Feed Forward: Unlock Your PT Black Belt Future

Cultivating Growth Mindset in Trainers:

5 Practical Steps Using Feed Forward and the PT Black Belt Program

By Matthew Slack

According to Daniel Pink, true mastery is never a destination, it’s a mindset, a pain, and an asymptote. Mastery is a mindset because it requires believing that abilities can be expanded through dedication and smart effort; it’s a pain because real improvement demands consistent, sometimes uncomfortable practice; and it’s an asymptote because you can get infinitely closer to perfection without ever fully reaching it (Pink, 2009).

This view aligns perfectly with a growth mindset:

The belief that skills and abilities are not fixed traits but can be developed through effort, strategies, and learning from challenges (Dweck, 2016).

Yet many trainers fall into fixed thinking:

“I’m just not good at cueing complex lifts” or “Some people are naturally better coaches.”

These fixed beliefs block the very path to mastery Pink describes, turning effort into pain without purpose, and making progress feel impossible rather than infinite.

The tools on goodlifebc.ca, Feed Forward and the PT Black Belt Program, are designed to flip that script:

They make the pain purposeful, the mindset coachable, and the asymptote approachable, one deliberate step at a time.

This page gives you a clear, actionable framework to shift toward a growth mindset, using the exact tools already on goodlifebc.ca:

Feed Forward and the PT Black Belt Program.

The following five steps are designed for real-life implementation in your workshops, intern development, and daily sessions with your clients.

1. Spot Fixed-Mindset Triggers in Yourself and Your Clients

Fixed thinking often shows up as avoiding challenges, giving up quickly, or fearing feedback.

Your action:
At the start of every session or training and development workshop is to spend 2 minutes journaling one fixed thought you or one of your clients recently had.

Reframe it:
“This isn’t a skill I have yet, but it is a skill I can develop through effort, practice, and strategy.”

That single word “yet” is one of Carol Dweck’s most powerful tools for shifting from fixed to growth mindset (Dweck, 2016).

By adding “yet” to limiting statements:
“I’m not good at cueing complex lifts… yet.”
“I can’t handle advanced clients… yet.”

You instantly reframe the present as temporary, and progress as inevitable.

This self-awareness aligns perfectly with adult learners’ readiness to learn when it solves real problems and builds on their existing experience (Knowles et al., 2011). It turns self-doubt into a starting line, not a finish line, and sets the foundation for the rest of the steps in this guide.

Here’s a a cringey video but applicable. Watch the video for a laugh and some strong reinforcement of the learning from above. Megan Markle The Power of ‘Yet’…

2. Replace Feedback with Feed-Forward Prompts

Traditional feedback, like that during 1-on-1 meetings with Fitness Managers can feel like criticism and trigger defensiveness. Feed-forward focuses on future possibilities.

Your action:
After any training and development workshop, course, client session or FM 1-on-1 meeting, ask yourself or have clients ask:

“What two suggestions for the future might help me/you become even more effective with (blank)?”

Record the answer and test it immediately. This future-oriented process (Goldsmith, 2003) builds evidence that improvement is possible and valuable.

3. Surface and Honour Your Tacit Knowledge

You already know more than you can easily explain, “we can know more than we can tell” (Polanyi, 1966, p. 4). Personal trainers have years of intuitive skills that fixed thinking keeps hidden.

Your action:
After your next premium client session or PT Starter Pack, ask yourself:

“What felt natural today that I didn’t have to think about?”
“What part felt shaky, or took me by surprise”
“What could help me understand it better in the future?”

Use a Feed Forward prompt to turn insight into action. This honors Knowles’ assumption that adults bring rich experience as a resource and prefer problem-centered learning (Knowles et al., 2011).

4. Use the PT Black Belt Program for Visible Progress

The Black Belt Program is built for growth: clear levels, measurable milestones, clear education requirements, and increasing responsibility.

Your action:
At each level advancement, complete this self-check:

• What did I improve over the duration of my previous level to accomplish this level advancement?
• What one small stretch goal will I tackle next that will progress me to the next PT Black Belt level?
• How will I measure success?

Visible progress on the PT Black Belt program proves effort creates ability—not innate talent (Dweck, 2016).

5. Reflect to Create Transformative Change

Growth becomes permanent when old assumptions are replaced with new ones.

Your action:
Monthly review of Feed Forward notes and any PT Black Belt journal entries.

Ask: “How has my view of my own ability changed?”

This critical reflection leads to transformed perspectives and changed practice (Mezirow, 1997).

Start Today

1. Visit goodlifebc.ca and review the PT Black Belt levels.
2. Pick your current level and run Step 4 today.
3. Try one Feed Forward prompt this week.

Growth mindset isn’t a theory, it’s a daily practice. The tools on this site make that practice easy, measurable, and future-focused.

References

Dweck, C. S. (2016, January 13). What having a “growth mindset” actually means. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/01/what-having-a-growth-mindset-actually-means

Goldsmith, M. (2003). Try feedforward instead of feedback. Journal for Quality and Participation, 26(3), 1–3.

Knowles, M. S., Swanson, R. A., & Holton, E. F. (2011). The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development (7th ed.). Elsevier.

Mezirow, J. (1997). Transformative learning: Theory to practice. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 1997(74), 5–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/ace.7401

Pink, D. H. (2009). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. Riverhead Books.

Polanyi, M. (1966). The tacit dimension. Peter Smith.