Don't Give Up!
“Whether you believe you will succeed or fail, you are right.”
The mind is a powerful thing. You may have witnessed this fact several times during your life. Something occurs that makes you feel on top of the world and you feel like you can do anything! You sign up for a race, train and reach your personal best. Or maybe you finally start changing your nutrition and the pounds start flying off. Then…something derails you. You suddenly feel like everything you do is doomed to fail – you’ll never get fit, you’ll never lose the weight. You are not alone in this rollercoaster ride of thoughts.
The simple fact is that your beliefs dictate your success. When you believe you can do it, you create an internal motivation to achieve whatever goals you set forth. Your determination becomes the catalyst for mapping your road to happiness and goal fulfillment. But how do you truly believe in yourself when you’re feeling like success only comes to other people? Here are some tips to keep the positive messages flowing:
Do it for Yourself. Don’t change your diet, exercise, lose weight, quit smoking, etc. for anyone This is your journey! You deserve to feel better about yourself and to become your own personal success story! If you choose your own goals, you will have more motivation to stick with it.
Question Your Motives. Once you choose your goal, determine your motives behind that goal. Is it to look great in a bikini? Is it to play with your grandchildren without getting winded? Is it to beat your personal best? Define your motives and decide if the underlying current is really important to you. If it is not, that initial fire will quickly burn out. But if there is an inherent significance to your goals, you will have a deep desire and motivation that will push you through!
Be Realistic and Take Baby Steps. You wouldn’t sign up for a marathon next week if you haven’t been running, right? So why would you expect to throw out all of your food in your pantry and buy nothing but organic from now on? Yes, that would be ideal, of course! However, knee jerk reactions usually don’t work in anyone’s favor. Instead, make small, realistic changes to ensure success. If you’re trying to eat healthier, start swapping one highly processed food with a whole foods or organic counterpart each week. Eventually your pantry will be re-stocked with better alternatives. Easy changes that require little effort actually provide consistent success to maintain motivation. All without the stress of making dramatic changes, or worse, feeling like you failed because your goals were impossible to reach.
Make New Habits. While you’re swapping out your pantry staples, why not swap out some old habits for new, healthier ones. Do you stop for fast food all the time because you don’t have time to cook? Swap out your normal cheeseburger and fries for healthier alternatives on the menu. Or better yet, make a new family ritual of creating a healthy dish or two for the week instead. Does your family always go out for ice cream Saturday afternoon? Why not go to a park, get some exercise and enjoy nature first? Or better yet, get a smaller cone, share your ice cream or make homemade popsicles instead. Whether it’s trying to eat less processed foods or exercise more, we can all find a habit that has a healthier alternative.
Keep a Schedule. It’s been said that it takes 6 weeks to make a new habit routine, and one week to break it. A healthy routine can be made harder if you are sporadic with your intentions. When you’re picking your new habits, choose how to fit them in to your routine. If you’re trying to cook at home more often, choose days that you will have more time to cook. A Sunday ritual works for many people. If you’re trying to add in another workout, choose a time of day that it will be feasible to do so. If you roll out of bed and go straight to work, then a morning routine may not work in the beginning. Instead, pack a gym bag the night before and get your workout in after work or at lunch.
Track Your Progress. Without tracking your food or fitness, you may not be able to see subtle changes in progress. You could be increasing your strength, stamina, or both, but if you have one “off” day you feel like you’re back to where you started. If you have been tracking your workouts to see where you began, you may notice your “off” day is still 10 times better than your first day!
Hold Yourself Accountable. It’s easy to stray off course if no one is holding the steering wheel. Whether it’s tracking your food or workouts for yourself, telling your family and friends your goals, or hiring a personal trainer, accountability for reaching your goals can create motivation in times when your internal drive may be veering off course.
Find Your Support System. You may be one of the lucky people who has family and friends supportive of any and all goals you decide to pursue. Many people, however, have loved ones who don’t understand their health and fitness goals and inadvertently make reaching them more difficult. We are social creatures and everyone needs to feel supported in whatever their journey is. For your nutrition and fitness goals, find those in your circle that understand why you are making changes and enlist them as your support system. It could be a friend that is struggling too, your personal trainer or nutrition coach, a parent, partner, child or co-worker. When you feel supported in your goals, they will feel easier to achieve.
Mix it Up, Keep it Interesting and Make it Fun. No one likes torture. So steps to achieve your goal shouldn’t feel like punishment. Yes, there will be some uncomfortable moments, change and challenge are never easy. But if you are hating every workout you’re doing, or forcing yourself to eat raw broccoli even though you despise it, your motivation will disappear faster than a plate of cookies fresh from the oven. Pick foods and flavors you enjoy and find healthier versions of your favorite recipes. Try new vegetables to mix it up and see what you like and don’t like. Keep your workouts interesting and varied. Workout with a friend to push each other and have fun!
No regrets. Oops, you fell off the wagon and ate pizza, ice cream, burgers, fries and anything else you could get your hands on all weekend. So what? That was then, this is now. There is not one person out there that hasn’t slipped on their own journey. We are human, which means imperfection. Do not beat yourself up. Do not let it become a snowball effect either. No regrets! Instead, learn from the experience to help do things differently next time.
Be forgiving. We all have our own struggles and successes. Just because your best friend was able to lose 50 pounds in 6 months and you didn’t doesn’t mean there is something wrong with you. Her struggles may be completely different than yours. Comparing yourself to others is not like comparing apples to apples. It’s like comparing oranges to orangutans. This sounds silly, but here is an example. One person has a typical 9 to 5 job, wakes up at the crack of dawn to workout, relaxes at night because she has no kids, and gets a solid 8 hours of sleep. Another person runs her own business, works weekends, takes care of two teenagers, and is lucky to get 6 hours of restless sleep. Even if these two people are genetic twins, they are still two completely different people with different struggles. When you unfairly compare yourself to someone else, the negative self-judgment wreaks havoc on your motivation and psyche. Instead, be forgiving and realize you are on your own journey.
Don’t Give Up. This is the most important tip of them all. Overnight success is as rare as a unicorn. There will be forks in the road, potholes, obstacles and even cliffs that fall into the abyss. Don’t give up. Dust yourself off, pull up those bootstraps and get back on your journey. Acknowledge your struggles, don’t let them define you.
Instead, define your journey with one word – perseverance. The definition of perseverance is “steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.” Your goals may take longer than expected, and may be more difficult than you imagined, but when you prepare yourself, challenge yourself, forgive yourself, believe in yourself and celebrate your successes, no matter how big or small, your will persevere!