I Wrote a Book: Here’s How

12 Minute Athlete book

Note from Krista: This post actually has very little do with fitness but does have quite a bit to do with many of the mindset techniques we’ve discussed recently on the blog. If you’re not interested, no hard feelings at all.

In case you haven’t heard, my first published book is coming out soon (March 31st, to be exact!).

If you haven’t already, you can pre-order it here.

(If you’ve already pre-ordered it, THANK YOU.)

I thought it might be cool to write a post on how I actually went about writing and publishing a book for those of you who are interested (and if you’re not, here are a bunch of fitness-related posts).

Why should you care?

Well, aside from those of you who might actually want to write a book of your own one day, the very same principles and mindset techniques that I talk about over and over when it comes to leveling up your fitness are also the same techniques I used to write this book.

This is one reason I love fitness so much and try and my best to convince everyone else to love it too: so much of the mental toughness you’ll build when working to become a better athlete can also be applied to the rest of your life.

Growth mindset? Check. Goal setting techniques? Check. Grit and perseverance? Check.

Working to build strength, stamina, and new skillsets through fitness teaches you how to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, an invaluable skill to have in any area of your life.

So, with that in mind, here’s how I applied many of those same techniques to writing and publishing a book:

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Beginner Handstand Challenge: Week 3

12 Minute Athlete

We’re more than halfway through our Beginner Handstand Challenge!

This week we’re focusing on the next step in the handstand journey: handstand wall scissors.

One of the hardest parts of learning to do a handstand is getting over the fear of falling over and learning to balance in a handstand.

When the wall is there to support you, you can build up your strength and confidence being upside-down.

But when the wall is no longer there…

…it’s SO easy to lose confidence and forget all the skills you’ve gained until now.

You’ve built the strength.

You’ve put in the time.

You CAN take this next step.

Don’t give up now!

Follow along with the 12 Minute Athlete community by posting pictures of your progress on our Facebook group, and tag us at @12minuteathlete and #12MAhandstands.

Remember, one lucky challenge participant will win a copy of my NEW book!

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Beginner Handstand Challenge: Week 2

12 Minute Athlete

It’s week two of the Beginner Handstand Challenge, and this week we’ve got two new essential handstand skills to share: wrist warm up exercises and chest to wall handstand holds. We’ll also look at how to build confidence falling out of a handstand.

(Missed week 1 of the challenge? Find it here.)

While a freestanding handstand might seem far away right now, if you keep practicing the skills we’re focusing on in the 12 Minute Athlete Beginner Handstand Challenge, you’ll be working your freestanding handstands before you know it.

Follow along with the 12 Minute Athlete community by posting pictures of your progress on our Facebook group, and tag us at @12minuteathlete and #12MAhandstands.

Remember, one lucky challenge participant will win a copy of my NEW book!

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Beginner Handstand Challenge: Week 1

12 Minute Athlete

Welcome to week 1 of the Beginner Handstand Challenge!

We’re kicking off the challenge by focusing on two essential exercises that will help you build the strength, endurance, and positioning you’ll need to be able to eventually hold a freestanding handstand: hollow body holds and half handstand holds.

Why aren’t we starting our handstand challenge with a freestanding handstand? 

When you’re learning a new skill, it’s important to break it down into small, manageable steps.

It can be tempting to start with the end goal, especially when it’s something as cool as a handstand. But this approach can actually get in the way of your progress and lead to discouragement, quitting, and worst of all, injury.

Learning a challenging new skill like handstands will take time and hard work. It’s not going to happen overnight, but working hard on it over the long run is SO worth it.

Learning a new skill like handstands takes time and hard work. It’s not going to happen overnight, but working hard on it over the long term is SO worth it. 

Follow along with the 12 Minute Athlete community by posting pictures of your progress on our Facebook group, and tag us at @12minuteathlete and #12MAHandstands.

Remember, one lucky challenge participant will win a copy of my NEW book! 

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The 12 Minute Athlete Beginner Handstand Challenge

12 Minute Athlete Beginner Handstand Challenge

The 12 Minute Athlete team is so excited to share our latest community challenge: the 2020 Beginner Handstand Challenge!

We’ve heard from many of you that one of your long-term goals is to crush a freestanding handstand. So we’re dedicating our next month-long community challenge to helping EVERYONE get their handstand practice on.

We’ll break down the steps necessary to work up to a solid handstand, send handstand-themed exercises and tips to help you build up your strength and endurance, and share our favorite ways to add extra challenges to handstand work.

Handstands are one of our favorite skills for so many reasons. Once you get hooked on them, handstands can become part of a lifelong journey.

Let’s get to it!

(Looking for the Week 1 exercises? Click here to visit the Week 1 challenge page. Then download the challenge overview here.)  

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Get Grittier: Why Improving Grit is Essential for Lifelong Fitness

We’ve all done it: made a big, far-reaching goal that’s exciting, challenging, and even a little scary.

You start out strong with big aspirations. You may even tell a few friends or family members.

And while the initial push goes well, before long, you start to struggle.

Life starts to get in the way. One missed workout turns into two. The deadline to sign up for that race you were so excited about comes and goes.

Before long, you’re making excuses about why your goal wasn’t realistic in the first place.

You see other people stick with programs, skills, and difficult challenges and eventually accomplish amazing things…

…but you just can’t seem to stick with anything.

Whenever this happens, it’s easy to get disappointed and feel like you can’t accomplish anything. But that’s not the case.

You’re not hopeless. You just need to build some grit.

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How to Get Better at Goal Setting

The health and fitness community loves to talk about setting goals—especially around New Year’s, when so many people make goals for the rest of the year.

But the percentage of people who set goals January 1st then actually go on to achieve those goals is minuscule.

In fact, while the average person sets a number of New Year’s resolutions at the beginning of the year, nearly 80% of people have given up by the end of a 30-day period. And only 8% of people actually follow through on their resolutions and end up achieving their goals.

So what’s going on here? Why can’t people stick to their goals?

It’s not because everyone who sets New Year’s resolutions is automatically unmotivated and not driven to succeed.

It’s because most people don’t actually know how to set goals that stick.

Goal setting is an incredibly powerful way to boost productivity and performance, which is why we talk about it so much here at 12 Minute Athlete. Thankfully, even if goal setting isn’t something you currently consider yourself to be very good at, you can get better at it.

First, you’ll need to understand how to set better goals. From there, you can learn the simple tricks that will help you to stick with them over time, even when it gets tough.

Better goal setting means more goals achieved, period.

Let’s look at how to start improving at goal setting so that you can crush your goals all year round.

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Building an Epic Home Gym: Our Favorite Pieces of Equipment

Home workout equipment is one of the best investments you can make for yourself or any fellow fitness-lovers in your life.

Workout equipment is relatively inexpensive, and will last through years (if not decades) of tough workouts. If you prefer to work out at home rather than go to a gym (or at least want the option), it will help keep your workouts varied and always challenging.

Here are our top home workout equipment recommendations to help you start building a home gym:

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The 12 Minute Athlete December Accountability Challenge

Here at 12 Minute Athlete HQ, we are SO excited to announce that the newest community challenge is here! This month we’re focusing on accountability to close out 2019 by crushing some fitness goals. December is a busy time of year for so many of us, so this challenge is designed to help you stay …

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