Finding a Personal Training Client's True Goals

To write a good programme you need to know where the client is starting, where they want to end up, and the route between the two. I'd add one more thing: why the journey matters. Anyone who's raised kids knows a robust reason is what actually gets someone to do something. Why Why So So is how I find that reason.

The first goal is rarely the real one

When you ask a client for their goal, remember all the things shaping their answer:

• Their level of trust in you
• Their desire or need to impress you
• Their knowledge, and their ability to put the goal into words
• How much they've actually thought about their own goals
• The environment you ask them in
• How defensive they naturally are about opening up
• Their willingness to accept why they want what they want

That's not a complete list, but it makes the point: the first answer is quite often not the goal at all. Getting to the real one takes work on environment, experience, timing and rapport — the skills we teach in our courses. Why Why So So is part of that system. It can look like a one-session solution, but it isn't; you may keep doing it the whole time a client is with you.

The Why Why process

Simple in structure:

1. Get in the boat (a topic we cover in the courses — being on the client's side, not across the table from them).
2. Ask why the goal is important to the client.
3. Agree you can help with that goal, then ask why again — this time about the new information they just gave you.

Repeat steps 2 and 3 until the client runs out of whys. The more whys you get, the better you both understand the real end goal, and the more important that goal becomes to the client. For a naturally positive client, this is the most important step.

The So So process

For a more negatively focused client, the So So becomes vital. This is where we find the importance of the goal from the other direction — the consequences of missing it.

1. Ask what things would be like if they missed out on their goal.
2. Agree with their answer, then ask for more depth on what that would mean to them.
3. Continue steps 1 and 2 until they run out of information to give.
4. Draw together a summary of everything you've learned from both the Why Why and the So So — and make your final statement bold, even if it means making assumptions.
5. Let the client correct you, then move on to testing and goal setting.

Here's the interesting part: in the So So you sometimes find the consequence of missing the goal is so significant that it doesn't actually line up with the stated goal. When that happens, you may need to change the goal — because achieving the original one wouldn't help them avoid the outcome they're really afraid of.

Why it works

It's the Why Why So So system that's earned so many FASTER trainers a reputation as mind readers, or soothsayers, or both. It isn't magic. It's just refusing to accept the first answer and being willing to keep asking until you find the goal that's genuinely worth chasing.