Everyone knows that health is a good thing. We all want to be healthy. No one woke up this morning and said: “I want to feel terrible.” Or “I want to be sick and have all sorts of health problems.” No one wants that. No matter how poorly someone takes care of themselves, they don’t want to be sick and out of health. They want to be healthy. Everyone wants to be healthy.
If everyone wants to be healthy, why are there so many people in poor health? Why are so many people overweight? Why is diabetes on the rise? All of these issues are due to lack of action. Or, a better way to look at it: The action that people are taking is the action that is leading to these results.
No matter what action you take, it will bring you results. If you practice healthy habits, you get healthy results. If you fall into unhealthy habits, you will see poor results. In other words, if you focus on actions that will bring you positive results, you get positive results. If you focus on actions that bring you negative results, you get just that, negative results.
That is easy to understand. That is why most people are at least trying to live healthy. Most people know that if they do something, they will get some results that they want out of their action. It’s true. They will get results based on what they are doing. This is no secret and is simple to understand.
What is not so simple to understand is the relation of today and tomorrow. The things that you do today are the results you get tomorrow. When I say today and tomorrow, I am speaking figuratively. That is part of the challenge. We all see it that way. When we are taking action today, we actually expect it to lead to results tomorrow. We expect things we do to yield instant results. When we do something positive that is. When we do something negative, that is a different story.
When we do something that leads to negative results, we not only expect it to lead to results in the distant future, we even talk ourselves into believing that they may not occur at all or that the results won’t be “as bad”. This is clearly a recipe for disaster when you consider that the results you get are directly related to the actions that you are taking. Good or bad, you get what you put in.
What does that mean? It means that what we do today, does lead to results tomorrow. The challenge lies in your definition of tomorrow. If tomorrow is literally the next day, you may not notice a drastic change from one day to another. This can be a difficult thing when you are taking positive actions for your health. This can be an easy, yet devastating thing if you are taking negative actions against your health.
The solution to this problem is simple. If you can think about your actions for what they are, you can justify taking them. They are what brings you your results.
Positive actions bring positive results. If you can stick with them, you know what you are going to get. Just don’t forget that. Keep in mind that tomorrow will be today when it comes around. If you did what you needed to do yesterday, you got what you wanted today. The more you do that, the easier it is to see the small results that add up to big results and allow you to keep each today focused on actions that lead to the tomorrow you want.
Negative actions bring negative results. If you can remember that the actions you are taking will lead to results, you can take a moment to make sure they are in line with what you want. Keep your eyes on the long-term results, because your immediate actions are bringing them to you. Like it or not, you are getting results based on your actions.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
Your Results are Hiding Behind Your Excuses
When it comes to health, the results we want may be different from one person to another. The results we want differ based on our goals. Some people want to be skinny, others want to be big and muscular. Many want certain numbers that will tell them that their overall health is good. And many others just want to feel good from day to day. No matter what your results are, you have something that you want to achieve.
Whether you are achieving the results you want depends not only on your goals, but on how well you stick to them. If you stick to your goals, you will reach them and get the results you want. If you don’t stick with your goals you will not reach them and therefore, you will not get the results you want. There is no way around it. You can try to find a way around it, but you won’t. If you keep trying to find ways to get results without actually reaching your goals, you will always end up in the same place…failure.
The dreaded “f-word”. Failure is one of the worst words in the English language. No one wants to hear it. No one wants to be there at any point and time. When you set out to do something, the last thing you want to do is fail. In most cases, that is the worst case scenario. In health, it should feel even worse, but it doesn’t for most people. In fact, many have gotten used to failure in health. Many even expect it because they are so used to it.
Why do people fail so much in health? They fail because they are letting one thing get in their way. The various things that derail routines are not one thing, they are many different things that come up and various times. That is not the issue. The issue is that we allow these things to become one thing. This one thing is the dagger in the heart of any routine. This one thing is the killer of more routines, more goals and more successes than anything else.
What do the little hurdles turn into that allows them to get us off track? What is the one thing that can end any good routine? It is called an excuse. This is the one thing that can knock you off track. No matter what you are doing, no matter how long you have been doing it, if you allow yourself to make an excuse for something, it will end your successful run.
Why do we make excuses? I’m not sure what makes excuses so easy, but I know that we make them because it is the easiest thing to do. When something looks difficult, the easiest thing to do is allow it to truly be as difficult as it seems. You don’t have to do anything to make something difficult. In fact, when you do nothing, it becomes so difficult that it is impossible to achieve anything.
That is what is so dangerous about excuses. As soon as you make one, you are telling yourself that you can’t do something. Not only are you telling yourself that you can’t, you are actually reasoning and providing support for your argument that it can’t be done. Whatever it is, no matter how easy it may be, if you are able to come up with a good excuse, you not only won’t do it, you will actually believe that you can’t do it. Even if you want to do something, you can’t do it if you have an excuse not to.
That is where so many people are with their health. They have struggled to get into a good routine that brings the results they are looking for. This is the result they are getting now. That is not the problem, but just the product of the real problem.
The real problem is that people not reaching their health goals have found excuses for not doing it. They have found reasons that they can’t and they have decided that it is not possible. Even when they tell themselves they are going to do it or try again, they have gotten into the routine of finding that perfect excuse to fail.
Failure is a word that no one wants to hear when they are getting into a routine. Excuses are something that no goal wants to hear when it is being set. There is a reason that goals are difficult to achieve. It is not because they are too tough. It is because it is so easy to find an excuse. We make big excuses, we make small excuses and they are all just as impactful. Any excuse can shut us down at any time.
The key to beating excuses is not letting them exist. When you set a goal, sit down and think of the possible challenges. When you know the challenges that may come up, you can be prepared for them. You can find a way to overcome the challenge ahead of time, you will be able to put it into action when the time comes. If you can find an excuse to let it stop you, you will and it will stop you.
The fact is, when we fail it is not because we aren’t good enough strong enough or dedicated enough. We fail because we are too good at making excuses. If you look at the most successful people you know in any area, what do they have in common? They don’t make excuses. When they are choose to do something, they do it. They find ways to do it, they refuse to let anything stop them and they succeed. Look at someone in your life that is not successful in any area. What do they do? They make excuses. They find excuses to fail and they accomplish that.
Accomplishments are all subjective, so success is completely up to each of us in our own routines. Success to me means getting the results you set out to get. When you make excuses, you can’t get those results. When you are in the routine of making excuses, your results are never visible. They are hiding. Your results are hiding behind your excuses.
Whether you are achieving the results you want depends not only on your goals, but on how well you stick to them. If you stick to your goals, you will reach them and get the results you want. If you don’t stick with your goals you will not reach them and therefore, you will not get the results you want. There is no way around it. You can try to find a way around it, but you won’t. If you keep trying to find ways to get results without actually reaching your goals, you will always end up in the same place…failure.
The dreaded “f-word”. Failure is one of the worst words in the English language. No one wants to hear it. No one wants to be there at any point and time. When you set out to do something, the last thing you want to do is fail. In most cases, that is the worst case scenario. In health, it should feel even worse, but it doesn’t for most people. In fact, many have gotten used to failure in health. Many even expect it because they are so used to it.
Why do people fail so much in health? They fail because they are letting one thing get in their way. The various things that derail routines are not one thing, they are many different things that come up and various times. That is not the issue. The issue is that we allow these things to become one thing. This one thing is the dagger in the heart of any routine. This one thing is the killer of more routines, more goals and more successes than anything else.
What do the little hurdles turn into that allows them to get us off track? What is the one thing that can end any good routine? It is called an excuse. This is the one thing that can knock you off track. No matter what you are doing, no matter how long you have been doing it, if you allow yourself to make an excuse for something, it will end your successful run.
Why do we make excuses? I’m not sure what makes excuses so easy, but I know that we make them because it is the easiest thing to do. When something looks difficult, the easiest thing to do is allow it to truly be as difficult as it seems. You don’t have to do anything to make something difficult. In fact, when you do nothing, it becomes so difficult that it is impossible to achieve anything.
That is what is so dangerous about excuses. As soon as you make one, you are telling yourself that you can’t do something. Not only are you telling yourself that you can’t, you are actually reasoning and providing support for your argument that it can’t be done. Whatever it is, no matter how easy it may be, if you are able to come up with a good excuse, you not only won’t do it, you will actually believe that you can’t do it. Even if you want to do something, you can’t do it if you have an excuse not to.
That is where so many people are with their health. They have struggled to get into a good routine that brings the results they are looking for. This is the result they are getting now. That is not the problem, but just the product of the real problem.
The real problem is that people not reaching their health goals have found excuses for not doing it. They have found reasons that they can’t and they have decided that it is not possible. Even when they tell themselves they are going to do it or try again, they have gotten into the routine of finding that perfect excuse to fail.
Failure is a word that no one wants to hear when they are getting into a routine. Excuses are something that no goal wants to hear when it is being set. There is a reason that goals are difficult to achieve. It is not because they are too tough. It is because it is so easy to find an excuse. We make big excuses, we make small excuses and they are all just as impactful. Any excuse can shut us down at any time.
The key to beating excuses is not letting them exist. When you set a goal, sit down and think of the possible challenges. When you know the challenges that may come up, you can be prepared for them. You can find a way to overcome the challenge ahead of time, you will be able to put it into action when the time comes. If you can find an excuse to let it stop you, you will and it will stop you.
The fact is, when we fail it is not because we aren’t good enough strong enough or dedicated enough. We fail because we are too good at making excuses. If you look at the most successful people you know in any area, what do they have in common? They don’t make excuses. When they are choose to do something, they do it. They find ways to do it, they refuse to let anything stop them and they succeed. Look at someone in your life that is not successful in any area. What do they do? They make excuses. They find excuses to fail and they accomplish that.
Accomplishments are all subjective, so success is completely up to each of us in our own routines. Success to me means getting the results you set out to get. When you make excuses, you can’t get those results. When you are in the routine of making excuses, your results are never visible. They are hiding. Your results are hiding behind your excuses.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
What Are You Fighting?
When I ask someone about their health, there is a sense from them that I want to hear something positive. This is true to a point. Do I like hearing success stories? Of course I do. I like to hear about people doing things well and making positive changes to their health.
What I don’t like is to hear people tell me what they think I want to hear. There are so many ways to live healthy and so many reasons to do it, that I wonder why we aren’t all doing it. That doesn’t mean that I expect it to be easy. I know that living healthy is a challenge. Actually, it is a series of challenges.
The first challenge seems to be getting over the fight with yourself. When I talk to people about health for the first time, there is often a struggle for them to find a reason that things aren’t as good as they want them to be or as good as they would like to tell me they are. There is a strange need to please that people have causing them to want to give the best reports and share that they are “doing what they are supposed to do”.
Doing what you are supposed to do is challenging. It is hard to do and not many are very good at it. Doing what works for you is easier to do and will always be more fulfilling. The problem is that we have to figure out a few things:
1. What do you want to do?
2. Why do you want to do it?
3. How are you going to do it?
4. What is stopping me from doing it?
When it comes to health, you need to be able to focus. You need to know what you want to do, why you want to do it and how you are going to do it. If you don’t know any or all of these things, you are going to struggle. One of the reasons for people struggling is not being able to identify these options.
That seems to be the biggest reason people are off track. It’s not that they can’t do it. It’s not that they don’t want to do it. It’s more about not taking the time to set up a plan. We could talk about the importance of planning all day. We could talk about it until we knew our plan inside and out, but that wouldn’t help us get started.
What helps us get started? First you have to get over your hang-ups. What are your hang-ups? What are my hang-ups? They are likely different and that is the point. Everyone has their own reasons for not getting started. They want to get going. They know they should get going. They even know why they should get going, but they don’t know how they are going to do it and can’t get past their inner hang-ups that are keeping them from getting started.
Let’s walk through the steps:
1. What do you want to do?
Let’s talk about exercise. When you want to get more active, what do you have to do? You have to get more active. It sounds simple and even too good to be true. Well, it is too good to be true. If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it. You have to start by deciding exactly what you want to do. Do you want to run? Do you want to bike? Do you want to walk or hit the gym? There are countless options, but until you choose one of them, you can’t do any of them.
2. Why do you want to do it?
When it comes to exercise, there are many reasons to get started. There are health benefits, weight loss, looking good and many other reasons to do it. Until you identify those reasons, you can’t motivate yourself to do anything. You have to keep the reasons in mind when you get started so you can keep going when it gets tough.
3. How are you going to do it?
This sounds simple and even sarcastic, but I assure you that you need to mind this step. The way you are going to get active is important. The plan is even more important. For example: If you are going to go to the gym, you need to have a bag and a time set aside to go. If you are going to ride a bike, you need a bike. It doesn’t get any simpler than that, yet many struggle to establish the how before they try to get going.
4. What is stopping you from doing it?
This is where we fail. If you are not doing something, you are being stopped. Something is stopping you from doing it. The people that I talk to with excuses and stories about what has happened or not happened are being stopped. Who or what is stopping them? They are stopping themselves. There is a fight that we all have before starting something new. If have you haven’t gotten started, you are fighting yourself and losing.
Setting up your plan can mean the difference between success and failure. If you don’t do it, failure becomes far more likely. Failure is certain if you are fighting yourself. Health takes support and dedication. When met with a fight, health often loses. We can all put up a good fight and fend off a healthy routine. The world around us makes that easy.
But, what are we fighting? We are fighting a good healthy routine. We are fighting energy. We are fighting better sleep. We are fighting long-term health. We are fighting the look in the mirror that we can be proud of. In other words, we are fighting the things we want.
It doesn’t make sense, does it? Of course it doesn’t make sense. When we are asked, we tell ourselves and others that we want to be healthy. When it comes to the action, we often start that fight. If health brings such good things, why do we fight it?
It doesn’t make sense, but if you follow the steps and ask yourself 4 questions, you can win the fight. Ask yourself what you want to do, why you want to do it, how you are going to do it and you will be able to get started. You may want to ask yourself one more important question before you get too far: What are you fighting?
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