Have you ever noticed when you receive a compliment from someone you immediately down play it and try to not make a big deal about it?  Have you been told you looked really skinny in a certain picture and you say something like, “Well the lighting was really good, black made me much skinnier, and I was posed at the right angle.”  Why is it so hard for us to accept compliments?  Or another question… Why is it so hard to let others know about our successes?  I think we don’t want to come off as arrogant or braggish (not sure if that is a word, but it is now).  We all know some of the most annoying people to be around are those who always talk about themselves and brag about what they have done.  I believe it is ok, once in awhile to tell others what you have accomplished.  It helps us celebrate our successes, if we just kept them up all inside and never did anything about them, I don’t think the successes would mean as much to us.

So be sure to post your response to the question at the bottom of this article.

This month I reached a big goal for me, and a huge honor.  I was featured on the cover of my favorite magazine Personal Fitness Professional.  This is the magazine I picked up 6 months before I decided to become a personal trainer, and to be featured on the cover was a huge honor.  I was also told that I was the youngest trainer ever to get on the cover for the “Success Journey” story.  To be acknowledged amongst my peer trainers, who I respect and love so much means a lot.  If you are interested in reading the article, I have included it below.

Here it is!

Being called a “Mama’s Boy” is not something most people take kindly to. Dustin Maher, however, wears the label proudly… and has already turned his self-proclaimed identity, as well as his unique connection with moms, into a growing empire.

Maher’s strength comes from the fact that he knows who he is and where he’s going. The confident son of a stay-at-home mom who sacrificed a lot for her four children, Maher loves working with moms. With a handsome grin and the youthful charm to make any mama proud, Maher (who isn’t married and is nowhere close to busting out of his 20s) proudly proclaims his goal to be America’s Trainer to the Moms.

Maher is blazing his own trail through the fitness world, with three thriving MamaTone classes and an iPhone app developed from pieces of his core training DVD, 300 boot campers enrolled in his 12-location Fit Fun Boot Camp and more than 1000 moms from nine countries having purchased his monthly DVD program, Fit Moms for Life.

But it didn’t start out that way. Maher, from the first grade on, had dreamed of being a weatherman. It was his passion. That is, until his freshman year in college, when his love for fitness clouded over his weather aspirations. He had been studying exercise and nutrition on his own, and Maher began teaching anyone who would listen — which often times was his mom and her postmenopausal friends — the benefits of moving your body and eating right.

So Maher, a student at the University of Wisconsin, switched his major to kinesiology with a minor in business. He also picked up a job at the university recreation center, where he cleaned weight machines and answered questions. Soon, Maher applied to teach a circuit class and got the job. It was his first boot camp style class. He then recognized the need for a 30-minute core class, which Maher felt was his specialty. His boss asked him to write a curriculum for his proposed class. Soon thereafter, Maher and eight other trainers were teaching his core class, which became the most popular class on campus with more than 400 weekly attendees.

It was at the Rec Sports Center that Maher earned his ACE certification and trained more than 30 students and faculty members his last two years of college. During his senior year, a local health club hired Maher. He initiated his core class there, as well as doing general fitness assessments. After graduation, Maher knew he had the tools to begin focusing in on his niche — mothers. He wanted to develop an exercise class for stay-at-home moms, somewhere they could get a great workout, have free childcare and socialize with other moms. Read More