“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” - Mark Twain

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” - Thomas Edison

“Do not wait to strike until the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.” - William B. Sprague

“Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking our potential.” - Liane Cardes

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” - Jim Ryun

“Nothing will work unless you do.” - John Wooden

“Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it.” - Jack Canfield

“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.” - Tommy Lasorda

“Obstacles are those frightening things that become visible when we take our eyes off our goals.” - Henry Ford

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong attitude.” - Thomas Jefferson

“Success doesn’t come to you…you go to it.” - Marva Collins

“Success doesn’t mean the absence of failures; it means the attainment of ultimate objectives. It means winning the war, not every battle.” - Edward Bliss

“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” - Henry Ford

“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” - Henry Ford

“Ideas without action are worthless.” - Harvey Mackay

“Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.” - Napoleon Hill

“Your life will be no better than the plans you make and the action you take. You are the architect and builder of your own life, fortune, destiny.” - Alfred A. Montapert

“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” - John Wooden

“Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means.” - Albert Einstein

“Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.” - Dale Carnegie

“The person who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.” - Dale Carnegie

“Achievement is largely the product of steadily raising one’s levels of aspiration and expectation.” - Jack Nicklaus

“We aim above the mark to hit the mark.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.” - Fitzhugh Dodson

“First you write down your goal; your second job is to break down your goal into a series of steps, beginning with steps which are absurdly easy.” - Fitzhugh Dodson

“Our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds.” - Napoleon Hill

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” - Mahatma Gandhi

There are lots of things to hate about gyms and health clubs, but perhaps the most objectionable thing is that (for most of them) their entire business model is based around the goal of selling as many gym memberships as possible to people who will never use their membership.

The vast majority of people who buy gym memberships never use them, and health clubs know this. That’s their business model. If everyone who has a membership at your local health club started going to the gym regularly, that health club would be screwed because they’d have hundreds (if not thousands) more people at the gym than they have room for at any given time. Their business would quickly fall apart.

The average gym membership contract in Vancouver costs around $50 per month. Pretty common pricing for a gym membership. The problem with this isn’t that $50 is a great deal of money to waste each month. Actually, the problem is that for most people, $50 is a pretty insignificant amount of money to waste on a gym membership each month. So what ends up happening is people buy a gym membership with the best intentions of using it, but never use it, and just deal with the fact that they’re wasting $50 each month on a gym membership they never use.

But the problem with the scenario outlined above goes much deeper than a wasted $50 each month. Most of those people who are wasting money on unused gym memberships aren’t doing any other exercise, and they’re not overly worried about that because they have the gym membership, and they keep telling themselves they’re going to start going to the gym next week, next month, whatever. That perpetually unused gym membership is preventing them from taking action towards finding an exercise program they’ll actually do regularly, and stick with indefinitely.

So what is the real cost of a gym membership for you? Are you putting off getting in shape because you’ve got a $50 gym membership that you’re going to start using next week or next month. For most people with gym memberships, “next week” or “next month” never arrives, and the $50 gym membership is costing them their health and fitness.

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I wrote these fitness tips for a jump rope workout DVD I’m working on, and I’ve decided to post them here as well.

Here are 12 fitness tips for you to help you get the most out of your exercise program:

1) The three most imporotant components of a results-focussed workout program are consistency (workout regularly), intensity (try really hard when you do exercise), and progression (improve from workout to workout).

2) Less is more when it comes to exercise. Instead of increasing your exercise volume, focus on increasing your exercise intensity.

3) Proper breathing can enhance your workout, and improprer breathing can impede your workout. Proper breathing means breathing smoothly and deeply in order to get as much oxygen as possible into your body every time you take a breath. Proper breathing will increase your performance and results.

4) Working out with friends, family, or co-workers who share the same fitness goals can be an additional source of motivation. This type of social support has a very positive impact on your workout consistency, intensity, and results.

5) Avoid dieting, as the temporary nature of diets leads to temporary weight loss. Instead develop good eating habits that you can stick to over the long-term.

6) Be careful how many calories you drink in a day. Most people don’t realize just how many calories they consume through things like juices, coffee, soda, alcohol, etc.

7) The jump rope is one of the most effective forms of cardiovascular training you can possibly do. Every great boxer in history has used the jump rope for endurance and stamina training, and the jump rope will work great for you too.

8) Increasing your strength will allow you to have more intense workouts that burn more calories both during the workout as well as during the post workout afterburn period.

9) Schedule your workouts just like you would any other important appointment, and stick to your workout schedule. The best way to get lasting results is to develop a habit of exercise.

10) Set fitness goals and tell as many people as possible about those goals. This will provide you with an additional source of motivation and also help to keep you more accountable.

11) There’s no such thing as spot reduction, so don’t concentrate your exercise efforts towards specific body parts. Instead, focus on intense total-body exercise to effectively burn fat from your entire body, including your problem areas.

12) The most overlooked aspect of an effective exercise program is that it should be fun. If you’re not enjoying your workouts, you’ll come up with countless reasons not to exercise, and more than likely you’ll eventually stop exercising entirely. So make sure you keep your workouts enjoyable and fun.