Over the years, on several occasions, I’ve made a trip to Long Beach, CA for the New Balance Area Code Games. This event brings together the top 230 high school baseball players in the country. In 2016, I spoke as part of the opening ceremonies.

I wanted to be succinct with my message, and with that in mind, I chose to emphasize the importance of differentiating between processes and outcomes. This is something I try to hammer home with all our in-person athletes at Cressey Sports Performance, but I feel it’s an important differentiation for all players to make.

An outcome is – for lack of a better term – a result. It’s going 4-for-4 at the plate, getting selected for an all-star team, or getting an “A” on a final exam. It may also be negative: going 0-for-4, getting left off the team, or flunking that final exam. There is never growth in an outcome alone; it’s just something that happens after all the work is done. Unfortunately, it’s been my experience that far too many people – and particularly young athletes who have had considerable success at a young age – become very outcome-oriented. They devote too much time and energy to celebrating their successes instead of recognizing the processes that got them to that end (good or bad).

Conversely, a process constitutes all the habits and actions that lead to an outcome. It’s the hours you spent in the cage fine-tuning your swing before those four at-bats. It’s your efforts and attitude that predated that all-star selection decision. And, it’s your study habits that culminated in your final exam preparedness (or lack thereof).

[bctt tweet=”There is growth in every process, but not in ANY outcome.”]

Not surprisingly, there’s evidence to suggest that outcome-oriented parenting is an inferior approach to process-oriented parenting. You’re far better off praising efforts than you are outcomes, because it’s those efforts that remind your kid to bust his or her butt in everything the future holds. Your work ethic and demeanor from tee ball can sustain for decades to help you in your job as an accountant when tax season is upon you, but don’t expect your 20-year-old trophies to help you out when the going gets tough in adulthood.

Interestingly, though, this message actually has significant parallels to some conversations I’ve had with respect to the fitness industry over the years. In fact, I can remember covering it in detail when I delivered a shoulder seminar to a room of 105 trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, and rehabilitation specialists in Chicago that same summer.

At the conclusion of the event, I had several young trainers inquire about how I wound up where I am. In fact, one even asked, “What do I need to do to be you in ten years?” I always find these inquiries challenging to answer because I rarely reflect on success, and frankly don’t consider myself successful because it’s too early in my career (age 35) to determine that. Perhaps more significantly, though, I can’t vividly describe where I plan to be in five (let alone ten) years. If I can’t be sure of exactly where I’m headed, who am I to tell an up-and-coming fitness professional how he should get to where he thinks he wants to be a decade from now?

With that in mind, my answer is usually necessarily vague:

[bctt tweet=”Embrace processes, but let outcomes take care of themselves.”]

The problem is that the fitness industry is unique in that none of these processes are clearly defined. In other words, there is no strict foundation upon which a large body of work in the field is entirely based. There aren’t many industries like this.

For example, my wife is an optometrist, and she had four years of undergraduate education, followed by four years of optometry school (including clinical rotations), and then board exams before she could become a doctor. There was a set curriculum, and then measures to determine competency in the areas emphasized in that curriculum. And, even after that proficiency was established, Anna did an additional year of residency where she specialized in cornea and contact lens. You can’t just declare yourself an optometrist one day and start a career – but individuals do that all the time in personal training because the barrier to entry is completely non-existent.

So, how do we take this lesson and apply it to our fitness professionals who really want to be great? I think the first step is to heavily emphasize a minimum standard of education: a foundation upon which a career can be built.

While the skill sets needed to be a successful NFL strength and conditioning coach are obviously different than what one would need to do cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation in a clinical exercise physiology setting, there are surely many commonalities across these domains (and everything in between). Here are a few things I think everyone in the fitness field needs to know to create a solid foundation:

1. Anatomy, Kinesiology, and Biomechanics – Structure dictates function, and you have to know what good movement (function) is before you can structure a program to create, preserve, or reestablish it.

2. Physiology – I’m not saying that you need to be able to recite the Krebs cycle by heart, but you should have a clear understanding of energy systems development, the endocrine response to exercise, how various disease states impact exercise, the role of various medications your clients may be taking and a host of other physiological considerations.

3. Coaching Approaches – I’ll be blunt: I don’t think that anyone should be allowed to train someone unless they’ve first completed internships under multiple other credentialed coaches. Massage therapists need to complete hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of hours before they can go out on their own, and I’d argue that a bad fitness professional can hurt people a lot faster than a bad massage therapist. Good coaches understand how to not only deliver effective coaching cues, but also do so in the most efficient manner possible. The only way to get to this point is to get out and coach individuals from all walks of life – and then fine-tune when things don’t work the way you expected.

4. Interpersonal relations – I’ve always been surprised at how little formal training in psychology the aspiring fitness professional gets in the typical exercise science curriculum. And, honestly, I think that the psychology lessons taught in a classroom by a “typical” college PhD (and I don’t mean that disparagingly at all) are likely a lot different than ones you might learn from successful personal trainers who’ve had clients for decades, or strength and conditioning coaches who’ve thrived in college weight rooms for generations. Motivation is a very complex topic. Multiple times in my career, I’ve had a client walk in and start the session with (paraphrased), “So, I’m getting a divorce.” Maybe deciding between a reverse lunge and Bulgarian split squat just became a little secondary?

What These Meant for Me

As I look at these four foundational educational processes, I feel like I was really well prepared on both #1 and #2 when I entered the industry. Having a class in gross anatomy during my undergraduate experience was a game-changer, and I was also fortunate to have some excellent kinesiology, biomechanics, and exercise physiology professors that went above and beyond simple memorization challenges.

Early on, though, I struggled with my coaching approaches. I spoke too quickly, blurted out too many cues, and likely confused a lot of athletes. It wasn’t until I got to watch some great coaches at the University of Connecticut do their thing that I learned to be more clear and concise, and make the complex seem simple for our athletes.

Interpersonal relations seemed to come more naturally to me, likely because I worked at a tennis club for eight summers while I was growing up; I was constantly interacting with members across multiple age groups. However, this has actually been my biggest area of study over the past 3-4 years (particularly because I now have employees), and I always have an audiobook in progress with respect to leadership, communication, motivation, and related areas.

What These Mean for You

Everyone in the fitness field has unique preparation. Some folks are very good technical coaches, but not great communicators. Some trainers have a knack for making movements look good even if they don’t know the exact anatomy governing that clean movement. Some professionals have delivered outstanding results even if they can’t explain the underlying physiological changes that occurred. These successes (outcomes) don’t mean that they shouldn’t constantly be seeking out ways to improve (processes), so I’d encourage you to do a “self audit” to determine your biggest growth areas.

You can shore up a lot of these knowledge gaps with books, DVDs, and online mentorship programs, but I’m of the belief that the fastest way to learn will always be in-person, as you can pick up information on all four components and see how the fit together. Internships and mentorships are phenomenal in this regard; there is real-time application and feedback. Seminars are also be fantastic, particularly when you have both lecture and practical (hands-on) components.