Unmasking Greatness
Join Fitness/LifeStyle Expert & Mentor Chris Kakouras talk about maximizing your health, business, mindset, and overall life! Let's get better together as I bring on amazing guest to interview and learn from!
Unmasking Greatness
The Truth Behind Your Goals: Are You Really Committed?
Chris Kakouras challenges you to examine the real reasons behind your inability to achieve your goals. Forget the typical excuses of time and motivation; it's time to get serious about personal growth.
• Addressing the importance of health and fitness in achieving success
• Understanding the impact of your excuses on personal progress
• Unpacking the top five excuses that hinder action
• Insight into how to overcome the "no time" mentality
• Strategies for combating fears of failure and seeking validation
• Utilizing available resources to take action towards your goals
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Welcome to Unmasking Greatness. I'm your host, chris Kikoris, a lifestyle fitness coach and mentor. This podcast is about unmasking your greatest potential, finding your purpose and crafting a life worth living. Health and fitness has been the gateway drug to all of my success. My continuous drive to keep learning and surround myself with other high achievers forces me to level up, which has developed my mind to something I never thought was possible. This podcast is here to share what I've learned and continue to learn with all of you. This is your sign to take back control of your health, mindset and personal environment. Strap in as we are recharged and always find value in the show. Please subscribe and share, as we can all get better together. Let's go.
Speaker 2:What's up guys, welcome to another episode of Unmasking Greatness. I'm your host, chris Kikoris, and today I am in the new office set up, so we are actually this episode in itself. We are going to be testing the audio, so I want to see how things sound. You know, obviously, this office being inside of the gym, there is music outside of these walls, so that is something that I want to just make sure it doesn't bleed into our episodes. It is something that we can obviously turn down and schedule out, which will probably happen, but I wanted to test it with just the normal audio first and roll from there. So this episode, if we hear a little background music, that will be something I will address. But anyways, I got some gems to talk to you guys about. This will probably resonate with everybody.
Speaker 2:Okay, and the topic goes into the fact that I don't think some of you guys really want what you say that you want. Let's get real here for a minute. A lot of us, we all have goals, we have ambitions, and some of you guys say that you want something, and I don't know if you believe that you do, and I sure don't believe that you do, because your actions are saying something totally different and so many of us underestimate the amount of work and time that is required to achieve these goals. You know, when you see very successful individuals and you know it could be financially. You know, again, relationships, their health I don't think people realize the amount of time that went into achieving that, meaning that when people see me and my physique, or even you know a pro professional athlete, you're talking years, decades of training consistently, nutrition consistently. You know, getting adequate sleep consistently. Same thing with, you know, business owners, man, I've seen some business owners that are multi-millionaires and a lot of people like man it just it must be nice. They're so lucky yeah, it's so lucky that they spent 20 years, every waking moment, stressed, working, pivoting, learning skills, investing, winning, losing money. I mean, nobody sees the underlying work that goes involved in it until you're really in the trenches. So you know, I ask you guys next time you say, oh, it must be nice, or you know you must be lucky. Well, guess what? Tell somebody that it is nice. It is nice when you bust your ass for 20 years and you see some benefits out of it. Now I haven't been in business nowhere near 20 years. You know, we're four years deep in the game and I can tell you it's way more than I expected.
Speaker 2:And a lot of people want to get into you know business work for themselves, and they're like I'm just, I can't wait to work for myself. I'm tired of doing this nine to five Well, congratulations. Now you went to five to nine. There's no more. Nine to five is five to nine. So you have done, got yourself into more work.
Speaker 2:Now I think the workload is different. I think the way that you look at it and attack it is in a different vibration because, again, it's yours, it's your business and you ultimately now are in control of either the failure or success that comes along with it. There's nobody else to blame, and so you got to go all in for that. There's nobody else to blame, and so you got to go all in for that. But I wanted to touch on this because, again, I think some of us really need to extend our timeline for expectations and the outcome that we want. When I started getting into fitness and bodybuilding and things like that, it was a lot more work than I thought it was going to be. Same thing in business a lot more work than I ever thought I was going to be doing. So, you know, until you start taking those steps, you start to realize and you start to welcome it over time.
Speaker 2:And so, with this podcast, I really want to touch on five of the top excuses that I hear from individuals that don't believe in themselves. That, you know, are the ones that are using these as anchors to hold them in the same place and not let them move forward and thrive in achieving those goals that they want. So let's just dig into it. So let's just dig into it. I will say this is number one, is probably the number one excuse that I hear from the majority of people and it's no time. Like Chris, I don't have time.
Speaker 2:And initially, when I hear that I'm like bullshit, now, that doesn't come out of my mouth when I'm talking to people. I'm like bullshit, now that doesn't come out of my mouth when I'm talking to people. But that is the initial trigger that goes off into my mind is like I don't believe it. I don't believe it for one minute, and the reason is is because I've worked with so many individuals and when we start pulling back the layers, the reality shows that there is time for you to do things in your lifestyle, but you're not prioritizing it. Nor most people don't even look at their time that they have in a day, in a week, in a month, right? So if you're not planning, if you're not scheduling, if you're not looking ahead, of course you're going to feel like there's no time, you're scattered, and every distraction becomes a new opportunity for you to get you closer or further away from your goals. And so when people say they don't have time, again I don't believe it. You know, I always and again, trust me, I used to say it too Like I don't have time to do stuff, it's not a priority. But when something becomes an itch, an irresistible itch that you have to scratch, that you want to scratch, you will do anything possible to get it. It's just got to mean something to you, which is why I'm so keen for like. Why do you want to reach your goals? You want to be healthy. Why, like? Why does it even matter? And so, again, going back to like.
Speaker 2:When I wanted to turn pro bodybuilding, I didn't have time. Well, guess what? I was working part-time as a personal trainer, full-time in a restaurant, full-time going to college, trying to get a degree and then working out twice a day. How in the world did I find time to do that? Was sleep sacrificed A little bit, for sure, no doubt about it. Was I a little stressed? Yes, was I a little tired? Yes, but was it worth it? Oh my God, hell yeah. When I finally got that trophy and that achievement that I wanted so badly, it was worth all those nights and days of working relentlessly, sweating.
Speaker 2:Same thing with the business. Everybody will say you got to go all in. I think you do got to go all in at some point. Right, we don't make reckless decisions. Going into a business or going into a goal Meaning, if you have zero clients and you want to be a trainer, I would not recommend you go all in. I would recommend get a job that pays you, that you can make money, and you do this on the side until you build it up to a point where you can go all in.
Speaker 2:I didn't go all in until I was making enough money to pay all of my bills. I didn't have extra, I just had enough to pay my bills, and that's when I made the choice to go all in. Could I have waited longer? Potentially, yeah, and I could have saved some more money, but I was ready. I was ready at that time and I made a commitment to myself. So, again, I was in and I was competing then too. So I was there's days. I was doing training twice a day. I was working full time seven days a week in a family restaurant and then, when I would get off at nighttime at eight o'clock, I was doing check-ins and talking to clients.
Speaker 2:So did I have time? Yes, I did have time. Did I want to do it at night and be super tired? No, but I had a vision, I had a dream and you know, here we are now. You know, full time doing this. I have a team of coaches, we have a roster of clients, we got a podcast studio. I mean, we're rocking and rolling and every day is a new journey for me to continue moving forward.
Speaker 2:I'm nowhere near where I want to be. I think that is for me. What keeps me going and keeps me fueled is knowing there's no end to the road. It's wherever I want to take it. So no, time is not an excuse. You guys look at your phones, look at your screen time. Tons of you guys and I do this with clients and call them out. I'm like you guys have four, five hours of screen time a day. How is that even possible? You know, and I'm asking you, I just need three hours a week, a week, to get you great results. So take that no time. Look at your priorities, ask yourself is this really important to you? And you need to plug it in. And obviously there's. There's some additional trainings that go into that when it comes to scheduling and planning, but that's for another podcast. I've actually I probably have talked about it in the past.
Speaker 2:Now, number two once you get past the no time deal, it comes down to well, chris, I don't have motivation, you don't have motivation. All right, guess what? Me neither. Me and you are on the same page. Welcome to the club. I don't think anybody's ever fully motivated all the time.
Speaker 2:Motivation starts to sprinkle on when you start seeing results from the actions that you're taking. When you start seeing the benefit, we get a little excited, we get the endorphins flowing, we get a little motivated. But when you're just starting, if you are waiting, like Chris, I need to find this motivation to get back in the gym. I'm sorry, keep waiting. You're going to be waiting for a long time because it ain't coming to save you. It is not, I hate to say it. Motivation is not coming to save you. You are going to have to push yourself, you are going to have to force yourself into exercising, going to the gym, and you don't have to. Don't put the gas all the way to the floor. Ease into it one day a week, two days a week, three days a week, like build up your confidence and your ability Again, remember, when we start seeing a little bit of progress, when you start building a little bit of confidence by actually committing and following through with what you're doing, you are going to gain a little bit of that motivation.
Speaker 2:And I'll tell you, I've been doing this for over 15 years now. I've been in the gym and, trust me, more times than I would even like to admit, I am not motivated to go to the gym. I'm not motivated to, you know, meal prep. I'm not motivated to drink all the water, like all the things that come along with it, and even business. I'm not always motivated, but I have strategic ways and tasks and planning and scheduling to get me to push through that dip in motivation, knowing that doing the hard shit is going to get me to where I want to be. So I stay hyper-focused and we keep on pushing.
Speaker 2:So for you, that is something that you are going to have to tell yourself and plan it. Don't just tell it. Write a detailed plan. I can't tell you how that, how much that makes a significant difference. You can tell yourself all day, all things, all day long. I mean, I'm sure all of you do that in general. But when you start to write down physically, write it down. You know, tomorrow morning 8am at XYZ gym, I'm going to perform these exercises. Write them down, write the sets, write the reps. I'm going to rest this amount of time in between. The more detailed you get, the better it's going to be, because you are going to go in there with a game plan. There's no hesitation, we're going to execute and we're getting out.
Speaker 2:Last thing you want to do is force yourself to the gym and have no idea what you're doing. You're just walking around, drifting, and then you're going to leave feeling defeated, like nothing. You did nothing, and you're right, you didn't. You didn't do anything other than just show up, which, okay, is one step. But if you're feeling defeated when you leave and not feeling good and energized, of course you're not going to want to go back. We need to get that feeling of progress so you can say I need to go back, I see the benefits in this. So don't wait for motivation. You got to push yourself through it and you know, sometimes, if you just been fighting it for a long time, I think it may be time to lean into having a coach, having a mentor to guide you, to hold you accountable, all right.
Speaker 2:Number three is fear of failure. Fear of failure failing at your goals. Nobody wants to fail. Nobody wants to be embarrassed. You know, especially if you're telling people you're going to do something and then it doesn't happen or you don't do it, we start to play these mind games with ourselves and sometimes I almost want to say I've, you know, working with some people and talking to other prospects and clients. Sometimes it's not fear of failure, Sometimes it's the fear of actually winning and actually being successful. It's such an unfamiliar feeling that we have because we're so used to quitting, we're so used to procrastinating, we're so used to just eating unhealthy, so actually doing something that's good for us feels weird. It's not a normal feeling. So we have to break that mold and so you know again, we can't let ourselves get into our own heads and stop ourselves from moving forward. Failure there's no such thing as failure. My thing is this if you are failing and you're continuing going forward and trying something new, you're learning. You're learning. This is, this is the part of growth.
Speaker 2:Nobody does things that are really extremely hard, and just if it. If people want everything that they did and achieved everything that they wanted, it wouldn't be hard, right? There's no challenges. It's just like walking in and grabbing what you want and leaving. But for us to grow, to get better, we have to put ourselves in hard positions, challenge ourselves. You know, stress, in my opinion, is good. I think there needs to be a level of stress and hardship to mold us into who we are.
Speaker 2:Anybody that has a really easy life. Honestly, they're fragile. You guys are fragile individuals that got everything handed to you. If you got all the money handed to you, you never had to work. You know everything was just given to you on a silver platter. You're, you're fragile because the minute something hard comes up, you freeze. You don't know what to do. You don't know how to handle it and God forbid, something hard gets thrown at you. You're definitely going to crumble, but do you ever talk to people that have been through the slums, you know, lost it all, regained it, maybe multiple times. You know those people, man. They're resilient, relentless. You know because they built up the fortitude to be able to handle those sorts of things.
Speaker 2:So don't be scared. When you start to slowly take on small hardships, you will start to realize you can conquer. And the minute you start to conquer, guess what You're like? What else is out there? Let me take on that next dragon to slay. You know we'll look, we'll lean into the hardships. So instead of you waiting outside the cave hiding behind a rock thinking that you're going to catch some prey, now you're going head first. You're going in the dark cave, you're going to find it. You're going to find it, you're going to tackle it. You got the confidence, you got the skills Handle your business, so don't be scared.
Speaker 2:Number four lack of resources. Oh my gosh, you don't know what to do. This is unfortunately. This is not true in this day and time. Lack of resources is a false story, because you have everything you could possibly imagine at your fingertips at this point in time. You have Google, you have YouTube, you have ChatGPT. I'd be really cautious when you're looking on TikTok because some of that stuff is called that TikTok university Everybody has an opinion, but, again, there's so much out there for you guys to learn from, to try, and it can be overwhelming for sure. There's information overload out there. We don't know what's true, we don't know what's false, and this will also cause people to hesitate. But the point is, if you can find that one or two people to listen to and maybe try one thing, just one small thing that they said that resonated with you and it works, that's powerful. Now you've found a free resource that's going to get you closer and closer to your goal.
Speaker 2:You know, when I was starting my business, I was, you know, basically got into a gym. You know, I had my online clients basically got into a gym. You know, I had my online clients started doing the gym thing personal training and uh, there was. I was doing cardio, cause I was in prep and a way for me to pass the time, cause I would be doing 20, 30 minutes on the stairs. Uh, I didn't want to just stare at the time. That was miserable.
Speaker 2:So I put my headphones in and I would look on YouTube. I'd watch YouTube or listen to a podcast and one of the individuals that I used to watch his YouTube videos was a fitness coach trainer getting I mean he was pretty new at the time being like a mentor, but he was teaching you how to sell, how much to sell for, how to coach. Like the business aspects of coaching that I didn't have the experience in, you know, did I know? How to get people in shape and coach them? Yeah, but client acquisition, how to set up memberships, you know, things like that I didn't know and he was just rolling like just giving free stuff out and I would just take one thing here, one thing there. And you know the next thing I knew after the first year we had over a six-figure business on my first year.
Speaker 2:So that's the power of just taking some free content and applying it Now at some point if you continue to want to thrive. Yeah, free is only going to get you so far, but it is there to help get some good momentum going for you and you don't have to push such a heavy investment in yourself when you're not maybe not fully ready or committed, and that's okay. You know I did in my second year is when I invested into a mentorship and even then I really didn't even have the funds for it then, because it is pricey, there is a price tag that comes along with it and there is risk because there's no guarantees that you're going to be successful. So, and honestly, the way that I view that is just like college. I went to college.
Speaker 2:Heavy investment, I'm sure many of you can relate. There's no guarantee you're getting a job and there's definitely no guarantee you're getting a job in the field that you want. So and I am the you know prime example of that because, getting my degree in exercise science and a minor in psychology, I thought I was going to be a, you know, strength and conditioning coach or something of that sort. Yeah, that didn't work out in my favor. Um, pay, pay for those guys is it's. It's pretty bad. I'll leave it there. And, uh, if you guys have the same degree as me, I hope you're continuing to go for, like, physical therapy or something up in those statuses, because exercise science degree is literally just a stepping stone to something else. So, again, investment, but there's no guarantees.
Speaker 2:You got to take the bet on yourself and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but there's levels to the resources that you're going to get right, you got free. That should get the ball rolling, getting you some results. And then, when you want to take it to the next level, a good mentor or a coach. And then, for some of you guys again, if going back to the no motivation deal, if you are just been like struggling for years and decades, you know sometimes it's better to just bite the bullet, because do you want to really struggle for another years and decades or do you want to just like, let's, let's handle this now. I'm ready, I'm tired of being the way that I am the fifth one. The fifth one is a little bit different. It is asking for permission. Asking for permission to finally take action and go after those goals and dreams that you want.
Speaker 2:Many times people use this as an excuse because they pass the blame to somebody else. They don't want to take ownership of their life and where they're at, so they pass that power to somebody else. They don't want to take ownership of their life and where they're at, so they pass that power to somebody else. Which means, if you're passing power to someone else, that means you are powerless. Does that make sense what I'm saying? So a good example.
Speaker 2:We get this a lot. I'm a person that needs to drop, you know, 50, 60 pounds, whatever. I've got some health conditions and I really need help. Again, I'm that person that doesn't have any motivation. I need accountability. I don't know what I'm doing. You know, put lay it all on the table right. Lay it all on the table, um, listen, you know we want to bring you on board. Where are you at you ready? Uh, and we want to bring you on board. Where are you at you ready? I need to ask my spouse Fair enough, you need to get it Happy wife, happy life, or vice versa when it comes to finances, of course, I understand that, but my question is are we talking finances now? Are we asking for permission? Are we asking for someone to validate the way that we're feeling, someone to say, yeah, I think that you need this. You know you need this. You know you need help. Why are you asking someone that loves you and is supposed to support you to better yourself?
Speaker 2:You know the reality is, many times, these individuals be like well, they love me regardless, and I have no doubts that this individual loves you. All right, let's. Let's lay that out there. I have no doubts about that. But the reality is you don't love yourself. You don't love yourself, you don't respect yourself and you're not willing to take ownership of your own life. The issue with that is your vibrations, your energy that you show up to your household with. They feel that People can feel when you're not happy. People can feel when you're sad. People can feel when you're happy. Right, when you're excited, they're excited, right. You mirror that.
Speaker 2:So if you have a significant other at home, if you have kids at home, don't you think if you were to show up a better version of yourself, you are going to be able to give them a better version of you, right? You're going to show up better for them? Do it for your husband, your wife, your kids. Do it for them. Maybe that's the motivation you need. You're not enough, so maybe you got to do it for them. And they want you, they want you to be there, they want you to be happy. These people love you. Love yourself too, you know. Gain that respect for yourself. And because, again, if you have kids, you know they're going to learn from you. They're watching you. So if they see that you don't care about yourself, you're upset, you're moping around, you're lazy, you know they're going to think that's normal behavior and that's probably what they're going to want to do too. And if you're not happy, why would you want your kids to not be happy? You know, these are the questions I think you should ask yourself. These are the questions I ask myself. You know, I want my son to know that I'm highly motivated, that I work hard, that I don't give up.
Speaker 2:You know, here recently, full transparency with you guys, and you know kids are kids my son will start. He's starting to try things that are like difficult for him. Right, things don't come as easy, even like riding a bike, playing certain games, and he'll be like this is so hard. I don't get it, I'm dumb and I have to stop him. I will stop him dead in the middle of his sentence and I was like we don't talk like that, we never talk like that. Let's figure this out and we'll figure it out together. Now I won't give him the answers. I'll kind of nudge him. You know, kind of nudge him in a direction. You know, coach him, because without him challenging himself, he'll always be looking for someone to give him an answer. And it's the same thing with ourselves. Stop looking for someone else to give you answers. Take ownership of your own life.
Speaker 2:So those are my top five reasons why you know people are just giving up on themselves and the question becomes do you really want what you say you want? Ask yourself, ask yourself that, and if you are, you will be willing to do whatever it takes. Time is not an option. Motivation is not an option. Fear of failure is not an option. Lack of resources definitely not an option, and you ain't asking nobody for permission to reach your goals. We're going after it. So I hope you got some value from this episode. I love you guys. I'm really, really pumped. In the next couple of weeks we're going to start having some guests on here. So we are just again fine tuning this audio. We are fine tuning the lights, the cameras.