Thursday 30 June 2011

15 Tips for Staying on Track: #14 - What's on your mind?

If you are not in the right headspace, none of the other strategies I've suggested are going to work, no matter how much you’d like to think they will. I may be able to help motivate you to begin your journey, as might someone else, but you are ultimately responsible for sticking with it.

Having said that, I hope that this blog will help to get you into a positive frame of mind, and that your successes will keep you there!

Source unknown

Mindset: do you believe in yourself? Do you believe you can do this? That you deserve success? The answer to all of those should be "Yes!" Self-belief is the absolute key to success - those who condition themselves to believe they cannot do something are likely to discover the true meaning of the self-fulfilling prophecy. Believe you can do anything, and you might just find that belief rewarded!

Live in the present but look to the future: the past is a closed book, there is nothing you can do to change it, so let it go. Just because you've always been a comfort eater, or unfit, or any of the gazillion other things we allow to define us, it doesn't mean this has to be the pattern for the rest of our lives. We should be adaptable - this is how we evolve - those who don't adapt, rarely achieve success. So forget the past - this is your life, your future...what are you going to do with it?

Stop thinking about the problem - instead think of the solution. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Yet so many people fixate on the issue but never how to fix it! If you're overweight, what can you do to get slimmer? If you're unfit and sluggish, how can you become fitter? If you hate your job, what other options are there? Few of us have to put up with a less than satisfactory life, and while it may be difficult to make a change for the better, and even painful at first, to be happier and more fulfilled people, we have to make the changes.

Patience: you didn't get to be this way overnight, so you won't improve overnight. However, the good news is that actually, by starting right now, you will begin to see and feel improvements in just a few days. In as little as a month, you can condition yourself to be healthy and fit for the rest of your life. Sounds great, doesn't it? Go on, try it!

In my case, it's taken around five years to become overweight and unfit, yet in three months, I have lost a lot of weight, can run 25 minutes without stopping (I've just realised I've already achieved one of my goals from my first post in this series!), and I know that on July 17th, I will be running 5k non-stop!

I still have a way to go before I am where I want to be (for now) but I can see absolutely no reason why I should fail. My aim is to get to my target weight by November this year, but if it takes a month longer, it's no big deal. Remember, life is a marathon, not a sprint (cheesy, I know)!

The point is that for me, failing is not an option, and as long as I do what is necessary, then I can only succeed.

And it can be the same for you too!

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