Failure is more valuable than success. Yes, you heard me.It is not a typo.I firmly believe that our failures are invaluable tools for ultimately achieving success.At first blush, you might not agree, but think about it.When you have experienced failure, do you crawl in a corner and give up, or do you get up, brush yourself off, and move forward, even more determined than before to succeed?
Many of us do just that.We use our temporary setbacks as learning experiences, and as motivators that drive us to try repeatedly until we succeed.We choose to see these setbacks, as nothing more than bumps in the roads, and that is what you need to do as well.
How do you go about flipping the switch and changing the way you draw energy and motivation from a failure or a setback?Start by changing how you view failure.Do not view it as the opposite of success, but as a step to success.Author and lecturer Dr. Leo Buscaglia summarized this approach best when he said, “We seem to gain wisdom more readily through our failures than through our successes. We always think of failure as the antithesis of success, but it isn't. Success often lies just the other side of failure.”
Eliminate focusing on what you fail to accomplish because all that will do is feed negative thoughts and actions.Instead, create a plan that emphasizes, and more importantly rewards, positive behavior and achievement.Here are a few suggestions for ways to focus on the positive, handle the possible failures you may experience along the way, and celebrate the successes.
Results are achieved with just about any type of diet and exercise program. The biggest part of your success in any program is your ability to maintain consistency and progression. Missed workouts or a lack of drive and motivation is not likely to produce the sort of results you desire.
If you are looking for a truly dramatic body transformation, you want to stay on Track!
You might need to start out on the bunny slopes, but you never want to lose sight of the fact that it takes hard work to get a hard body. That being said you also want to make sure you're progressing at the appropriate level. Start by meeting with me and discuss your workout and nutrition plans. Having baseline test performed is always a good idea. Together we can properly assess your current fitness level with a standard fitness assessment and body fat testing.
I have many fitness and nutrition programs to help those who want to get the most out of their body. All you need do is ask!
You are here on my blog because you have a desire to develop a workout program or change your nutritional habits.
You are smart and understand a great workout will help you get the most out of your body. In addition you know good clean eating makes you feel better.
That being said we all still need the support to go the journey!
What does it take to make dreams come true? If you've tried wishing, hoping, praying, or crossing your fingers for what you want, and nothing else, you've probably known disappointment and sadness. But starting today, with concrete planning and SMART goal-setting, you can make this year better than last year and every other year before.
Keep in mind--it's not enough to just want your goals. The SMART practice of goal-setting is helpful to make sure you have an action plan to back up your dreams. As you go through the exercise below, keep in mind your plan should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.
The path to ultimate transformation and success starts with the clear, written, and publicly stated goals that act as a visual reminder of the importance of what you want to achieve. Grab a pen and paper, and start writing down what you want. Tape those written goals to your refrigerator, post them to your blog, or email them to your friends and family. This will help build your support system from the beginning.
If you have taken the time to think through and make your aspirations clear, you also need to determine the reasons why you must achieve these goals.
Reach into your heart, and visualize the pain you would feel if you never achieved what you desire. You'll find times when you are challenged, when you want to give everything up because it's easier to stay the same than it is to change. If you know WHY you want to change, you'll find the HOW much easier to achieve and you'll be able to persevere.
I am going to be honest here when I say that there were a few times when I did not look forward to working out. Times when my heart and soul just were not in it, so I just went through the motions. I can tell you those workouts did not feel rewarding. In fact, I felt guilty and angry that I had shortchanged myself by taking the easy way out.
I knew that if I continued down this path and failed to challenge myself to work harder and set higher standards for my fitness, I would grow complacent and that could potentially undermine my health. An idea I found completely unacceptable.
So, what did I do?
I went home and created a more challenging plan for achieving my fitness goals. I purposely set the bar well beyond my comfort level. I knew it was going to be hard, and while it made me a little nervous, I felt excited at the idea of pushing beyond my limits. I headed back to the gym, and started a more intensive workout, and you know what? It hurt! Admittedly, more than once, I didn’t think I would be able to do it, but I did. When I was done, I not only felt a sense of accomplishment, but I felt exhilarated and recharged. I had exceeded my own preconceived limits and it felt great!
Regardless of what your specific goals are in life, having and maintaining a clear vision is a key component to achieving results. Envisioning a desirable outcome with such clarity, you can see plainly the steps you must take to get there. Your ability to stay motivated and focused on setting and achieving your fitness goals increases significantly when you can actualy imagine or “see” the results of your hard work. Skeptical? I do not blame you. I have run across more than one person who thinks employing visualization techniques are a bunch of hogwash, but I think they are selling this great technique short.
Extensive research has been conducted on the power of visualization, and particularly the role it plays in weight loss. The brain does not know the difference between what is really happening and what is imagined – at least that is what the researchers have found. Therefore, visualization techniques such as disassociation and imagery can become effective tools for weight loss and exercising.
Understanding the decision to change is a very important one. Having the right tools and the right information, specific to our circumstances, is critical for our journey. Once we formulate the belief that we can accomplish this we are on our way. The right tool is a self-discovery. No person knows you better than you know your self. With your commitment you create the way to reach your goal!
The reasons why we choose to loose weight are as numerous as the weight loss programs available. Whether your desires are grounded in medical, physical or emotion reasoning, is not what makes the difference. What matters most is that you have a strong, compelling reason to start loosing the weight. In short, you have found YOUR motivation.
Now that you have your motivation, you need to start each day with this question: >>> Do you sincerely believe that you can achieve your weight loss and fitness goals? <<<
It is only by continually being proactive in strengthening our belief system that we will accomplish our goals.
Regardless of what some “experts” might say, losing weight is not an easy task for most people. The fact that there is no quick fix cure for weight loss on the market today definitely seems to support this premise as well. To effectively lose weight, you have to do more than just diet and exercise. You have to treat the whole person. What do I mean by this? Proper diet and exercise can combat weight gain, but it does not address the behavioral and cognitive aspects of what caused that weight gain in the first place. Fail to account for the behavioral and psychological factors that caused the weight gain and the likelihood that you will be able to lose the weight and keep it off is greatly reduced.
Keeping a Fitness Journal will help you create an accurate history of your devotion to your fitness plan. Writing out workouts, food intake and daily thoughts will serve as a form of accountability. By keeping track of your progress you are keeping yourself honest. Your daily log can help you get better results. You can look back at the end of each week and figure out if you were on target with your goals and this way you know what needs to change by having the perspective and insight into your exercise and eating patterns.
Research suggests that we are always focusing on something whether we are aware of it or not. That may be part of the problem— focus is usually not conscious but automatic. We tend to unconsciously focus on something we don’t want and then when we get it we feel like a victim. We don’t stop to consider that we may have created it in the first place. The irony is that we don’t realize we could choose to create something completely different if we could only start “consciously” focusing on what we want. If we can consciously focus on what we want, we can make it happen.
According to Bill Harris, Director of the Centerpoint Research Institute, the mind is a goal-seeking mechanism and an extremely effective one at that. It is constantly creating exactly what we focus on. When you focus on something, your mind says, “Okay, I can do that,” and starts figuring out how to do it. Yes, that’s right! You start seeing how to do it on your own. The more frequent and the more intense the focus, the faster and more effectively we will create what we have focused on.
Hitting a plateau is a normal part of every program. Basically a plateau is defined as a point when you are no longer seeing progress. Most of the time this can be the result of you not doing all that you should or that it is time to take another approach to your exercise or nutritional routine. As Einstein said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that created them.” Einstein was suggesting taking a different approach, trying new exercises, stepping out of your normal routine, attempting to find a solution to the problem, and never giving up.
Visualizations are images we create in our mind. In simple terms, your mind makes mental movies that you will play over and over again. Our brain and the subconscious functions “remember” the things we see. We can recreate these images over and over again in our minds. Creating “movies” of what we want or where we see ourselves does the same thing. It is entered directly into our subconscious as what has actually been seen by us. It is real to our brain. We have actually seen the image we created. Thus, we create the reality we want. How do you do it? Start by setting aside a time and place for your visualizations.
It’s better if you can do it at the same time every day. Begin by closing your eyes and creating a mental image of what you want. At first this may seem a bit strange and the images unclear. That’s fine. The more you practice, the clearer the images will become. Always try to picture the same images every day, adding more detail as you become more comfortable with the process. Look at the pictures in your mind as a movie with yourself as the lead actor.
We always seem to find some type of excuse for delaying the start of a new weight loss or fitness routine. It’s easy to justify our actions with phrases like, “Since the week is half over, I’ll wait Monday to start exercising”, or “As soon as the holidays are over, I’m going to loose weight”. My question to you is, “If not now, then when?”
If every minute of an unhealthy lifestyle increases your risk of disease, why would you wait one more second to get started? The idea that you have to prepare before you start or start at the beginning of a week or after a holiday is ludicrous.
Let’s face it, we all have negative thoughts. It is important that we understand what these thoughts are and where they come from in order to gain more from life. I have found three ways that work very well for me to exercise my mind. These exercises allow me to dump negative thoughts and bring on positive thoughts. These exercises have changed the way I think.
