Monday Motivation (on a Thursday)

I may be appealing too much to the Facebook generation here. I sometimes forget that not every uses social networks!

On New Years eve, New Years day and the few days after I saw countless numbers of people posting their status as "Let's hope 2012 is a good one!", or "let's hope it was better than last year".

Neither of those sit quite right with me. The little word: Hope.

Right here, right now, we are all a product of everything we have done, said, experienced and taken up until this point. Those are the things that shape us. It's the interactions we choose to have; the people we choose to associate with; the actions we choose to take and the ones that we don't. Like I tell all my clients: your body and your life is all about the environment you create for it through concious choice.

This echoes right through life at every point. Ok, you may not choose to get hit by a bus but you did chose not to look when you crosse the road, you chose not to drive to work today and you chose to cross the road at that crossing. Often we blame things that happen to us on unavoidable circumstances when it reality, if you look for the real route of the issue, it comes down to your own decisions.

Let's apply this:

If you're suffering from bad health, you're overweight, you're injured or, more positive, you're very fit and healthy, it's all because at some point you chose to be. It may not have been a big decision where you said out loud "I AM GOING TO BE ONE STONE OVER WEIGHT", or "I AM GOING TO BE FIT AND HEALTHY" but lots of small actions compound on one another to lead to utcome. The one chocolate bar you have a day becomes approx 30 chocolate bars a month. The one bottle of wine a night becomes 7 at the end of the week. In isolation a chocolate bar or a bottle of wine isn't seriously going to impact on you're health, but that's the point, it's not just one. It's one consistent, regular action repeated and repeated until that becomes your new environment and your body responds then reflects it.

It isn't all doom and gloom though. We can stop making bad decisions and start making good ones just as easily. The habit may be harder to break but as we know all it takes is one insignificant action that is repeated time and time again until it becomes a habit, then the habit is repeated until it becomes your new environment.

Alcoholics weren't always alcoholics and most armed robbers weren't always that way either. They made one deicison: a bottle of wine followed by another; taking some sweets from a shop as a child. Then they made another decision on the same tack, and another and another and another.

Contrastingly not everyone who has a drink becomes an alcoholic, even if they drink regularly. Furthermore not every child-petty-thief was involved in the Brink's-Mat robbery. The difference is in how those actions are perceived by the individual. The adrenaline released by the thrill of theft might bring the culprit to enjoy the feeling and want to do it more and more. Similarly emotional problems that often lie at the heart of alcoholism may be perceived to be lessened by drinking, when in reality the problem still exists, it's just an avoidance tactic. Simple escapism.

Here's a task for you:

Consider one area of your life that you aren't happy with. Rather than blame outside influences, think how in the past you might have had an impact. What choices did you make that led to the current situation? Did you say "what the heck" to another cake four years ago when your weight problem really began? Try to think, because at the route the problem lies with you and no-one else.

It may sound like I'm ranting or blaming people and to a degree I am, but what I'm trying to achieve is self realisation for you. When you really understand and embrace that every action you make has a consequence you are far more aware of everything you do, you're more considerate and long term it leads to healthier, happier practices.

Here's a story of my own that follows the same reasoning:

I'm rubbish at money. I'm quite good at making it but I'm even better at spending it. I hate doing accounts (that's why I have Keith Rotheram from CA Hunter) and I used to flinch when i checked my bank balance. In reality it wasn't because my business was sucking my bank dry, it was because i kept handing over my credit card and writing cheques. Then doing my books became a massive mountain to conquer. Receipts and invoices everywhere and no real idea how much money I was making.

I sat down with a friend of mine (Paul Woods) and he told me off in the nicest possible way; a true gent. He helped me realise that it was all my fault, there was no-one to blame but myself and I'd gotten myself in to this mess by choosing not to keep track and to avoid doing the stuff I didn't like. I didn't like them because I was so daunted by the [problem I had created!

All it takes to get out of that mess is to put all my receipts in a box when i get them, all the invoices in another one and check them against my bank statements at the end of the month. I created a system for myself so that it was a continual, long term process that is followed every day without fail. My new environment is a much more relaxed, aware and considerate one where I know what is going on and how i can directly affect the outcome - rather than feeling helpless and depressed.

The lesson here is: BE AWARE THAT YOU ARE BOTH THE CAUSE AND SOLUTION TO ALL OF LIFE'S PROBLEMS. IF YOU DON'T WANT PROBLEMS IN THE FUTURE THAT BECOME THE SOLUTION RIGHT NOW AND PREVENT THE ISSUE EVER OCCURRING. YOU ARE IN CHARGE AND YOU HAVE THE POWER TO DO, ACHIEVE AND CHANGE ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING WITH THE DECISIONS YOU MAKE AS OF RIGHT..... NOW

Steve

For more information on fitness and fat loss check out www.pbfitness.co.uk