Sure, you'd love to get fit, stay fit, and have it all be a piece of cake. But in real life, the cake often seems a lot more appealing than the fitness.

The truth is, when you set out to go from not-so-fit to "Wow, I love my body like this!" you're going to bump into a few obstacles along the way. With that reality in mind, here's a look at the Top 20 Roadblocks To Fitness Success, and how to keep them from kicking you to the curb.

In today's article (Part 1) we'll look at the first three in some detail. I'll cover the rest as we move through his 6-part series.

Success Roadblock Number One: Attacking Symptoms While Ignoring Root Causes

I have listed this as Roadblock Number One for a very good reason. Just as the American "health care" system has degenerated into having a near-total focus on eliminating symptoms without ever correcting -- or even acknowledging -- the real, root cause of a problem, so it is in the areas of fitness, health, and happiness.

You want instant happiness? That's been the pharmaceutical companies' top money-maker for decades. To their way of thinking, getting you hooked on a chemical crutch is just a smart business decision. That way you'll become their bread and butter -- a "repeat buyer."

And just as there's a pill for every little problem with your health (courtesy of your friendly neighborhood pharmaceutical mega-corporation), you can also find a "quick-fix" remedy for your every fitness problems.

There's every imaginable kind of device that promises you the sun, moon, and stars. You want instant weight loss? Saturday morning TV will give you a ton of "solutions." Of course, none of them work. But that doesn't seem to slow down sales very much.

Am I overstating the case? Not really. You see, here in America we are absolutely obsessed with quick fixes and easy solutions. And we'll spend every dime we have to get them.

The tragic irony is that doing what actually works is not only less expensive and much healthier, it's also quicker. Because when you make your changes where it counts -- in your own motivations -- then doing the healthy thing becomes automatic, and you're now set for a struggle-free lifetime of real fitness, great health, and the kind of happiness that no pill can provide.

That's why the major focus of this book is on making changes where it counts, by identifying your self -sabotaging beliefs and attitudes, and replacing them with self supportive ones. And if you will focus on doing that first and foremost, these other 19 roadblocks will become little more than speed bumps that you can step over easily whenever you come to one.

Success Roadblock Number Two: Problems With Goals - (Unrealistic, Lame, Extreme, Vague)

If you don't know where you want to go, how do you expect to get there? And if you don't know where you want to go, any road will get you there. That's why a large part of success involves three basic things:

First you have to be clear about where you are. Second, you have to be clear about where you want to go. And third, you need some kind of a realistic plan for getting there. If you've been following the guidelines laid out for you in this book, you're off to a very good start.

Just keep in mind that setting goals is a process of continual refinement. You don't need to get it perfect from the start. You just need to have a reasonably good sense of where you want to go, and then be willing to continuously refine your goals as you go.

Success Roadblock Number Three: A Fuzzy/ Unfocused / Inconsistent Vision

A goal is something you put in writing -- ideally with as much clarity and specificity as possible -- and a vision is something you see in your mind's eye. It is a picture, an image, of what your life will look and feel like when you reach your goals. Many experts believe that clear vision is the single most powerful factor in propelling you toward your goals.

That's because our brains relate more naturally to pictures than to words. Way back before people could communicate through the spoken or written word, they could almost certainly form images in their minds. And it's been demonstrated time and again that a clear mental image of what you want to experience is an extremely powerful tool for helping you get there.

The problem for most people is that they don't spend very much time focused on what they want, but instead dwell on what they have and don't want. Creating a clear vision and keeping that vision in front of your mind's eye also gives your ego something to attach itself to, which helps transform it from being your worst enemy into being a powerful ally on the journey to success.

The roadblocks you've just read about were excerpted from my new ebook, "Ultimate Fitness Secrets: Revealed!" To learn how to blast all 20 roadblocks out of your way, and discover the secrets of lifelong, struggle-free fitness, bulletproof health, and low-stress living, please visit the UltimateFitnessRevealed.com web site and get the whole story!

Please stay tuned for Part Two!

Copyright 2006 Frank Smoot