A recent trip to Los Angeles teaches BodyTek trainer, Mitzi Archer, something about determination.

If there‘s one thing I learned from a recent trip to Los Angeles it’s that the place is packed with determined people.

You'll see it in the old lady's face who barely speaks English and who
works behind the counter at the dorm-room-sized Dos Tacos restaurant on
Hollywood Boulevard.

You'll hear it when a car salesman named Frank tells you how he traveled
the world, lived most of his life as an alcoholic, sobered in Los
Angeles and now makes good money. Only now he wants to bank the cash and
go home, to the Philippines, to pursue his real passion as a sculptor.

And there's Corey, who works with Frank, a salesman by day and musician at
night. He's hanging on by a guitar string. All his roommates moved back
home because they gave up on becoming actors or actresses.

These are the people I met recently - a two-day stint in
Hollywood to help my husband move as he started a new job in a new place.
I watched them work. I listened to their stories.

We all have similar stories. We all have set out to accomplish goals. Without determination we’ll never reach them. But what is it exactly?

A quick internet search results in a few dozen definitions of the word. One definition stuck out from all the mumbo jumbo:

1. The act of making up your mind about something

It’s simply put but it makes a lot of sense.

The point is that no one can give you determination. It’s something that has to come from inside of you.

It’s something that we all need whenever we walk into a gym or start a workout.

Each time, we have to make up our minds to run harder, lift heavier, look leaner, hang in there for one more set. It’s hard, I know, but making up your minds to get it done will give you the momentum to keep going despite the odds.

And, just when you think that you can’t give anymore and that you’ve had enough, it’s your determination that will push you forward and toward your goal. All you have to do is make up your mind first.

How badly do you want to lose weight? Gain muscle? You have to want it enough to be determined to do it.

As I recall Frank, Cory and the old Spanish lady in Hollywood I think about what made them leave their homes and family members to venture to California. I think about Jake, my husband, who’s there too and living out his dreams as a musician.

Determination clicked in their minds to move, to take a chance on themselves, to make things work.

All of them are confident that they won’t fail.
All of them are determined to succeed.

Are you?