Remember Michaels from The Biggest Loser? She was the original female trainer from the US they brought out to launch the show, before passing the baton to Michelle Bridges. Turns out she’s got this whole business around motivating and maximizing your life, and she’s about to tour Australia with a show called exactly that, “Maximise Your Life”.
She’s written seven books, has 15 workout DVD’s, a clothing line and fit products. In short, she’s turned her TV time into an entire lifestyle business. And it’s coming to a town near you. Speaking to Michaels on the phone while she’s still in the States, you can practically see the enthusiasm and energy bounce through her voice down the line. And while she maintains that a lot of her “how” is via the main practicalities of preaching fitness, the rewards reaped are much greater than simply weight loss.
“I started out as a personal trainer at 17, and learned very quickly that it isn’t about building a better body. It’s about utilitising fitness to empower people in every facet of their lives and allowing health to become a platform that you build a better life on top of.”
Makes sense to us. Regular exercise can help maintain a healthy mind, but it’s not just about that, says Michaels.
“I was an overweight kid and then got into martial arts at a young age. I learnt that the more confident and capable I became in martial arts, the more confident and capable I became in real life. In my talk I touch upon strategies for the better way to exercise and healthy eating, but the show is going to teach you that’s all very simple. And if it’s that simple, why isn’t it easy?”
It’s about connecting with your body and using the lessons you learn in a fitness arena to applying them in real life. Michaels says her show is there to empower people with the tools to completely overhaul their future. How?
“The first thing we should do is examine our lives and ask ourselves the tough questions: do we know what our why is? What is our internal motivation? What are you doing at this job? Why are you there? What do you want out of your friendships and romantic relationships? We have to learn how to connect with our passion. Without a ‘why’ to live for, we don’t have any direction. You’re like a ship that’s lost at sea, and you don’t have any goals to got out and achieve. You have no destination. We need to figure out the why before we can move forward and start planning how to get there.”
Right, so step number one is to figure out where “there” is. Once you’ve done that, says Michaels, the next step is to start planning about how to cultivate your passion.
“It’s a bit more complex than this and if you come to my show, you’ll see, but from here I talk about the next step which is ‘Have I cultivated my passion? Have I connected with it?’ Look back at the origins of doing things for other people and ask where did this come from? How do I turn this around? It’s about being present, and connecting with your emotions. I ask people to take a record of what they’re doing on a day to day basis and how each activity makes them feel. Once you see it written down, we can then start to rebuild our worth within our capabilities. Look at what you can do, feel capable about doing it and then plan. Take action and now that you are capable.”
Michaels believes it’s about learning how to connect and cultivate your passions, and taking action in order to make dreams a reality.
“I encourage setting goal pyramids and talk about how to go about achieving the goals that you set for yourself. Set small goals at first, then the more you achieve little goals the more you believe you can achieve bigger goals.”
So, just like everything else in life, it doesn’t happen overnight. Turning your life around and starting to achieve happiness at work or in personal relationships takes time. We often gloss over it, believing all will fall into place, but successful people are successful because they have worked hard to get where they are. Nothing comes cheap, as they say, or easy.
“I ask people to look at where they’re stuck in life, why you’re stuck and talk about giving people the tools to get unstuck and achieve the goals and the dreams that they set for themselves.”
Some might wonder where all this came from, after all, wasn’t Jillian a personal trainer?
“I never really thought of myself as a fitness trainer. I found martial arts and it empowered me personally. Someone saw me training and asked me to work them out, and I got certification and fell into it, but to me it’s always been about helping people build a better life. Fitness has been one tool to do that. The Biggest Loser has provided me a platform to do that, but it’s only one part of it. It’s like saying to an architect, you must love your pencil, but they’re like no, I love building homes and my pencil is my tool. Fitness is one of my tools.”
Jillian Michaels Tour Dates
Brisbane, Qpac Concert Hall
Friday October 24
Perth, Concert Hall
Sunday, October 26
Melbourne Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne
Thursday October 30
Sydney State Theatre
Saturday November 1
TICKETS NOW ON SALE FOR ALL SHOWS
For complete tour and ticket information, visit Jillian Michaels
