Once upon a time, in 1979 to be precise, a four-year old Craig Ballantyne was riding shotgun in his mom's large green car. He certainly wasn't wearing a seat belt either, since it wasn't a law.
On that beautiful sunny day, lil' Craiggy and his mom were on their way home to the farm after a trip into town. Young Craiggy shouldn't have had a care in the world, but he could tell, even at the tender age of four, that his mother was upset. "What's wrong?" he asked her.
As it turns out, his mother had just attended a Weight Watchers meeting. Another week had passed without progress and the lack of results had left her in despair.
Now you have to remember that I was just four years old and somehow I could sense that she was upset - so it must have been bothering her quite a bit for me to notice. And it broke my little heart.
That car ride was over 33 years ago, yet it changed my life. Seeing my mom struggle with her transformation put me on a path from that day forward where I became determined to help others where my mother had failed.
Over the next 20 years little Craiggy studied relentlessly to get the best education he could in order to help men and women just like his mom that were frustrated with their health, fitness, and weight loss programs. And over time he discovered why his mother failed whereas others in what seemed to be the same situation were able to succeed.
You see, my mother lacked the four secret pillars of Transformation Success. Without these four pillars, there's simply no chance of success in a Transformation of any kind, whether you are trying to lose weight, get out of debt, stop smoking, make more money, improve any aspect of your health, or fix your relationships.
I was lucky enough to discover the four pillars by working with thousands of men and women from around the world in my Turbulence Training Fat Loss Transformation Contests. What I found was that there were striking similarities in the way the winners had planned, prepared, and completed their transformation.
Each winner had relied on the four secret pillars of success. These were present in the story of every grand champion, every time. No exceptions.
And then I also learned about the importance of these four pillars the hard way - through my own transformation.
The year was 2006 and as a personal trainer I was getting up at 4:30 a.m. every morning to work on my business before having to meet my first client at the gym at 6 a.m. After a busy morning of back-to-back sessions I'd finally have a lunch break, and my own workout, and then it was back in the gym until 8 p.m.
But being young and still slightly foolish, and living in the big city, my day didn't end there, and I'd stay out late with my friends. I was burning the candle at both ends, as the old saying goes, and it started to catch up with me.
One morning, after a particular rough weekend, I woke up and struggled to breathe. My hands tingled. My heart raced. Was I having a heart attack? Surely not, so I went outside for some fresh air to fix the problem. It didn't work. This went on for days. The days turned into weeks. I tried everything, from yoga to Qi Gong to meditation. Still nothing.
Eventually one day I hit the lowest point in my life. It was an early Monday morning and I was at the gym working with one of my clients, a jolly overweight man in his 50s. Had you looked at the two of us and had to pick who would more likely need a doctor that day, you'd have certainly chose my client, not me.
But for some inexplicable reason, halfway through the workout my anxiety increased. I couldn't stand to be in the tiny exercise room any longer. We had to cut the workout short, and in fact, I had to ask my client to give me a ride to the hospital. It truly was the lowest moment of my life. I was embarrassed and apologetic, but the fact was I needed to get this problem sorted out.
After waiting hours at the hospital and finally having a chest x-ray, I was sent home with a heart rate monitor for 24 hours. Over the next few days - with the help of the four pillars of success - I finally made my transformation. Things changed for me forever and I was finally able to relieve myself of these issues.
But I was only able to do that because I had what my mother lacked in her transformation. You see, the Four Pillars of Transformation Success are Accountability, Social Support, a Deadline, and an Incentive.
When my mother was going to Weight Watchers back in the late 1970s, she had only one pillar working in her favor - that of the accountability of the weekly weigh-in. But alas, there was no social support for her at home from my father. She also lacked a goal - which many people rightly refer to as a dream with a deadline. And finally, she hadn't put any incentive into place for her success.
Without support, there was nothing there to stabilize her when she got off track. Without a plan, there wasn't much of an "on-track" to begin with. She was destined to fail before she started. If only she knew then what I know now, things would have been much different.
That's why all of her efforts failed and left her in so much despair that it changed her four year-old son's life. My mother's struggles taught me valuable lessons that will help you succeed and prevent you from suffering the failure that she struggled with. Her struggles paved the way for success in my own transformation because I had the four pillars in place.
First, I had accountability. At that time I had been working with a business coach on a weekly basis and even though I kept my condition hidden from him, I still had to check in and show him I was making progress on the work he had given me.
Second, I had social support. My best friend had gone through similar anxiety struggles two years earlier and so I was able to lean on him for advice and support through my tough times. I also had the wonderful support of my clients that help me get through those rough few weeks.
Third, I gave myself a deadline. While working with my business coach, we had set a deadline of fixing my website and having a massive product launch for my Turbulence Training program, and there was no way that I could hit that deadline without fixing my anxiety issues.
That gave me a reason to harness the power of the fourth pillar of success, an incentive. I knew that I had to change before the product launch deadline in order to succeed and share my proven fat loss system with thousands and thousands of new readers.
But you MUST have all four of these pillars in place in order to succeed with your Transformation in any area of life.
It doesn't matter if you trying to fix your finances, overcome a bad diet, repair an important relationship, or make any other change in your life, the truth is that you absolutely, positively, must have accountability, social support, a deadline, and an incentive working for you.
Take even just one pillar away and your chances of success plummet. The four pillars allow you a strong and sturdy foundation of success, one that will allow you to make such dramatic changes in such a short time that they will appear almost unbelievable. Trust me, I've witnessed it happen time and time again in my fat loss transformation contests.
Let's review the four pillars of Transformational Success that you must give and receive to make this your Best Year Ever.
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