I’m Scared!

We say and think it almost all the time. “I’m scared.” Scared of getting ill, scared of contracting a whole host of chronic diseases. Hypertension, cancer, diabetes, you name it, increases in the number of people getting sick is in the news almost daily. Moreover, with this being the case, a lot of us are ultimately scared of our own bodies. In fact, to put it more accurately, we’re scared of ourselves.

However, all fear stems from a sense of powerlessness. We’re scared of ourselves if you like, simply because in many cases we’ve subconsciously distanced ourselves from the fact that we’re not powerless. Rather, each one of us and the effort (or not) which we put into eating and living as healthily as possible, is the chief determiner of our future good health and overall physical well being. To release ourselves from the, “I’m scared” fear which a lot of us confront every day, all we need to do then, is start exercising that effort.

Of course, it takes practice, not to mention trial and error to build a healthier relationship with ourselves. However, it’s through such practice that we can start to learn to set legitimately achievable goals for ourselves each day.

Firstly though, we need to re-learn how to talk to and motivate ourselves. For instance, if you were to ask yourself a question, how would you ask that question in a way that  builds momentum for the rest of the day? Would you say: “What SHALL I do to accomplish a healthy and successful day today? Or would you say: “What SHOULD I do to accomplish a healthy and successful day today?

Notice the subtle difference between SHALL or SHOULD?

You see, what SHOULD I be doing is a great motivational first step toward accomplishing step by step increased energy, weight loss and brain clarity goals. Why? Because asking yourself what you SHOULD do imprints your intention on a task which you have set yourself to accomplish.

Think about it this way, if you were running out of some kind of essential medication like insulin or an asthma inhaler, you wouldn’t wake up in the morning and say: “SHALL I go to the pharmacy today?” Rather, you would wake up, check the medicine cabinet, and say: “I SHOULD go to the pharmacy today.”

Moreover, when we start attaching real goals with real purpose to such daily questions, we start living with more purpose. However, we’re not just attaching purpose to our goals, we’re attaching priority to that purpose also.

We all innately know that living a purposeful, healthy lifestyle has the power to improve on our sense of physical and emotional well being. However, what we often forget, is that such benefits are directly dependent on the level of priority which we attach to such a lifestyle in the first place.

All that said, as well as re-learning how to attach real purpose and priority to our weight loss and healthier lifestyle goals and aspirations, we need also to embrace patience. Too often after all, diets and healthier lifestyle efforts fail pure and simply due to us wanting to see immediate results. As well however, as just lacking patience, we often also bundle lots of different weight loss and healthy lifestyle priorities together and essentially overwhelm ourselves.

Have you had a goal which has failed? In retrospect, did that goal fail because you had too many expectations and/or were trying to achieve and prioritize too much all at once? If you have, you’ll know that in tandem with that goal’s failure, you felt feelings of personal failure and personal inability to perhaps ever make the positive changes in your diet and lifestyle. This then, is precisely why we need to get into the habit of asking ourselves: “What SHOULD I do TODAY?” and “What is my priority? What is my step 1?”

In essence, we need to challenge ourselves each day with such questions, and in doing so commit to single, priority driven, and ultimately easy to accomplish daily actions. Maybe for example, you are going to commit today to drinking more water in order to tackle food cravings and body breakouts.

Simplicity if you like, is best. Learn how to look for the right goal each day by finding a goal that fits you at this moment based on events that are happening right now in your life. Today I’m not going to eat any refined sugar, today I’m going to focus on eating more fruit and vegetables and less processed food, and today I am not going to stop at Subway on my lunch hour, are all examples of such easy to accomplish daily goals.

In fact, we need to make step by step changes bolstered by senses of daily purpose and priority rather than strive for long term big goals and aspirations, purely because by doing so we don’t deflate our motivational momentum through occasional failures. Moreover, weight loss especially is a tricky area. Even when following strict plans and dietary regimens (supposedly) guaranteed to see results, our weight can fluctuate depending on everything from natural hormonal changes, to how much salt we consume before scheduled weigh-ins.

All this being the case,  the most productive approach to accomplishing a healthier more balanced you, is to envision weight loss and better health as a bi-product of series of purposeful steps just like the ones outlined.

What in this case, is your first priority step going to be? Post below in the comment section. I would love to hear from you.