When I ask people what their number one health goal is, most say that they want to lose weight.
Almost immediately after saying this, they go on to provide at least three reasons why they can’t. It’s usually something like I’m too stressed, I don’t have time to cook, I like food too much, or I hate exercise.
When your reasons not to do something are much stronger than your reasons why you could do something, you have no chance. Zero. As in, don’t even try because there’s no way it will happen.
The reasons you make up either move you towards a goal, or away from it. You give yourself permission to either continue the behaviour that got you to where you are in the first place, or to make the changes necessary.
Knowing why you can’t do something blocks you from coming up with possible solutions that could actually get you to your goal. But it doesn’t have to be this way! There are things you can do to support yourself instead of sabotaging your chances to achieve anything you want.
Five Ways to Make Changes to Reach Your Goals
- Awareness. This comes in two forms – first, being aware of what you want to achieve, and second, recognizing the excuses you make for not getting there. If you function day to day without being conscious of what you are doing, your life is on repeat. Don’t live today the same way you did yesterday or tomorrow has no chance of being any different.
- Make a decision. Declare to yourself that you will do this, that there are no options and you will do it until it gets done. Don’t use weak words. Weak intentions lead to zero results. Strong intentions can accomplish anything.
- Set a time frame. This makes it real. Saying you want to lose ten pounds is nice, but saying you are going to lose ten pounds in eight weeks is something you can plan towards.
- Make plans, not wishes. This goes hand in hand with setting a time frame. Plans have specific measures, while wishes are something to do when you blow out the candles on a birthday cake.
- Know yourself, don’t fool yourself. Only you know what your triggers are. If you can’t sit and watch TV without having a bag of potato chips in front of you, then make a change to disrupt the behaviour. Chew gum. Don’t watch TV. Whatever it takes to disrupt your patterns, do it.
You don’t realize how powerful you are. There is nothing you can’t achieve if you set 100% of your intention to reaching a goal.
Have strong enough reasons and make a concrete plan, and that will be enough to get you anywhere you want to be.