Praise.........

Instruction does much, but encouragement does everything. - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

It costs you nothing. It uses, maybe, 20 seconds of your day. It can be world changing. Everyone should do it every day even if it is just once. If we all did this world would be an amazing place....

Praise. How hard is it....

I was lucky enough to be able to do this three times this morning... It has changed my day and I like to think it has done the same for the people I was talking to. It took no effort since everything I said was true. I didn't have to plan or scheme, it just happened.

Now I will admit that I am a sealed unit when it comes to training time... I am in the gym to train, it is not a social event for me, if I want to chat with someone I have a coffee with them I don't sit on a training bench in the gym and rabbit on for 15 minutes at a time about life in general. People who do this, in my humble opinion, are the ones that also complain that the gym is not making a difference to them.... hmmmmpf wonder why.. My training attitude has even prompted another gym nut, Lisa, to get me a singlet that says.... "Don't be intimidated by these muscles, I'm really a sweet girl, Well unless you interrupt me during my SET!"

But although I am a sealed unit I am also happy to spot or assist anyone who asks me... as long as I am not sitting with the weights above my head in the middle of a shoulder press... which, as ridiculous as it sounds, has happened.... my response was not pretty...

So today even though I was training and not on duty in the gym, when I was asked to spot someone with Dumbbell Chest Press for 6 reps with 27.5kgs I was happy to help. When the bloke managed to squeeze out 9 reps not 6 I was enthusiast in my praise. This person has worked hard to get up to the weight he is now lifting, to be there to see him go beyond his goal was fabulous. To me the best part was that after my praise he quietly said to me... "So if I tried for 30kgs next time I come in will you help me"

While it is easy to praise obvious accomplishments it is just as easy to praise something that you may see as ordinary. It may even seem that way to the person who is achieving it. But by praising them on it, it may make them notice that although they aren't the best and biggest in some things, they are amazing in other ways.

Hello my name is Cathy and I am not a stretcher.... stretching has opened a whole new world to me since I have started my PT course... I am still very much a learner and I am as supple as a wooden beam because of it... So today when I saw two brand new gym members.... one of which is in her 70's stretching down and touching their toes... well I told them straight away how  jealous I was of their ability to do that... which I am, since I have never, not even as a kid, been able to do it....

The smiles on their faces was fabulous, here I was lifting weights that seem ridiculously heavy to them and I was jealous of their ability... their enthusiasm for their session changed completely and so did mine... I finished my session with stretches..... which I would normally manage to forget....

I didn't give out either lots of praise for any reason other than it was due... I did not go into the gym today with the goal of praising others, but doing it has changed my day for the better and I hope it has done the same for the people I spoke to. So maybe today, you could look up and notice what others are achieving and take a deep breath and make yourself feel amazing... and change the world...