Happy New Year!
‘Tis the season for making resolutions. Hopes, goals, and plans for the new year ahead.
This reminds me of the quote from the perennial girls' favorite, Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.
“Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it…..yet.”
There's a huge difference between the people who make resolutions and keep them and the people who make resolutions and break them within days or weeks.
The difference is their level of commitment.
In order to lose weight and keep it off permanently, four things must happen.
First, you need to have the desire to lose weight and get healthy.
Next, you need to believe that this is possible and that it's worth the hard work involved in achieving it.
Then, you need to commit to doing whatever it takes to succeed. Failure is not an option.
Finally, you need to take massive action in your endeavor. That means continuing to persevere even after stumbling or failing. Over and over again, until you reach your goal.
The commitment part is where things break down for most people.
We generally have the desire to lose and get healthy and believe that it's possible.
But our commitment is tepid. We think we're committed but then once things get hard or uncomfortable or we aren't seeing immediate success, we drop the commitment. We never even get the chance to get to massive action.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about establishing a compelling reason for your goal of permanent weight loss. You can find that here. Your compelling reason for weight loss goes hand in hand with your commitment.
Once you decide on your compelling reason, you can then use that to fuel your commitment.
Let's take this back to the example of medical school again. You were committed to finishing the four years, right?
Even when it sucked. Even when it was really hard. Even when you were beyond exhausted. Even when you got yelled at because you did the wrong thing.
You didn't just give up because you were committed to finishing. You took massive action to get that diploma by picking yourself back up, time after time, and continuing along the path.
Tap into what that commitment felt like. How you knew that no matter what, you wouldn't quit.
Now apply that level of commitment to your weight and health goals for 2017. Then take the steps necessary to achieve those goals.
Even when you fail. Even when you gain a bit on vacation. Even when you were up all night with a sick kid AND the pager going off constantly. Even when you hit a plateau.
This is what it's going to take to get to your goal weight and stay there permanently.
Are you all in?
Start the new year off right! Click here to get my Busy Doctor's Quick-Start Guide to Effective Weight Loss and to join my email list. I'll make sure you get an email each week so you never miss a post or podcast!
