There is an energy field between humans. And, when we reach out in passion, it is met with an answering passion and changes the relationship forever. ~ Rollo May

Most of you are more than just familiar with social networking – whether it is through LinkedIn, Facebook, My Space, or Twitter. How many of us can’t even go through an hour of the day without texting, emailing someone or checking your Facebook? Yes, I realize you are reading my blog right now, which is a relatively new way people interact with others – building communities of people who are interested in what others have to say. And yes, many of you correspond with me via text, email, Twitter or Face book.

There is no doubt that social media is opening the doors for people not only like me, but others who have a message to share and who want to get it out to as many people as they can in the shortest amount of time. It is an honor to me that you find something I may have to say of interest.


I am all for these ways of marketing or networking yourself; however, recently I started thinking about all of this and began to notice something everywhere I went. Whether it was on public transportation, walking through the mall or the airport, driving down the highway or just walking through the gym, I noticed a common theme. People were consumed with texting, emailing or listening to IPods of some sort via earphones. I never even made eye contact with these people. Their faces were buried in their phones while their fingers were typing away. The only way I would have noticed this was simply the fact that my own cell phone had stopped working! How we immediately freak out when that happens and try to get to the nearest Verizon store before we miss another call or text!


I began to think about interactions of humans. I was in my backyard recently just soaking up some sun (between the rainy days) and I heard birds all around me going crazy with their chirping. My first thought was – “Wow – are those birds annoying!” Then I started thinking about how those sounds were the birds communicating to one another. They were relating to each other. I thought for a minute about how it would be if they were too part of the information technology of the world and communicated via machines and such. Yes, it sounds a bit off the wall, but it did help me to see what we miss when we stop interacting with others one on one. Maybe we’re trying to become like the birds with Twitter! (Ok a bad analogy!)

A friend of mine recently shared that he drove his 14 year old son and one of his close friends to baseball practice and it was a 30 minute drive. He described the drive as “silent” as both boys were buried in their cell phones texting. And one of the craziest things he said was that often the boys were texting each other sitting a foot apart in the back seat! Have we become so dependent on these devices that we no longer know how to interact with one another face to face or even voice to voice?

This also reminds me of something I recently saw on Facebook, and I actually clicked on it myself. It said: Become a fan of “I love my mom.” I joined along with countless others, and then it occurred to me. Why do I have to click on something on a social networking site to show that I am a fan of loving my mom? I laughed to myself because I do call my mom – she isn’t on Face book, Twitter and the like. She is a wonderful mom and I let her know that often – and not just on Mother’s Day.

My point being – sometimes we can get so caught up in the latest gadget or networking tool that it keeps us from being relational one on one with people who may possibly make a huge impact on our lives or vice versa. How many times have you called someone and they don’t pick up, but they’ll text you right back? What’s up with that?? Often we lose our social skills and when it comes to a situation where we have to relate face to face, many are left feeling awkward and less confident. My kids even tell me about how boys and girls who break up with each other via text messaging!

I know many of you do belong to fitness clubs and you go in with your gear, get to business with your earphones and IPods, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But my challenge to you is this – next time you go into your fitness club, keep in mind that you are there with like-minded people. These are people who care about their health and are making giant steps of faith to either maintain or reach goals that are important enough to take them away from perhaps an evening at happy hour or a night on the couch eating junk food. Step out of your “me zone” and make eye contact, give a word of encouragement to someone next you on the treadmill or weight bench and simply acknowledge that person. You never know - that person could be an important key to helping you unlock your future or possibly even theirs!

I may not be able to personally interact with all of you, but if you see me and I'm head - down buried in my phone, remind me of this blog! Let me know how I can help you reach your goals.

Everything is beautiful – or is it?

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched ... but are felt in the heart. ~ Helen Keller

When asked to define beauty, how many of us automatically picture in our minds something aesthetically beautiful? You may imagine a rose bud opening up or a majestic landscape. If we were to think of a person as being beautiful, I would have to admit that I would imagine an outwardly very attractive person - someone who captivates me by their physical beauty. We've all heard the old saying "Beauty is only skin deep," and we try to act like we believe that, but show us someone like Susan Boyle from Britain's Got Talent, and before she even opens her mouth, people are laughing and making fun of her based on her outward appearance. Yes she did “wow” the crowd, but after she’s discovered to have such an amazing voice and she’s got a signed contract, what happens? She’s given a makeover - to conform to what society believes acceptable beauty to be.


It's very easy to get caught up in the "beautiful people" zone. It's become such a staple, that even extraordinarily good looking people are left feeling bottom of the barrel, like they don't measure up. We are bombarded with what Hollywood and New York tells us is beautiful. Even people in their 20’s are reaching out to aesthetic medicine and other ways to hold on to their youth or to just keep up with what society says they should match up to.

On a recent visit to the Sonoran Desert’s Botanical Garden in Arizona, I learned a great lesson. What I thought would be a somewhat boring tour through the desert helped me to see things in a totally different light. I always thought of the desert as dry and desolate with prickly cactus, snakes and scorpions.
What I discovered was that many of those prickly, sticky, plants contained numerous food properties, as well as medicinal benefits, and I left there with a reverence toward the desert that I would never have had without hearing from a knowledgeable tour-guide the purpose of each of those desert plants and how they provided housing, medicine and food for countless people throughout the centuries.

You see those plants were strategically created with a purpose in mind - often multiple purposes. Just as we come in different shapes, looks and sizes, we all have purposes. You may not even realize what your purpose is, or you may feel you have so many purposes that you are overwhelmed, confused and therefore unfocused. Many often make the mistake of thinking they are supposed to have one giant purpose that sticks out like a sore thumb, and when they don’t recognize it, they become confused thinking “What’s wrong with me? Why don’t I know what my purpose is?”

I’m a believer that throughout the course of our lives, we have multiple purposes and it’s the things that we have passion for, things we feel compelled to change or make a difference in – those are the callings we have, and we need to press forward with those things.

You all know what my passion is by now. Fitness is such a calling in my life that I live and breathe it. I won’t try to force my passion on you, but one thing I will do is reach out to inspire, encourage, train and motivate you to become a healthier you. You see, when we exercise our physical body, we not only cause it to conform to the state it works most efficiently in, but we also generate a sense of confidence in ourselves that exudes out of our pours; and we all know that confidence is attractive.

Although you may not be “Hollywood worthy” from the outside, once you develop a solid wellness plan, a healthier, more confident you will emerge as your true beauty shines, tapping you into a more purpose-filled life.

Enthusiastically,

Joe Gigantino Jr.