Longest blog post title ever?
The title came from a quote I heard Jillian Michaels say during her keynote address at IDEA World Fitness BlogFest on Friday morning.
“Fitness isn’t about building a better body. It’s about building a better life.”
Yes!
I think we all know Jillian Michaels from her role on The Biggest Loser. She’s the trainer who uses tough love and sometimes some seemingly harsh words to motivate her team members. During the question and answer portion of Jillian’s talk, time and time again I heard people begin their question with, “Wow, your speech totally changed my perception of you…”
If you’ve ever watched The Biggest Loser, you’ve undoubtedly pre-selected which trainer you’d want to train you if you had access to The Biggest Loser trainers. I was Team Bob all the way and felt like I would thrive with a softer, kinder approach. Well, after listening to Jillian Michaels speak, I’m Team Jillian all the way. She ROCKS.
In person Jillian was just about the furthest thing from an angry, aggressive trainer. She was humble and compassionate and her love for fitness and desire to help others oozed from every word she spoke. If you’ve ever listened to Jillian’s podcast, you may have known not to expect a speech from a yelling, angry trainer, but she clearly battles this perception of her online TV persona regularly. She expressed frustration with the way The Biggest Loser shows the “madness without the method.”
When Jillian took the stage Friday morning, she almost seemed nervous. And then the room shook from what she thought was an earthquake, causing her to scream hysterically and drop an f-bomb which quickly broke any tension left in the room. She then became 100 percent herself and spoke to us with a friendly demeanor, calling us her colleagues in the world of fitness and reminding us time and time again that anything is possible.
Jillian’s speech went in many different directions and I jotted down a bunch of notes and quotes. Below you will find some of the key takeaways I wanted to be sure to remember:
- Be honest about what you are good at and what you are bad at. Reach out to others who can help fill in the areas of your life that may need a little help. We can’t be amazing at everything and recognizing our weaknesses allows us to address them and seek help when necessary. Jillian hates the “business side” of things and surrounds herself with a team of individuals who help her with finances and business-related decisions.
- Create a detailed plan to reach your goals. Have defined goals. Be specific. Figure out what you want and how you want to get there.
- Establish the WHY and it will carry you through the HOW. Get to the root of why you want to achieve your goals. Understanding your motivation will help carry you through the hard parts.
- Understand you don’t know ALL the answers. Learn from others. Keep an open mind, be flexible and adapt.
- Focus on quality over quantity when it comes to workouts. As a mom, Jillian said gone are the days when she could take a 90 minute workout class located at a gym 15 minutes away from her house. She concentrates on three to four 30-minute workouts that are intense and effective. Quality over quantity!
- When you respect yourself, you command respect from others.
- The worse thing you can do is engage hateful people. Is there someone negative in your life? Don’t engage them. You will likely never change the way they behave and think, so don’t waste your energy. Celebrate your successes and those who are confident and happy in their own lives will be happy for you, too.
- Believe YOU deserve it. Don’t be boastful, but believe in yourself. If you don’t think you deserve success, who will!?
- Mistakes mean you’re trying. Do not be afraid to fail. Failure means you’re learning. Have the strength to take responsibility, re-approach and grow.
- Work with purpose is passion. Work without passion is punishment.
- We can never live without fear, but we can live without regret. Regret stems from what we didn’t do. What we didn’t say.
- To build a person’s belief in themselves, they need to experience success. Create situations where your clients or those in your life can succeed, even if it is in the smallest way. When someone believes they CAN do something, they’re already halfway there.
- When you feel strong physically, you’re stronger in other areas of your life.
Thank you so much to Jillian Michaels for sharing your love of fitness and desire to improve the lives of others with us!
Questions of the Afternoon
- Have you ever heard someone speak in person who absolutely blew you away? Who? What did they talk about?
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I agree completely! This goes exactly in line with how I try to train my clients! Thanks for sharing!
I’m not entirely surprised to read that she’s very different in person from how she’s presented on TV–I feel like so many reality shows are so contrived and fabricated that they don’t come close to anything resembling the truth. I’ve read on a lot of blogs that her speech was great–makes me wish there was a YouTube video of it or something! I’m terrified of failure and I think I don’t push myself as hard as I should sometimes, so thanks for the reminder that failing is okay.
I’ll definitely reach out to IDEA to see if they recorded it somewhere. It was great!
I saw Jillian when she was on your and was equally motivated and inspired. She is so different than the persona they depict on tv. I wish I could have recorded the speech because it was filled with information that applies to all areas of life. I’m so glad I was able to have that experience.
I have read her story and I went from not liking her to really loving and respecting her. And her pants are adorable! It shows that everyone struggles but yes health is all about building a better life! We have to love ourselves to be happy!
Such a great recap! That was my favorite part of the conference last week. She was SO funny and inspiring. And just like you I used to be “Team Bob” but I’ve converted to Team Jillian. Ha!
Sounds like she has a lot of positive things to say! I’ve always liked Jillian Michaels and looked at her as a role model.
Thanks to her podcast, I totally LOVE Jillian! She has great life tips as well as fitness ones!
Such a great post thanks Julie ! Going to apply this today 🙂
That’s exactly what I needed to get through today! I work in fundraising, and it can get so stressful. Thank you for the positive thoughts! What a great speech!
I love Jillian Michaels. I read her book a while ago and it completely changed my perception of her. Thanks for sharing highlights from her speech.
I love that point about having specific goals. Working towards something that is defined helps me get there. Having vague goals are always tougher for me to get to.
This is awesome! You’re totally right in the fact that I also thought Jillian Michaels was a tough, somewhat harsh trainer, but I’m glad you’ve shared her true persona with us all! Her advice and remarks are so inspirational and helpful. Thanks, Julie!
Hi Julie! It was so nice meeting you at Blogfest! Thanks for being one of my inspirations in starting my own blog 🙂
I absolutely loved Jillian Michaels’ lecture too and thought she did such an amazing job! I also felt like I was furiously writing things down — didn’t she offer so many great life motto one-liners and tidbits to always keep in mind?!
Great recap! I love her tips.
I went to her Maximize Your Life tour earlier this year not knowing much about her. I was BLOW AWAY! She is the most motivating and captivating person I have ever hear speak. I love her talk about figure out your “Why” and it is SO true! It is so easy to work for what you want when you figure out exactly what that is. Ummm ps I really want those leggings she’s wearing.
This sounds so awesome! Just the short bolded statements you jotted down from her are so inspiring. On her podcast this is how she comes across-a great fitness inspiration and an incredible life coach who is really motivating. I appreciate that she is real too–that she’s all about failing a bit so you can really succeed.
All great points! I’m on both Team Bob & Team Jillian — I think they’d both be amazing to work with! 🙂
What great takeaways! Thanks so much for sharing them with us!
I haven’t heard too many people speak in a setting like that but I did hear Samantha Brown (from the Travel Channel) speak at an expo once. She had such a great outlook on things that would force me into a meltdown mode. She was so inspiring she made me want to travel everywhere!
Sounds like such an amazing speech to be able to hear live. I love the points you took away and think it’s important to remember those every day. Thank you for sharing!!!
WOW! Thank you for sharing. My friend and I have done the 30 Day Shred and often (LOVINGLY) refer to Jillian as a “dirty pirate hooker” for putting us through the painful workouts (that we love to hate)! (seriously – just our dry humor in that reference because her workouts are soooo hardcore & a good challenge) HAHA! But I’m sending my friend a link to this blog post right now and saying she’s an INSPIRATIONAL DPH 😉 The quotes you listed are ones I will refer back to in more aspects of my life than just fitness! Thank you!
Work with purpose is passion. Work without passion is punishment.
I LOVE THAT SO MUCH! Loved all of this! She’s incredible and SO inspiring.
longest/best blog post title ever.
Wow, such great tips! Jillian has always been my favorite on BL! Love her!
I absolutely adore Jillian Michaels.
These are so great! I am definitely going to have to remember some of these. It can be hard to stay motivated day after day, we are all human and have days where we get discouraged. Whatever the goal, it’s important to keep your endpoint in mind, be flexible, understand what you can and can’t do, and accept failure as a part of progress. I would imagine that it is even more difficult when you are a personal trainer, and you’re expected to be driven enough to not only motivate yourself to get up and work out but also to be a source of motivation for others every day. I am always impressed with trainers who seem enthusiastic all of the time, and I’m sure some days are tougher than others to muster all that excitement.
These tips apply to all of life, too. I am not a personal trainer but I still have to motivate myself to get out there and train every day. Some days, I love it. Some days, it’s the last thing I want to do. And there are days when I don’t have the hours I used to have, when I would run for an hour, then drive to the gym for an hour long yoga class, then come home and prepare a healthy dinner. Now I have to prioritize more, and split days into yoga days, core days, and running days. I think it has helped me to find a better balance, but it is a constant effort to keep things in check as well.
I will certainly take these quotes to heart, thank you so much for sharing!
I love Jillian! Her DVDs are awesome and the 30 Day Shred always kicks my butt and makes me sore the next couple days! Very effective 🙂
So cool that you were able to see her speak! I was the same way- whenever I watched BL I was like “I would NOT want to be on her team!” but I did love the segments where it would show her sitting down one-on-one with a contestant and was super sweet with them!
You HAVE to check out her podcast! For so long I thought Jillian was mean & intimidating, but then I listened to her podcast and my perception was totally changed. Her podcast is hilarious and covers much more than just fitness/health. She’s actually really deep!
I am so jealous that you got to see her. I have always loved her and as someone who has watched the Biggest Loser since inception I definitely saw her character evolve into someone that I didn’t like on the show, but as someone who also owns all of her workout DVDs I never believed she would actually beret anyone. My favorite part of any of her workouts is at the end where she reinforces how hard you worked and how proud you should be of yourself for taking time out of your day for you. Thanks for sharing what you got to hear, I’m sure it was a great experience.
I’ve always liked Jillian Michaels. I think she gets a bad rap because reality tv only wants to show one side of her.
I listen to Jillian’s podcast regularly, and she always talks about how she is mis-portrayed on Loser. I think she’s amazing!! I think the best person I’ve heard speak in person would have to be either Gabrielle Bernstein or one of my professors from business school!
Aww I love this. I hate the methods behind Biggest Loser but I have always liked Jillian and known that she is probably a pretty awesome person. I love those quotes and ideas. I need to jot them down too!
Love Jillian! Her workouts are really no-nonsense, which I appreciate. Also, her podcast is pretty good.
This has nothing to do with Jillian, but knowing your love of Vizslas, you have to watch this video:
Lazy Vizsla really doesn’t like mornings…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5JBR753Ypg
Sooo cute! My boyfriend and I want a dog and he really like Vizslas. This video might be the deciding factor. Haha!
This is great! Thank you for sharing. I wish I had the opportunity to meet Jill in person. She is truly inspiring.
http://aniqadreams.blogspot.com
I’m so happy that you shared your notes from the talk. I’ve been waiting for this!
I’m a HUGE fan of Jillian and her podcast. She is really such an inspirational, intelligent person who just “gets” fitness and what it’s all about. It’s also really interesting how the Biggest Loser really crafted an inaccurate public perception of her. Just shows what TV can do..
Exactly!!
Thanks for sharing Julie!
After reading this, I realized I needed some of these tips in my life xx
I have heard Jilian speak last year at Sweat USA. She was very inspirational but her speach was very short.
A few months ago, I heard Vikki Gunvalson from the Real Housewives of Orange County and she was absolutely the best person I have ever listened to.
I love this!!! I’ve always been Team Jillian for some reason haha
I have heard Jilian speak last year at Sweat USA. She was very inspirational but her speach was very short.
A few months ago, I heard Vikki Gunvalson from the Real Housewives of Orange County and she was absolutely the best person I have ever listened to. I did a review of it on my blog.http://skinnyfitalicious.com/az-womens-expo/
My favorite speech I ever heard was my commencement graduation speech. It was given by a navy admiral who shared lessons from his seal training and how they apply to conquering the hardships in life. Our school motto is “What Starts Here Changes the World” and he talked about how even the small things like making your bed can help you conquer the big things and consequently, change the world. It went semi-viral but I watch it when I’m having a bad day! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxBQLFLei70
Wow! That was powerful. I really needed to read this today. I am going to search for her podcasts! Thanks so much for sharing!
I LOVE THIS! I’m printing off a copy! Thanks so much for sharing:)
Awesome! I just started up my Bloglovin’ account and found this under “most popular posts.” And I see why! I always get so down on myself because I’m not at my goal weight, and I sometimes think that people doubt my effort. This reminds me that the journey is not about the body, instead, its about helping people and living your dream.
I’m glad you found me, Jessica! Thank you for reading. And yes, this sentiment definitely resonated with me as well.
You should listen to Jillian’s podcast! I’ve always been team Jillian, but I’ve been listening to her podcast for a few years now and it made me fall even more in love with her and her training ethos! On her podcast, she not only gives great fitness (duh) advice, but also talks about getting through life obstacles!
Hi Julie!
It is official… I am obsessed with your blog. I am doing the 3-day Susan G. Komen breast cancer walk this year in Atlanta, which is what initially started my search for fitness and health advice. I have been training for the walk in October, obviously by walking miles and miles, as well as running in the morning and cross training in the gym. The thing I struggle with most is what to eat pre-work out, mainly for those early AM workouts. Any advice?
Loved her so so much! Great recap of her highlights. So many great quotes in one hour!
Thank you for sharing this! I’ve only seen Jillian’s TV/DVD “tough trainer” persona, and found it to be hugely unappealing…but from everything you’ve shared, she seems compassionate, relatable, and inspiring. I’ll have to check out her podcast. Judging from what she had to say at IDEA, I think I might love it!
Thanks for sharing this info! I have a funny opinion about JM. She has had a great career and knows her fitness/nutrition stuff so well, but when she ventures into theology or relationships on her podcast, I say to myself “oh my”. :0) She’s someone I like and respect but disagree with sometimes. Still, I would have loved to hear her speak! We can’t all have the same opinion!!
I thought I posted this yesterday, but I can’t find it…
Anyway, Jillian is my favorite trainer. What podcast did you start with? I would love to listen to one of her’s. Thanks for posting your recap.