Many of us go through quite the physical transformation in our 20’s. Our metabolism slows down and we can no longer eat junk food for every meal. When we get older, we have to be more intentional about our fitness routines.

I invited Kawan Karadaghi onto the podcast to help with this. Kawan’s story will hopefully serve as inspiration for your own journey. Kawan was in his 20s, out of shape, and smoking a pack of cigarettes a day when he got a knock on his door from a friend asking if he wanted to go for a run.

That run didn’t turn out well.

Kawan barely finished a mile, but that run served as the entry point into Kawan’s fitness journey. He left smoking behind and got fit. He was in the gym so often that he decided to make a career out of it.

He started as a personal trainer and quickly set his sights on earning the title of Master Personal Trainer. To do this, he logged over 2,250 hours of coaching in his first 18 months.

Kawan didn’t stop there though. He now owns and operates 3 gyms and started a podcast called ValueVerse where he talks about the stories of mastery, growth, and success.

From this conversation I hope you’ll gain inspiration for jump-starting your fitness journey, when to utilize your ego, and how to be less intimidated when going to the gym.

Key Takeaways:

[2:02] How Kawan started down the path to fitness

[14:33] Kawan’s quest to become a Master Trainer

[25:20] Motivation Self-Determination Theory

[27:43] How to overcome the gym intimidation factor

[33:44] Why Kawan got into entrepreneurship

[42:25] Benching the ego

Favorite Quotes:

[7:53] “How do you know so much about fitness? I just read Men’s Health magazine every day.”

[21:59] “If you want to go in and change 50 things about yourself, it’s not going to work. You have to start with a small thing.”

[44:01] “Ego is one of the things that can drive you but it can also be a detriment.”

References:

7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness by Jeff Olson

More of TSIR:

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