Important Note: We are just a few days away from the launch of the new e-book I wrote. Stay tuned for details on how to purchase!
For some, the biggest goal they have is to win a fitness competition. If they do, the day after they are left with this confusing and sometimes empty feeling. Others have their biggest goal of being on a magazine cover. Then it happens and they are left with that same perplexed feeling.
They said it was their biggest, lifelong goal and dream – and now it has happened. It is done. Yet their life basically feels the exact same.
The overwhelming question of “well… now what?” sinks in. I call this the “Success” Hangover.
With the fitness competition – you are one of countless others who have achieved the same goal and there will be countless more who will do it after you. With the magazine cover – within 30 days you are off shelves and the publication is now featuring someone else.
Now I am not trying to minimize the effort it takes to compete or get published – but I do want to help you answer the question of “now what?”
I was talking to a highly published fitness talent and a friend of mine about this. He’s been on multiple covers internationally and nationally and has countless tear sheets from multiple magazines. He will also be the first to admit that if you looked at it directly – he has not made a single penny from all the magazine “work” he has had.
In fact, to create the images to pitch to magazines, he had to pay the photographer to create the photos. So what was the reason behind doing it?
It is not for self-achievement as that feeling is short lived resulting in the “now what?” question.
He does it because he figured out how the media features fit into his real goals in training and online sales of his fitness guide. Each media feature he gets allows him added leverage that he can convert into dollars. This required that he do the upfront work to strategize about his true goals and direction.
The magazine cover was not the goal. It was a means to and end to help him achieve what his goals actually were.
So what is it that you’re trying to do – long term and is what you’re doing now going to help move you in that direction?
James Patrick
jamespatrick.com
instagram @jpatrickphoto
