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

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

By 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