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You are here: Home / Fitness and Fat Loss / The Danger of Knowing Everything

josh20150602 / August 10, 2008

The Danger of Knowing Everything

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Ok, this hasn’t happened to me in a long time.

I got a "know it all" client.

I’m sure you’ve met people like that before.

You know, they’re spending the whole time trying to prove that they already know everything.

And I guess that would be fine if they really did know everything. 

It’s just that they don’t.

In fact, if they did know everything, they might act a little more humble.

Look, when I’m hanging out with my mentors, I’m not trying to prove anything.

If Pavel or Dave Whitley is talking about kettlebell training, I’m going to shut up and listen.

If Eric Cobb or Zachariah Salazar are talking about movement, I’m not trying to look smart, I’m trying to ask smart questions.

If Alwyn Cosgrove is talking about fat loss, I’m taking notes as fast as I can.

If Dan John is talking about Olympic Weightlifting, throwing, strength, fitness, the weather, or anything, I’m doing everything I can to soak up the wisdom.

Here’s one of my favorite Zen stories:

Empty Your Cup

The Learned Professor came to the house
of the Zen Master to ask to learn Zen.
"You are most welcome, " said the Master,
inviting the Learned Professor in for tea.
They sat on cushions facing each other.
Preparing to make tea, the Master set a pot of water
on the charcoal brazier on the floor in front of him,
while the Learned Professor began to tell of
all of the books he had read about Zen.

The water having boiled, the Master made tea
while the Learned Professor told of all the insights about Zen
he had gleaned from talking to other great scholars.
The tea made, the Learned Professor held up
his cup and continued to talk about Zen.

The Master poured tea into the Learned Professor’s cup.
And he and poured…and poured…and poured,
until tea was spilling over the top of the cup
and cascading onto the floor.

"What are you doing?" cried the Learned Professor.
"The cup is full. No more will go in!"
"Your mind is like the cup,"said the Master.
"How can you expect to learn unless you first empty your cup?"


Three times since becoming a trainer have I’ve had to drastically reconsider everything I knew:

1.) Bring Kettlebell Movements into training fat loss clients – I realized that everyone needs big athletic movements to get results.  Not just athletes.  It didn’t matter much if I used a dumbbell or a kettlebell, people just needed bigger, more athletic movements than they were doing.

2.) Going to the Apex certification – I realized how important a part nutrition plays in fat loss.  I really got that nutrition comes first, and workouts come second.  And that if my clients weren’t keeping a food log, there wasn’t any point in doing anything.

3.) Going to the Z-Health certification – I realized how important good movement is, and that there is a huge cost to training at full intensity all of the time.  I found out that a lot of things I had previously thought was injury, was simply really bad movement patterns.

Three times in my career I had to rethink everything. 

Keep in mind, all three times I was already getting my clients great results.

By being willing to stay hungry, stay a student, and keep an open mind, now my clients get results even faster.  They’re getting faster results, they’ve got a better idea of why they’re getting faster results, the process is simpler, it takes less of their time, and it’s more fun.

I could have settled with "it’s already working" and it would have been ok.

It just wouldn’t have been amazing, shocking, world class, rockstar.

And really, if it’s not all that, why even bother? 

**************

Josh News: Fighter Workouts for Fat Loss is finally done! 

Right now the only people that have access to it are previous purchasers of The Stubborn Seven Pounds and the people who signed up to get notifications about it at the Fighter Workouts Website.

Monday I’m going to be releasing two versions:

Fighter Workouts for Fat Loss for Women – www.fw4fl4w.com

and

Fighter Workouts for Fat Loss for Men – www.fw4fl.com

**************

Josh_bBy Josh Hillis
Author of How To Lose The Stubborn Seven Pounds

Josh is a fat loss expert, a kettlebell instructor and a 24 Hour Fitness Master Trainer in Denver, Colorado.  Josh helps women and men lose stubborn fat.

"I ripoff Josh Hillis’ workouts to use with my clients on a regular basis." Dave Whitley, Senior Russian Kettlebell Challenge Instructor, and owner of Nashville’s best fat loss bootcamp.

© Joshua Hillis 2008

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Comments

  1. SR says

    August 16, 2008 at 11:28 AM

    Got Fighter workouts. A little confused about frequency of workouts and what off days should look like. Just emptying my cup.

    Reply
  2. Laura says

    August 17, 2008 at 10:39 PM

    Can’t wait to get this! I have been waiting on it for awhile now Josh. 🙂 Now I am waiting on two checks to clear Tues….

    Ugh!

    Reply
  3. April says

    August 18, 2008 at 8:01 AM

    So Monday the fighter workouts will be avaliable to everyone? Meaning TODAY!! Oh I am so excited! I can’t wait till I have the spare cash to get this one!!

    Reply
  4. KT says

    August 18, 2008 at 10:38 AM

    How is the new book so different from the Stubborn 7 book?
    Is it maily just workouts or do you address nutrition more?
    Thanks!! 🙂

    Reply
  5. AnnaMaria says

    August 20, 2008 at 4:04 PM

    In my opinion, if you want to tackle any big goal in life, you need to accept the fact that there is always someone who has more knowledge than you. It can be intimidating at first. But in the end, I think it’s wiser to view these people as potential teachers. I can honestly say that being open to honest criticism and new ideas has helped me become better at working out and making smarter food choices.

    That being said, I’m going to purchase the Stubborn 7 Pounds and Fighter Workouts when I get some extra money on hand. I got a sample of both books and thought they were very informative. I need some new workouts to shake up my routine as well.

    Reply

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