Your Life Is A Self-Project

1st N Weight Loss: Couch Potato Challenge: Day 6

The responsibility of working hard, planning and living a successful and fulfilled life falls largely on your shoulders. This simply means that from this point forward, the burden of shaping your adult life, is on you. The sooner you realize this, the better!

The most important question to ask yourself is, what can I do today, this week, this month, this year, to get my life going in the direction I desire?

If you truly believe that there is more to you than meets the eye, stop making excuses, and start living your best life today!

If you are either on the verge of giving up, or are sick and tired of being mediocre, you can make a decision to start winning, by casting a YES vote in your favor today!

You don't have to continue being stuck in that rut or being hounded by feelings of under achievement! Believe in yourself, you can make something of your life. Just don't give up!

5 of the most important life management questions:

1. What?

What do you want to do with your life? This is probably one of the most important questions that you will ever answer. The answer to this question will lay the foundation for your destiny.

Once you have clearly identified what you want to do with your life, it then becomes the focal point of everything you plan to do. Knowing what you want to do, gives you clarity and a much needed sense of purpose. It also prevents you from engaging in side tracking, time wasting ventures which have no connection to your purpose.

2. Why?

Understanding the importance of why you want to achieve certain things in your life, is the motivation that will drive you to accomplish the goals that you have set for yourself.

Why do you want to achieve these goals you have set for yourself? Why do you want to lose weight? Why do you want to get married? Why do you want to start your own business? Why do you want to boost your self esteem? The answers to these questions must be compelling enough to move you into action.

3. Who?

In order for you to achieve certain things, you need to take on certain qualities. Who do you need to become as you strive to achieve your goal? Do you need to become more confident, committed and action oriented? Do you need to become a risk taker? Do you need to be more assertive? Identify the qualities that you need to adopt in order for you to achieve your goals.

Max Dupree rightly said that we cannot become what we need to be, by remaining what we are.

4. How?

How are you going to manage your life as a project? How are you planning on achieving your objectives? Do you have a step by step plan? Certain tools need to be in place to help you tie together all the pieces of the project you plan to accomplish.

Having a plan is very important because it is the road map to your goal. It will help you know what information you require to make each phase of your life a success. For example, if you want to lose weight, how do you plan to lose it? If plan A fails what is plan B?

5. When?

Every goal you set must have a deadline and any plan you have, must cease from just being a plan, turn into action and produce tangible results. When are you going to be done with at least one specific goal you have set out to accomplish? When are you going to wrap up the project?

Your life is a do-it-yourself project. If you want your plans to materialize, start taking action today!

Why Goals Are Important

1st N Weight Loss: Couch Potato Challenge: Day 5

This article provides a brief overview of the key points in weight loss goal setting, and explains why goals in general are important. So if you have ever wanted to set weight loss goals for yourself, or any other goal, but were overwhelmed with all the information available, then you will probably find this article very useful!

Everyone who has successfully lost weight , or have been successful in life, set goals, so goal setting must be a worthwhile activity to your success.

One of the main reasons why people set goals is because goals help focus our mind and gives us something to work towards. Goals are therefore like having a destination, or vision in life, and the things you did to achieve those goals is how you got there.

Without goals you will have no destination, or vision in which to follow and you will be blown around like a leaf in the wind, never really going anywhere.

How To Write Goals?

When you have decided exactly what goals you want to achieve in certain areas of your life, such as weight loss, romance or financially, your next step is to write this in a goal format.

A goal format simply means writing goals beginning with "I have or I am", so they are written as if you have already accomplished them. This tells the mind exactly what you want to do so it can start working on achieving those goals.

However if you were to write goals beginning with "I will or I want" then it is unlikely you will achieve those goals, because your mind see these statements as in the future and so it will never be accomplished.

Set A Deadline

Once you have your goals written down, you must then create a deadline for you to accomplish them by. Without a deadline you will not be motivated to achieve them, and most likely give up on them after awhile of set backs.

Make A Plan

After your goals have been written down you should then create a plan as to how you are going to do them. For example if your goal is to loose a certain amount of weight, then your plan would include activities you must do to loose that weight.

This can include things like exercising 4 days a week and eating healthy foods. But whatever you do, try to make your plan as specific as possible. Don't worry about getting it right the first time round, you can always add to it later on.

Well that's really all there is to setting goals. It's nothing complicated, but it does require some initial time to be set aside so you can decide what goals you want to go after, and then how you will achieve them.

These are the main principles of goal setting, and if you can follow these simple steps you will be well on your way to achieving them!

Goal Setting -Stop Procrastinating

1st N Weight Loss: Couch Potato Challenge: Day 3 

This article gives you ten great ideas for successfully achieving your goals. If you struggle with procrastinating, when it comes to your goals, then you will learn something from this article.

It has been said that 60-80% of New Year resolutions will be broken within the first two weeks. In other words, a lot of people have a hard time making the changes in their life they want to make. So you are not alone. Personally, I am not a huge advocate of New Year resolutions because I believe in setting and achieving personal goals all year around.

That being said, I wanted to share with you the top ten ways to increase the likelihood for success with achieving your goals.

1. Stick to 1 or 2 important goals.

Having a laundry list of all the things you would like to change in your life can be overwhelming. Your chances for success are much higher if you stick to 1 or 2 of your most important goals. This allows you to concentrate all your energy and focus on these goals.

Once you achieve those goals, you can always set 1 or 2 more.

2. Be realistic.

It's okay to think big and want the best, but it is more important to succeed, so be realistic. Ask yourself whether or not your goals are reasonable and possible. It is probably not realistic to set the goal of never yelling at your kids again. How will you feel about your resolution when your children test you on a very bad day and you yell? Certainly one can cut back on yelling and work to find alternative ways to deal with misbehavior, but an all or nothing attitude may set you up for failure, and feeling like you failed can set you up for more failure.

Instead, accept and honor your humanness.

3. Be specific.

Be as specific as possible when determining goals. Articulate how you will measure success and exactly what you are trying to achieve. Setting a goal to lose weight is too general. A better choice would be to set a specific and manageable goal. For example say, "I will lose 25 pounds by June 30, 2018."

Be specific when answering the what, when and how.

4. Connect to your motivation for achieving your goal.

Why do you want to achieve this goal? Why now? Make sure your motivation comes from your heart, and not from your head. In other words, your goal should be something you really desire, and not something you know you SHOULD do. Really connect to why this is so important to you. Pay attention to whether or not you are being driven by fear or love. Beware of setting goals based on what someone else in your life thinks you should do.

Your resolutions should come from your authentic self.

5. Examine your belief in your ability to achieve this goal.

What do you believe about your ability to achieve your goals? If you have tried to reach the same goal many times before without much success, your confidence could be wavering. You could be feeding yourself negative messages without even realizing it. Be conscious about positive thinking. Remind yourself that you are capable of doing anything you set your heart to.

Tell yourself every day that you have the ability to take the steps it will take to reach your goal.

6. Create a detailed plan to achieve your goal.

Lets say your goal is to eliminate the clutter in your home. But how will you start when the clutter is overwhelming? It may be helpful to break large goals into intermediate, manageable steps. Make a list of each area you need to tackle. Then break each area into even smaller segments that can be tackled easily. For instance, set time aside to clean out old clothes, then to organize sweaters, then to throw out old shoes, and finally arrange clothing by color or type. Don't forget to specify a time limit for accomplishing each of the smaller steps.

Before you know it, the larger goal will have been met.

7. Recognize that you may encounter obstacles.

Most people give up on their goals because they run into some type of obstacle along the way. Obstacles can be internal or external. Examples of internal obstacles include negative self-talk, limiting beliefs and discipline issues. Some external obstacles are the lack of time, money or resources.

Know in advance what hurdles you may have to conquer.

8. Identify a plan of action to overcome obstacles.

If you are trying to give up chocolate (I would never try this!), what are you going to do when you get a craving for chocolate, or when all your friends are chowing down on chocolate cake? Maybe your plan would be to carry a sweet substitute with you at all times. Or perhaps you could involve yourself in a fun activity when the urge strikes.

If your obstacles are tougher and you need more support, consider hiring a life coach to help you work through your blocks.

9. Enlist the support of an accountability partner.

As you work towards your goals, it can be very helpful to have someone in your life to be your support partner. Consider asking your partner or friend to help you stick to the goals you have set. Use this person when you are struggling and set up a plan to check in regularly with him/her. As a coach, I have the privilege of trading coaching services with my peers.

My coach helps me achieve my goals, overcome any obstacles, and celebrate my success.

10. Celebrate success along the way.

One of the most important things you can do for yourself is celebrate your small successes as you work towards your larger goals. Dont wait until the end to reward yourself. You deserve to be recognized for your efforts and your commitment, especially when your goals take a long time to achieve. If you dont celebrate on your journey, you will lose your motivation.

So celebrate, celebrate, and celebrate!

Achieving your goals can be tough work sometimes, but it is also very rewarding. If you fall off your path, remember you can always get back on. Its okay to take a few detours. Its also okay to take a break to rest. Don't beat yourself up or give up hope. Start again where you fell down and before you know it, you will be a pro at accomplishing your goals.

Action Steps For Success In 2018

Think back to the beginning of 2017. Like most, you started the new year with many goals. What goals did you set? Maybe 2017 was the year you were going to lose weight, get a better job, make more money, meet someone or quit smoking.

How did it go?

2017 has come to an end. How many of those goals did you accomplish? It's ok to admit that you did not accomplish what you thought you would or even worse, what you knew you could have.

Recognizing last years failure is the first step toward creating positive changes.

New Year after New Year you reflected on the past and promised yourself that this New Year would be different. You had goals and you made resolutions that you would accomplish what you failed to accomplish in the past, and yet you repeated the same behavior and did not accomplish your goals.

Albert Einstein said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results" Why do you expect changes if you keep setting goals the same way? Are you really expecting to accomplish them? You need to take a different approach. Unless you are willing to change your approach you will be ending 2018 the same way you have ended 2017 and, once again, nothing will have changed.

Though setting and achieving a goal does not require the start of a new year, it does have a psychological effect. You feel like you are given the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. The reason you want to wipe the slate is because of what you did not achieve. Individuals who achieve their goals dont want to start fresh; they want to remember and continue to build upon their past success.

As successful individuals achieve their goals, they are constantly setting new goals and forward momentum is maintained, producing endless results. You do not need a new year to get into action. What you need is to be resolved to produce results in your life. That is what making a resolution means, to be resolved to change behavior.

In the past you did not achieve your goals because you wanted to get the results without changing your behavior and following the steps to success.

This New Year, let's start forward motion by achieving goals continually. Here are the action steps to achieve your goals and produce success in your life:

1)Start out small. Don't think about huge sweeping changes that you want. Pick small goals that you can achieve in the next 30-60days. That is why you should try the "Couch Potato 21-Day Walking Challenge". Its not only small, but its simple, and by finishing, it can give you a sense of accomplishment, and motivate you to do more.

2)Become resolved and committed to your goals by writing them down and signing your name to them.

3)Read your goals out loud every day and ask yourself what behavior and actions are needed today to achieve them. In the past you made goals and got busy and those goals were quickly forgotten. Remind yourself daily.

4)Take the action you decided on that day. Every inch you move forward gets you closer to your goal.

5)At the end of your day, read your goal again out loud and ask yourself if you did everything you could to achieve it. Make necessary adjustments on your actions the next day when reading your goals again.

6)Achieve your goals within 30-60 days.

7)After achieving your goals, immediately make new 30-60 day goals and repeat the process.

Follow these seven steps to success and at the end of 2018 you will be celebrating a successful pattern of behavior that will bring you endless results for years to come.

Prior to beginning any physical fitness activities, individuals must consult a physician for proper diagnosis and/or treatment.

This article is intended to be used for informational purposes only, and is not a guarantee that you will be successful following this routine. Results vary by each individual, depending on their effort, and following a strict low calorie diet, throughout the 21-days 

Stop The Madness, And Do These Tips For Consistent Weight Loss

Uncover the five simple steps to stopping the madness and finally getting on track to consistent weight loss. Get the full picture of the path you will take and build your accountability team to make sure you get there.

If you are carrying around a few (I use that term loosely) extra pounds like most of us are, you all know all the reasons why we should take the weight off. It will reduce stress on our heart, reducing the chance of heart disease, cancer, possibility of diabetes; feel better, look more attractive, etc.

There are 101 reasons why, but it can be a real pain to finally get that weight off. You push really hard, make a little progress, get side tracked, and bam you are heavier then you started...sounds familiar.

It drives us crazy.  Enough with that hassle, I have put together 5 simple steps to actually losing weight and keeping it off, and hopefully for good. These steps can be applied to anything, but we are focusing on weight loss here.

1. Know What You Want
2. Know Where You Are
3. Track Your Results
4. Make Course Corrections
5. Being held Accountable

Now all your extra weight will effortlessly melt off.  Yeah right! A simple list of 5 items is not going to do it, so let me explain the intricacies of the 5 items and where the hang up normally occurs when applied to losing weight.

Know What You Want

This one is dead simple. Most people that want to lose weight have an idea of how many pounds they would like to lose or how they would like their body to look.

I think we can safely say if your body started looking the way you wanted it, you would know, even if you did not have it completely mapped out and detailed.

Know Where You Are

This is the big trip up. It is almost always overlooked and is the number one reason for the up and down Yo Yo effect we experience with losing weight. We are unhappy with how our body feels and how it looks and it is painful to zoom in and get an accurate picture of where we are. Unfortunately, we have to know where we are, to be able to accurately judge the results we are getting.

You are on a trip to San Diego, California. You would like to start your trip from Phoenix, Arizona, but you really don't know where you are. No problem.  You get an Arizona/California map and find that a simple 6 hours trip west on interstate 8 will get you to San Diego.

6 hours later, you have no clue where you are and it is definitely not warm San Diego.  You feel defeated and you want to give up!  Do you blame the car? The stupid maps? San Diego? Yourself?

Now what if I told you, you were actually in New York City, not Phoenix, Arizona.  A 6 hour car ride west from New York City will never get you to San Diego.

If you took the time to accurately find out where you were, you would have been able to choose the appropriate means to get to San Diego and have an expectation as to how long it would take.

This is the same with weight loss and our personal physical condition. In our minds, we think we are starting in a different physical condition then we really are. When the results don't follow the illusion in our mind, we get upset.


Track Your Results

This is conceptually simple. If we have no clue as to WHAT we are doing, how do we know what is working? It might be a simple to do, but is also simple not to do. In the end, most people never track their results.


Make Course Corrections

We love to do this one. We have it hands down. It is like step 1 of knowing what you want. We try the new food diet, the super sit up machine, and the cardio hip hop power energy yoga fat burner class.

We might be great at switching it up, but without knowing where we are starting from and a history of tracked results, we have no clue as to what we should change or even which direction we should go.


Being held Accountable

No, not accountability! That is an evil word. I don't want someone to know what I am doing, or more importantly what I am not doing.

So, why do we resist accountability, your secret weapon to weight loss?  Because it works!  If you know someone is going to be watching, you would follow through or at least feel very uncomfortable not following through.

Accountability when used wisely is the ultimate turbo booster to your weight loss. Since you are going to be accountable anyway, you might as well get something out of it.

Using accountability up front, you can achieve the body of your dreams. If you let your body hold you accountable, it will throw on fat in places you don't want it to be.

The biggest obstacle to weight loss is not taking any action. It does not  matter how good the plan is, it is worthless if you do not follow it. So what do I do now?

First and foremost get Accountable.

Forward this article to someone you respect and care about and tell them I want to be accountable to finally taking off my extra pounds. When they agree to support you, start working through Steps 1 thru 5.

I held myself accountable, by telling everyone, and anyone who would listen, that I was sick and tired, of being sick and tired of being overweight. After seven months, people are taking notice in the difference Im making in my health, at age 53.


This article is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is not to be used in place of, or in conjunction with, professional medical advice or any doctors recommendation. Prior to beginning any weight loss program, individuals must consult a physician for proper diagnosis and/or treatment.