Be willing to say to yourself, “I’m on the right road. I’m doing OK. I’m succeeding.” We too frequently become adept at pointing out our flaws and identifying failures. Become equally adept at citing your achievements. Identify things you are doing now that you weren´t doing one month ago… six months ago… a year ago. What habits have changed? Chart your progress.
Doing well once or twice is relatively easy. Continuously moving ahead is tough, in part, because we so easily revert to old habits and former lifestyles. Over the long run, you need to give yourself regular feedback to monitor your performance and reinforce yourself positively. Don’t wait for an award ceremony, promotion, friend or mentor to show appreciation for your work. Take pride in your own efforts on a daily basis.
– Denis Waitley
I think this is a really pertinent piece of prose. It is far too easy to focus on the negative things without realising how much progress you are making – and the negative things (Like looking in the mirror and only seeing the fat parts) have a nasty way of eating away at you.
I am 100% agreeable with Katie p in this post. Start seeing the small loss on the scales as a success – every small success adds up to be a big one eventually. Start focussing on every tiny little success you have – every time you go to the gym and move your body is a step in the right direction and a success. every time you have a great healthy meal = Success. Success breeds more Success! Don’t beat yourself up if you percieve that you have had a “Bad” meal – simply pick yourself up and say “oh well – I can do better next time”.
I am no perfect example of a success story – I have been on this journey for three years and don’t really seem to have moved anywhere – BUT I have learnt that Focusing on the negatives, starving yourself until you binge, exercising until you feel like throwing up because you haven’t got enough fuel, comparing yourself to skinny girls in magazines(who are skinny naturally and probably airbrushed beyond recognition) and down right not loving who you are underneath – doesn’t get you anywhere.
Being thinner will not make you feel any better about yourself emotionally if you are not happy with the person that you are on the inside. You know what – I feel exactly the same when I weigh 67 kilos as I do when I weight 75 kilos – my clothes just fit me better and I have more get up and go for life. I don’t try to lose weight because I think I will be happier when I get to —– random arbitrary weight—— I know that underneath I will still be the same person and my happiness isn’t tied to the number on the scales – just the same as it isn’t tied to the amount of Money in my bank account.
My happiness it at it’s highest when I get to spend time with my husband doing the things that we love to do and working towards our shared goals. I wake him up in the morning when I am awake (usually because the cat has woken us up and I know he is awake to) and try to convince him to come for a run or a walk with me. My happiness is at its highest when I am being challenged and mentally stimulated in my work – and I am making a difference to other peoples lives. I am happy when I can eat a mango and lychees in summer without feeling the tiniest bit guilty – because I know that 1 mango cheek and a few lychees aren’t going to make an ouce of difference to my scale weight in the morning – and so what if they do.
What makes you happy????????????????????????????
