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The Power of Positive Habits For Weight Loss!

It has been around three weeks since I started the 49 day challenge to lose weight and get fit. It is a challenge I decided to undertake after reading the great little ebook – Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle. The results so far are that I have lost an impressive 7lbs in weight. I reckon that is entirely due to pure fat loss, as my strength levels have not decreased.

In my first post relating to this ‘Losing The Spare Tire’ I explained how the author of the program/book suggests that you employ visualisation and goal setting to achieve your desired physical state which is why I blogged about it originally. This time though I want to share another powerful factor that can also be applied to achieving success in whatever field you are pursuing success in, including weight loss.

You see, the ebook taught me how to work out the precise amount of calories I should be consuming in order to be able to make steady losses in weight each week. This meant I had a daily target of how many calories I should be consuming (which for me was 2000). Now having a target for calorie consumption is fine but it does mean that you have to track accurately how many calories you are eating at each meal time.

Now, I don’t know about you but that sounds like a real drag and at first I tried to get around it by guessing or by trying to convince myself that it wasn’t that crucial to weight loss. However I finally bit the bullet and began what I thought would be a painful process of calorie counting
at each meal.

At first this was a drag and quite wearing having to consider exactly how much of what foods I should be eating to stay within my calorie budget. I soon discovered though that once you have done it for a few meals you start to get much faster at working out your calorie intake. What’s more if you are eating the same foods regularly then so long as you keep your calorie calculations written down somewhere or start a file on your computer as I have then it becomes quite a quick process.

Whilst originally this did seem like a chore, three weeks later this has become a powerful habit and something I do without any fuss or without any real difficulty. This like I have already stated has led me to lose 7lbs in weight in three weeks. More importantly however it has meant that I have developed a powerful positive habit which I know will enable me to achieve my goal of permanent weight loss of 14lbs i.e 1 stone.

What at first seemed quite daunting (calorie counting each meal), has since turned into a habit that I hardly think about now and can do with very little effort at all. I am now pretty confident I can carry on losing weight at a fairly steady rate. There are plenty more strategies provided in the book that I am trying, such as calorie cycling, interval training, varying food types and so on which of course are helping too but it is down to the new powerful positive habits for weight loss that I am developing which are bringing me the success I am looking for.

So, my point of this post is that if you have a goal or something that you want to achieve. Decide for yourself what habits you need to introduce into your life to make that goal come to pass. Do not be put it off, even if the habits at first seem a little daunting, they will soon become nothing more than just simple habits that you do without even thinking. In fact within 30 days they are completely ingrained in your daily routine and mental way of doing things.

This I believe is a very powerful strategy to achieving lasting success in any field of life. Why not tap into the power of positive habits too!

Problems With Positive Affirmations!

The problem with positive affirmations.

If you have read the positive affirmations articles above you may well be forgiven for thinking that they are the answer to eternal life, infinite wealth and anything else you may wish for. Well, I’m going to give you the other side of the story now.

You see, in the past I have had great success in using positive affirmations. One particular time of note was when I applied it to my main sport, Rugby League. At the end of the 2008/9 season I had scored only three tries (A ‘try’ is equivalent to a goal in rugby talk, for anyone not ‘in the know’ out there). Over the course of the close season and pre-season, every evening I repeated the same affirmation over and over in my mind visualising myself doing so:

“I am the clubs leading try scorer, it feels great to score tries”

…and visualised myself scoring tries. I did this meticulously and was able to visualise the successful outcomes very clearly. Skipping forward a year, not a word of a lie, I was the clubs leading try scorer having scored 20 tries that season! This was a complete turn around in my try scoring fortunes, very impressive I thought. I felt that doing the positive affirmations defiantly provided me with the cutting edge that season and was eager to see if I could replicate this success in to other areas of my life.

I tried to replicate the same process of applying positive affirmations and visualisation to a variety of different situations but not always with the same success. On one occasion I tried relentlessly to convince my subconscious that I was a great sales person (at the time I was on a healthy commission) through the exact same process. Unfortunately on that occasion I would say I actually got worse as opposed to better! In fact my total sales dropped markedly and I actually felt even more out of place.

There were other times when positive affirmations didn’t work for me and to make sure that I don’t waste any more of my time using them when they are not going to work I’ve tried to come up with a few of my own personal rules for when to use them and when to not use them i.e. when they will work and when they won’t.

Nowadays I will use positive affirmations if I can do or have all of the following:

a)      Picture a successful outcome. With the sporting example it is easy to picture a clear example of success, of what you do want. However I find it quite difficult and ambiguous to picture being a successful sales person, I mean what does that look like or feel like? Sure you could imagine sealing a particular deal or something but it is nowhere near as precise as seeing yourself scoring in a sports match – in my opinion at least.

b)      At least some belief that you can do it. I feel that affirmations are great for accelerating into existence an already existing positive belief. I already knew I was good at Rugby League and definitely felt comfortable that what I was visualising had some chance of coming to fruition. As regards the sales job, I had no real passion for this and had never fostered any great desire or belief to be a good salesman either, but I figured positive affirmations should work anyway right? Wrong, I believe some pre-existing desire and belief should be there for affirmations to work.

c)       Maintain the desire to keep using the affirmations usually through having some innate passion for what I am wanting to achieve. With the Rugby example for sure I was motivated, passionate and had desire to make my affirmations come to pass, however if I was honest I had little real desire to make more sales. OK the extra money was nice, but money on its own is not a very good motivator, at least not for me anyway.

The above are just my three rules for using positive affirmations. I find that if a situation fits the above criteria then positive affirmations can work very effectively. Perhaps your subconscious mind is already part way there to accepting them and helping you translate them into reality. If on the other hand the situation does not fit these then I find they tend not to work.

In fact, repeating something you just know to not be true and to try and accept that blindly and imprint it on your sub-counscious mind I have found simply creates something called ‘cognitive dissonance’. This is basically uncomfortable thoughts/feelings caused by you having conflicting thoughts. In this case the affirmation: “I am good at sales” conflicting with the inner belief of actually finding sales quite boring.

The problem with this is that I find myself dwelling on the conflicting feeling and as anyone knows that the more you focus on a problem the worse the situation often gets (law of attraction and all that). So in these types of situations I believe that positive affirmations are not the way to go.

I realise some people would argue that you need to keep battling on with the positive affirmation until you have completely brain washed your psyche into believing something so that it will eventually come to reality, but for me, from my experience that doesn’t work. In fact if you don’t find yourself accepting the positive affirmation then it can have the opposite affect because the thing that you are affirming can turn into a feeling of discomfort (due to the cognitive dissonance) which can then be all to easily dwelled upon and blown out of proportion, even into a problem where before there were none.

In summary I have found positive affirmations to work very well in the right circumstances. I guess everyone has to find out for themselves though. What do you think?

Losing The Spare Tire

Recently I’ve started a crusade to start losing losing the spare tire. Don’t get me wrong I’m not exactly overweight as such, I have always been a regular gym goer and have always played lots of sports too – Thai boxing, squash, rugby and cricket figure high on my list of favourite free time activities.

However over the last few months what with moving house and starting a new job I have neglected my diet somewhat and have allowed a little more fat than I would have liked to develop around my waist. Not exactly unsightly as yet, but I certainly know myself that it is more than I am comfortable carrying around with me.

Although I am well versed in how to lose weight and so on (part of my degree was fitness program design) I am still keen to keep my knowledge up to date and learn any new techniques and strategies I can to get the job done and lose the spare tire. After all I am going on holiday to SE Asia again in two months and fully intend to hit the beaches with something resembling a six pack, I just think it looks so much more visually attractive which is a great boost to self-confidence as well as making you live a more healthy lifestyle to achieve.

How does any of this link to the theme of this blog ‘positive thinking’? Well, the great little eBook I have been using to guide me through losing my spare tire is unlike any previous similar books I’ve read, the very first chapter is dedicated not to calories, not to exercise, not to pumping iron but… to mind set. More precisely the importance of having clear written goals, visualisation, a positive attitude and the power of thoughts. Music to my ears!

The program/diet itself is nothing more than god’s honest truth about what is known to work and what is known to not work in the field of weight loss. It has certainly shown me a thing or too. I have now accurately worked out the precise amount of calories that I need to be eating each day if I want to lose weight, the best foods I should be eating and the right combinations of exercises I need to be doing, how often, for how long etcetera…

I’ve only been doing it for 10 days now but I have already gone down a belt size and I’m feeling better about myself. I reckon if I can keep this going for another 6 weeks (the time left until my holiday) I will be able to step out onto the beach with something resembling a six pack. Awesome hey!

As ever though, I believe, as does the author Tom Venuto that success starts in the mind. It always seems to me that the most successful people in any given field put as much effort into their mental training as they do to the actual specifics of the activity itself they are involved in. So, I guess if there is a moral to this blog post then it is to start with the end in mind, get your goals written down and visualise success.

For anyone else interested in losing a few pounds, getting a six pack or shaping up a bit, you might want to check out the program I’m using ‘Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle’ here. I intend to do some follow up posts on my weight loss progress over the next few weeks so stay tuned for more.

Have a great day Oh and by the way, that is not me in the picture in case you were wondering!

Getting Top Side Of Your Pink Elephant!

I really hate having to learn lessons twice over. You’d think once would be enough but some lessons just don’t go in the first time. It was only on reflection recently that I realised that I had been letting history repeat itself in a negative way right under my nose and I was more or less encouraging it too happen.

Here’s my brief story but first, as for point of illustration please, whatever you do, do not think of a pink elephant, yes that’s right please avoid picturing a large pink elephant in your mind’s eye, doing so could be disastrous!

OK, ok, so I’m sure some of you will have seen this coming but I’m guessing the majority of you guys out there couldn’t prevent themselves from seeing a pink elephant in their imagination, be honest did you really manage to not picture an elephant for even the briefest of moments, especially difficult with a picture of one staring at you too.

Despite me instructing you specifically to not do something, your brain couldn’t – not think of something once the thought was placed there. You see the brain doesn’t work well with negatives or even words for that matter. It works in a positive fashion and will focus on whatever thing, object, place or situation you put in front of it whether you want that thing or not!

The chances are you knew this already but maybe like me you don’t always remember how important this can be in everyday life. Recently I had the good fortune to secure a new job and I was desperate to make a good impression and try to ‘fit in’ in my new environment. Normally I don’t really have a problem getting on with people or settling in to a new place, however this job was in a completely different environment to anywhere I had previously worked a) because it was a very prestigious organisation and b)  it was well known for it being a very upper class and extremely traditional place.

These two factors grew bigger in my mind as the start date of the job approached, and in my mind they kind of became the main focus of concern for me. Although I wanted desperately to be my normal self and fit in, I found it hard to do so. Awkward conversations, strange decisions on my part and lower performance levels seemed to typify my first weeks on the job all of which were uncharacteristic to me. I knew I was underperforming and that things were not quite right and I was still in awe almost of the place. In fact I seemed to spend more time worrying about fitting in than anything else including doing my job properly.

Of course, in hindsight the problem was clear to see, I was clearly focussing on completely the wrong things, worrying about what others thought of me, worrying about my poor performance so far, worrying about feeling out of place and whether or not I was even good enough to be there etc.

In fact, It wasn’t until my first holiday from the job that I was able to take some time to reflect on what was happening to me, as I knew things hadn’t been going well all-round.

Quite simply, I had allowed myself to get caught up in all my own negativity rather than take my usual calm positive thinking approach. I had been focussing on all the wrong things. I vowed that on returning to work I would do two things, and two things only. Firstly, I would focus on doing a good job and secondly, I would not care what others thought of me and focus on being happy. Two deliberately straight forward targets.

Since then, anytime I have caught myself wondering what others were thinking of me or whether they approve of me, I immediately drop the thought and refocus on task.

No, it is not possible to stop all negative thoughts but you sure can stop yourself from dwelling on them as I had been doing. Instead you can just literally ‘let them go’ and deliberately choose another thought to refocus on. And this is all that I did. It is a simple thing to do and one that can be easily practised during meditation (when a thought comes into your mind that you don’t want there, simply acknowledge it by labelling the thought e.g – say to yourself ‘that is a thought about my boss’, observe it almost as a third person and then let it go).

After no more than a couple of weeks of doing this the situation had completely changed! I mean almost as soon as I changed my focus everything improved. In fact I forgot I had even been having reservations about the place within a few days of returning from holiday.

My performance improved and I didn’t give a thought to what other people were thinking and in turn without realising it I had become just another member of the team and the issues I had previously thought existed dissolved through a simple change in my perception and thought process, all thanks to the pink elephant.

So, all I’m saying in around about sort of way is that if you have some sort of problem or situation in your life that you are not happy with at the moment then it might be worth reflecting on what you are focussing on regarding that situation. It may just be that if you refocus on a positive part of that situation then you may be able to drastically improve that situation. I am not promising miracles but I am promising that it won’t hurt to try and you might just find the answer and improve your life! Good luck.

Why Motivation Is Like Bathing!

Motivation is like bathing – you need a little bit every day

Many people find that buying books, audio programs and tickets to motivational seminars are pointless. They argue that if you have to spend time every day getting motivated, then why spend any time on it at all. Well the famous motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once compared it to bathing. You get dirty after you get a bath and you’ve got to take one every day, don’t you? Would you give up taking baths because you’ve got to do it over and over again?

The fact is, things will get in your way. You will focus your mind and efforts on a specific goal and eventually run into some sort of challenge that makes you want to pack it up and head home. But you need to stay motivated. You need to remind yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing. You’ve got to find motivational books, speeches and audio programs that will help remind you just how capable you really are.

Here are a few tips that will help you stay motivated and on course:

1. Make sure you know the true reasoning behind your goals. You don’t want to just make a lot of money. There is a reason you want to make a lot of money. Figure out what that reason is. If it’s something that is worth working for, it will be so much easier to stay on track when things get tough. But if you are only focused on making money, you might give up. Figuring out the reasoning behind your goal can also help you make sure you’re focusing on the right goals from the start.
2.  Write your goals down (and the underlying reasons for them) and review them every day. It helps to put notes in places you’ll be every day. The bathroom mirror is a popular suggestion, as is the dashboard. It doesn’t matter where you put your reminder, so long as you
   see it every day. The important thing is that you start your day with your goals fresh in your mind.
3. Think about your goals before you go to bed. Specifically concentrate on what you will have to do tomorrow to accomplish them. It’s important that you finish your day planting this seed in your unconscious mind.
4. Regularly purchase motivational materials, including books, audio programs, and tickets to motivational seminars. There are people who spend all of their time learning how to motivate people. Reading one of these authors or listening to one of these speakers can help give you that charge of energy you need to jump one more hurdle.

It’s so much easier to stay on track when you understand exactly why you’ve chosen your goals. It’s even easier to stay motivated when you know what you have to do to accomplish them. If you practice getting motivated every single day you will find that it is easier to accomplish your goals.

Starting Over…Again!…Argh!!!

I don’t quite know how I managed it. Whether it was something I did or not I don’t know. But somehow I managed to delete all the articles and files from the entire site! Over 5 years worth of content!!! To say I was flumoxed would be an understatement. I am guessing it was a bug inside one of the plug-ins I had installed or something like that and unfortunately retrieval of the information is impossible and hundreds of hours of material has disappeared!

The site has changed style, format and many other factors over the years but the one constant has been the focus on positive thinking. I have had many e-mails form readers over the years thanking me for different articles, offering opinions and providing interesting comment and it is with that in mind and wanting to maintain the spirit of optimism and positive thinking that I have been preaching all this time which is driving mee to rebuild the site to it former glories.

So it is as they say ‘back to the drawing board’ and what better time to reassess the future of the site and where I want to take it. Well one thing is for certain is that the positive thinking theme remains. The other related areas of the law of attraction (the secret), personal development and wealth creation fit in well beside that. However i would really like to add a section on profiles of inspirational people. This would include famous people who have lived the philospohy of positive thinking to the fullest and who show us the way and reveal to us just how much can be achieved, even in limiting circmustances. I am thinking about people from completely different diverse backgrounds but all united by the common theme of positive thinking and other such admirable characteristics.

Some people immediately spring to mind: Norman Vincent Peale, Nelson Mandela, Ghandhi,  Winston Churchill and such like along with sportsman like Lance Armstrong and Ian Botham.  My hope is that you the readers will be inspired by their stories afresh and continue to try to achieve your dreams and goals.

I would also like to add a section devoted entirely to readers submissions of how YOU and people like you have achieved success through using the principles spoken about on this site. Whether that be throough overcoming some form of illness, losing weight, completing a challenge or overcoming a fear or addiction. Real life examples from real everyday ‘non famous’ people are in many ways even more powerful than the examples of the rich and famous, for we can relate to them much more easily which will hopefully serve to inspire us all to take action.

Whilst this will take time to build momentum it is something I would really like to do. If you feel you have any stories worthy of submitting then please do so, we would all like to hear from you.

More details of course are to follow once I have gotten  bit more content up on here and got the site up and running properly again. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by, give us a bookmark and pop back again in a few weeks to see how things have changed.

All the best,

James

Your Greatest Gift Revealed

Rushing to work, chasing after the family and covering the bills each month is hardwork. Sometimes in our busy lives it can feel like we are riding an increasingly fast treadmill that just keeps on running and unfortunately not always in the direction we would like.

However, there is nothing like a new born child to make you appreciate just what a wonderful thing life is. Remember that last time you saw a relatives or your own new born child. What spectacular pure sense of joy it is to see new flesh and blood full of such potential and unhindered life bubbling away.

Aside from everything else seeing them always reminds me that we have all received an amazing gift… and that is our own life: including our body, thoughts and indeed the ability for us to create within our own lives the situations and circumstance we desire.

It suprises me a bit when people seem to be happy to let themselves be governed by the expectations of society rather than allowing themselves to do what they would actually prefer to do (if they have even given it a moments serious consideration).

I guess it all comes down to being intentional with your actions and knowing that the only person who really controls what is going on in your life is yourself. Maybe it is because it is quite easy to go with the flow and follow the socially accpeted ‘norms’, taking the safe options in life or being persuaded by the advice of others and subsequently not really following your preferred choices. Remember what is right for one person is not always right for another and constantly doing things to please others/fit in is only going to lead to endless frustration further down the line.

What I’m really saying and reminding myself of as well is that the only person who knows what is best for you… is you, and that it is not selfish to break from the norm and to actually take action to achieve your goals and desires and do what YOU want. Refuse to let life and circumstance push you around. Instead be positive, always start something with the end in mind and know that you can and will make a success of it because it is something that you have actually chosen to do and not slipped into doing or been firced to do. There is such a difference between the two. One leads to self fulfillment and happiness, the other leads to frsutration and perhaps even despair.

Just contemplate now what it is that you would be happy to strive for and make your mind up to achieve it. By not striving to achieve something are you making your life happier or unhappier…which life would you ultimately prefer?

So, what are YOU striving for now or are you still drifting being pushed around by circumstance. Make a firm choice now and it could transform your life. Afterall do you want to be sat in your rocking chair in your later years full of regrets or full of endless memories of joy from leading a fulfilling life – it’s your call!

Quit Begging And Begin Manifesting

Can you recall that first time you heard about the law of attraction or saw the movie ‘The Secret’ ? If your anything like most people you felt a great question had been answered and that you really could now begin to make your dreams come true.

Unfortunately for many people that great burst of hope and energy soon evapourated back to its original state and frustration set in. This was true for a great many people.

Don’t worry! 97% of people are unable to make the secret and the law of attraction work for them on their first attempt…or even on their first few. After all its a completely new skill that takes time to master, rather like learning language, you make mistakes but you don’t give up, you need to keep trying adjusting your approach until you can communciate efficiently.

Of course it’s very easy for me to say, stay determined, stay positive and so on. It can also seem equally ridiculous when evidence of previous failures of yourself and the world at large surround you, such as the terrible state of the economy or the senseless attacks in Mumbai not so long ago.

However when your thoughts and feelings start to drift into that negative rut then hey you know what you are going to attract. The law of attraction will of course work whether you believe it or not or whether you want it to or not.

So, what really is the answer? How do the people that do use the secret effectively approach using it? Well, the following top tips are a great way to start making the law of attraction work for you again. Here they are:

1. Let Yourself Receive

Alright, I confess that sounds a bit strange, when did I ever stop myself from receiving? Well have a think on this: If you ask a police officer in the street for directions: “excuse  me officer, could you tell me how I canget to the xyz building please?”, “please can you tell me” “oh please, pleeeeease” “Where is it? ” “Which way?” “Can you, can you” and so on… you are not actually giving the police officer a chance to reply. I mean the building could be just around the corner or even straight in front of you but if you don’t give them a chance to respond, you aren’t going to get there.

So, if all you are doing is sending out messages to the universe over and over again and not allowing the universe an opportunity to respond then you are very unlikely to get an answer. Therefore quit giving yourself a hard time, relax yourself and wait openly and patiently. The signs, could come from anywhere, so be open. A magazine left open at a certain page, a chance comment from a friend a line in a song, any of those could be the answer you are looking for, you will know when it comes, it will fit so well. So let your desires hang out there for the universe to respond too.

2. Be Patient

It can seem strange to some people that if the universe is so all seeing and all powerful then why are things not manifesting right now? or why aren’t they happening faster? Well don’t forget that we are all governed by the same fundamental laws and things naturally take time to develop. Receiving your desires will take a certain amount of time.

So be patient!

Also some people fall into the trap of throwing more and more resources at there desired outcome in order to make it happen faster and then when this doesn’t happen they get frustrated and give up on their desires. You wouldn’t expect 9 mothers to have one baby in a month, in a similar way you shouldn’t expect the universe to work in such a manner

Simply be patient!

Receiving takes time. Remembering to be patient will not only allow you to avoid the negativity and frustration of not getting your desires sooner but it will also allow you to enjoy the journey the way you are supposed to.

3. Educate And Support Yourself

Do your part. The Law Of Attraction is not an overnight delivery service and needs support from you to operate, there will more than likely be actions that you must have to take to receive your desires. Often this will take the form of education in some form or other. Make it a habit to associate yourself with like minded people who can act as role models and help you through difficult patches.

Like a child learning to walk , you have to do it yourself of course but if you can see someone doing it first hand you will gain great confidence and also have a clear picture of what you want and how you are going to achieve it.

So, don’t look at the secret as a magic wand, it isn’t, what it is, is the fastest way to attain your desires in line with the laws of the universe. Treat it as such and you will get your rewards.