Gaz Burrows - Strength Coach

HYROX Manchester finished me this past weekend, but really enjoyed it.

So much to work on for the next and a humbling experience of where my strength and fitness levels are currently at, but it’s inspired and motivated me to keep pushing forward.

I’ve got a time on the board now that I KNOW I can beat.

Let’s go 2025.

🎯 NOW IS A GOOD A TIME AS ANY TO START GOAL SETTING

And more importantly, actually achieving.

But, so many don’t.

And January is prime time for everyone setting goals with the best intentions only to be in the exact same position 3, 6, 9 months or even a year down the line.

So if you’re serious about achieving your goals, don’t do these things and ready the small text.

Because it matters and it’s what is required.

Setting goals means absolutely nothing if you don’t actually go out and achieve them.

With 2025 round the corner, make it the year you actual step up and say this year, I’m getting it done.

If times feel tough at the minute and you feel like you’re getting nowhere, check in on these 9 things.

When you’re struggling to achieve what you want to achieve, know this…

Being consistent when it’s hard to be consistent is the key to achieving that goal.

It’s easy when we’re motivated.

It’s what we do when we aren’t.

Show up and do you best.

A real sad thing in life for a lot of us is when we seem to settle for what currently is.

Despite being unhappy with our situation, how we feel or how we look, we just succumb to the fact that this is us for life.

You know this by our language, either through the way we vocalise our thoughts to those around us or the narrative we tell ourselves, through to the way we act.

“I’ve always been overweight so that’s just me”, “I’ll never be able to achieve that” or “I wish I could….”

It’s this kind of dialogue that basically shows that we ARE what we say, that we CANNOT change and that we are UNABLE to progress, or to become who we want to be.

This is clearly not true.

We can change, we can become a better version of the person we are today and we can ultimately thrive and not just survive each day getting by feeling unhappy and unfulfilled.

So how can this happen?

There are so many things to consider but here are a few really important points I’d recommend paying attention to at first.

1️⃣ DISCARD LIMITING BELIEFS
You can, end of. It may take a while to achieve and it may look so far off it’s near impossible, but you can get whatever it is that you want to achieve done.

2️⃣ KEEP ON LEARNING
You don’t know it all. No one does. Keep learning by researching things you enjoy, asking questions and listening. Listening results in learning more about yourself, which is how we progress.

3️⃣ TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF
Exercise, stay mentally strong, eat well, build solid connections, don’t go in too hard on yourself and do the things daily that are going to support your health and wellbeing. Be in the best position to make strong, positive steps forward.

4️⃣ TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY
Let go of the past, accept your choices, trust your decision making going forward and OWN your life. We’re not going anywhere passing the book and denying responsibility. Take complete ownership for everything you do and be in control of your thoughts and actions.

In short, life isn’t about just “surviving”.

It’s about being happy, healthy, sharing your passion and living your authentic life where you can contribute to hopefully helping and inspiring others to do the same.

↗️ HAVE YOU BEEN STRUGGLING WITH CONSISTENCY?

Be it with the gym, work, or when progressing toward anything in life?

If so then this simple mindset shift can really help.

Think long term and not just on the short term.

Most of the time we set ourselves these micro goals from the start which we have a lot riding on in determining our “success”.

The gym is a huge one.

We set the consistency goal of attending 3x a week, but if we can’t make 3 and attend twice one week we see that as a failure, get disheartened and ever stop completely.

Think of the bigger picture during these times, and that often the “failings” we place on ourselves aren’t failings at all over the grand scheme.

In fact, it’s those incremental progressive steps that are key and what we need to build success over time.

If it’s on your radar and you’re doing it in any capacity, you’re being pretty consistent long term.

Keep doing it.

🎯GOAL PROGRESS vs HAPPINESS

Life is about setting goals right?

If we don’t have a goal to progressively make steps towards then what’s the point – even if the goal is to be in a happier, healthier position in the future.

But can we get fixated on the goals so much, on achieving that desired result, on being that person, that we sacrifice so much of our happiness right now in the present?

I often ask myself this when reflecting on my own personal progress.

Yes, it’s important to first define what progress is to us, but it’s equally important to make sure we feel happy whilst making moves towards that goal.

Otherwise, what’s the point?

I think we need to look at the goals we are setting ourselves to help us feel happy throughout the process of achieving them.

Are your goals long term?

Do they excite you?

If not, then the process set to achieving that goal will often be a pretty miserable one.

It’s really common to see goals or even other peoples successes (which can typically spark the setting of personal goals) being put up on a pedestal.

Literally basing all their choices, actions, and thoughts off one goal and it can result in living a miserable life.

Take an elite athlete.

We only see the end result, the trophies, the medals, the star performance.

We don’t see all the sacrifices or potential mental turmoil behind the scenes that was contributing to their final winning performance.

This is why it’s important to shoot for what really rings true to us, making it realistic and achievable within our lifestyle, but most importantly making sure the steps in order to reach that goal are contributing to our overall happiness.

What’s the point in having a fat loss goal if we are stressed counting calories each day, working out frantically to burn off that “bad treat” or looking in the mirror daily beating yourself up over what you see.

Why not flip perspective, think of the long game, maybe reassess goals to make the steps fit within your lifestyle and gain back a little day to day happiness?

This I feel is what is important and what is required for ongoing progress whilst living a happier life with a little less stress.

🎯 YOUR GOALS WILL SHIFT 🎯

So we want to achieve something, we set a goal and begin to work towards it, but do we know when to CHANGE that goal?

➡️ Our goals will change.

Either because of how we feel, or our situations change or our responsibilities are altered, even if our time availability is different.

Life changes and as a result it’s important to shift our goals to reflect how we feel or what our situation is at the time.

This isn’t to say we should be switching goals daily depending on our mood and motivation levels, but more assessing where we are in life regularly and if we moving towards who we want to be.

It’s so common to hear a forever goal of “fat loss” for example, consistently chasing that goal on what seems like a hamster wheel week after week.

Why aren’t you achieving that fat loss?

Maybe work is busy. Maybe life is stressful. Maybe your schedule is a bit tight for training. Maybe energy levels are low.

This is fine, reassess, realign, and plan some new goals.

There is a reason why you aren’t achieving what you want to achieve and it’s important to be honest with yourself.

If your heads not fully in it then it’s time to switch goals and there is nothing wrong in doing that.

Life has changed a lot for me over the past couple of years.

I’ve welcomed my daughters, I’ve began to rebuild and progress with business, I’ve been studying for exams, I’ve been working towards settling into a new routine whilst adjusting to sleep and time disruptions.

My goals in the gym have changed as a result.

My priorities have shifted.

I’m not going to be training 4-5 times a week at the minute, really pushing myself physically, because that just won’t be achievable for me right now.

I’m training to support my health, to SLOWLY build on strength and to work on mobility and movement.

I’m happy to get in 2 sessions in weekly.

I’m not chasing goals I set 2-3 years ago because life is a lot different now and I need to support that change.

In short…

Consistently reassess where you at in life and what your current goals are to work to ensure they begin to align, because if you don’t you’ll end up feeling so much more frustrated and stressed.

➡️ HAVE A GOAL OF FAT LOSS?

It may be time to have a rethink.

Fat loss is a legit goal that has a tonne of benefits, from looking better to being healthier overall.

But it’s often approached in such an unhealthy way that it can be completely detrimental to our progress long term.

In this post I share 3 main reasons why it may be time to rethink your goal of fat loss, or at least put a different spin on the goal as a whole.

I’m sure it’ll help create a much healthier mindset around losing weight and add a little perspective.

The price we pay daily, the goals we set long term and the way we manage and accept progress are key areas that can almost make or break us at times and it’s so important I feel to acknowledge these key components which ultimately make up the overall success.

What do you think?

➡️ FEELING A LITTLE OVERWHELMED?

The feeling of overwhelm can happen to us at any time really, usually triggered by a perceived lack of time, change or increase of responsibilities or when we feel we must be meeting a level of expectation.

Situations like this will probably happen to us all at different periods of our lives.

For me, becoming a Dad twice over and trying to balance out all that entails has been an overwhelming experience at times. Parenting, work, sleep, training, studying, socialising, relaxing, trying to balance out this mix has felt near impossible and I’ve definitely struggled.

It can lead to us wanting to give in and distant ourselves, but there are some areas to consider when feeling completely overwhelmed to help us understand it a little better.

Here are a few.

Hope they help.

Give this a share if you feel it helps you or may help others.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 🥂

To all of you that follow me on here and to everyone that have supported me over the year.

I hope you’ve all had a fantastic New Year and are ready for 2024.

Goes without saying that my year, like most, has been really challenging.

The year kicked off with me taking over my facility as a solo owner and as a result taking all responsibility and workload too, which of course has been exhausting.

We stand right now though as the most successful we’ve ever been in terms of members, day to day running and overall atmosphere and community, so that is something I’m extremely proud of.

Then came my 2nd daughter, Penelope, in April which just upped the Dad life game tenfold.

Since then it’s felt like a survival game to be honest, doing what I can, when I can, just to get through the day at times and it’s been physically and mentally depleting.

After spending so many years “optimising” sleep and recovery, to have that stripped away from me has been absolutely brutal and to be dealt the unfortunate card of having a couple of kids who don’t sleep well has wiped me out.

After all is said and done this year I feel I have done all I can to be the best Dad and gym owner I can be, given this challenging, yet rewarding stage of my life.

I’ve neglected a LOT this year though.

My personal health being a big one.

Not through choice a lot of the time but through trying to simply preserve what energy and mental capacity I had to get through the day, operate the gym as best I can and be present and engaging with my kids.

This has to change in 2024.

One way or another I have to start being more consistent in looking after myself and progressing with my own health and lifestyle goals.

It’s one of those things where I can say it’s something I’m going to do this year, but putting it into practice is going to take a LOT of effort, planning and prioritising.

But this is the goal and it’s something I’m going to try my absolute hardest to do.

Thank you once again if you’ve ever supported my page, messaged, commented or even purchased a program or joined my gym.

It makes absolutely everything worthwhile.

Happy 2024.

➡️ WE ALL WANT TO LIVE HAPPY LIVES RIGHT?

A happy life is largely built on how mentally strong we feel.

It doesn’t matter about where we live, what we’ve got, how much money we have or how “successful” we are if we’re not mentally in a good place.

Getting to a place where you feel mentally strong takes time and it’s not something we’re supposed to feel year round, forever.

We’ll get down at times, feel stressed, experience trauma and come up against some real tough challenges in life.

We’re not to ignore this or dismiss “negative” feelings.

Instead, we train the mind like we would a muscle and build strength.

These 3 things helped me a tonne in acknowledging my mental health, and building a life and mentally to begin to best support it.

What would you add to this list that enables you to build and maintain mental strength?