weight loss
This is of course the time of year for resolutions. Traditionally resolutions last less than a week so now we are at the end of the first week in January and the hype of January 1st has been and gone, how committed are you to getting the YOU that you want in 2011? Perhaps you want to lose weight once and for all, or maybe you want to make an emotional change or make a professional shift?
In my weekend seminars for WEIGHT LOSS IN MIND and STOP ANXIETY NOW, attendees achieve great results, but what is it that enables some people to succeed and others fail, the answer is in your desire to change. Having clear goals and knowing what you want.
Here’s a quick technique for goal setting:
- Write down a list of what you want to achieve in 2011.
- From that list extract the things you absolutely MUST achieve and write these (or maybe there’s only 1 thing) on another list.
- Tear the first list up – the only list that matters is the one showing what you MUST achieve, not what you would like to achieve.
- Now think about how committed you are to achieving your goal – whatever it is. Rate your commitment on a scale of 1 – 10 with 10 being there’s absolutely no doubt you MUST achieve it.
There are a few things you MUST do to make sure you achieve your goal, first do these simple painless steps:
- Write it down, including when you will achieve it by, and read it out loud
- Show it to someone who knows you well and gauge there level of support – you may need this
- Start at the end, write down when you have achieved your goal by, then come back half way in time and write down what has to have happened by then for you to be on track, then halve that again and write down what has to happen to be on track, you can repeat this as many times as you need to, to give you the timetable you need.
This is all helpful stuff, but now comes the “Biggy”. What are you prepared to put on the line to ensure you DO achieve your goal? This is the real test.
There’s a very old but true story about a battle in WW1 when an American General took his troops across the water to recover some territory that had been taken over by hostile forces. When their boats landed and they disembarked, the general burned them all in front of his troops, and then said “If you want to get home then we must win here, otherwise we are stranded for life”.
They won. That's a pretty big statement of intent isn’t it?
A friend of mine wanted to lose weight, and fed up of trying and failing in the past, he wrote a cheque for £1000 and thought of the worst thing that could happen to his money, and the most abhorrent recipient he could think of was to give it to the BMP.
So in front of a group of his friends he pre-dated the cheque for 6 months time and made it payable to the BMP and told his friends that if he lost 2 stones within 6 months they must give him the cheque back and he could tear it up, but if he failed to lose the weight they would give it to the BMP. He lost the weight in 4 months.
He later said that on the days when he really didn’t feel like exercising, he thought of where his cheque would go if he didn’t and he got off his backside whatever the weather and went jogging. So what intolerable alternative can you set to make sure you achieve your goal?
Write a cheque for a sum that would really hurt, and give it to someone who will pay it if you fail. Are you prepared to do that? This is the real test of how committed you are.
Once you have set your goal the next step is to enlist the help of others, perhaps you need to attend a seminar to get you started, or buy a book, or attend some course? The likelihood is you need to do something to achieve it. So write your cheque, then immediately decide what to do, where to go for resources to help you, and in the words of Nike – JUST DO IT!
Janet Thomson is the author of a number of best selling books including the ‘Weight Loss in Mind’ book & CD programme. She also runs regular ‘bootcamp’ seminars for weight loss across the country .
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