One thing to do to change your life!

I want to talk with you today about goals, or more specifically goal, singular. A search of Google finds “about” 878, 000, 000 results for the search term “How to set goals." That’s a lot of results and a whole lot of zeroes. If one were to examine these resulting websites they’d find a lot of areas one might consider when setting goals: Financial, health, family, career, etc. with recommendations to set several goals in each area. They’d also find there are a lot of ways of going about setting those goals from a simple note card to a complete vision board. Some even have comprehensive forms and charts one could complete. Many of these are great ideas and we’ll be having a workshop on goal setting in the near future here at North Mountain Cardio Health and Fitness where we’ll explore many of these methods. What I want to encourage you to do today though is “KISS”. Which of course typically stands for, Keep It Simple… Stupid? I don’t like, “Stupid”J. So let’s change that to Keep It Simple Someone or how about Superstar? Yeah, I like that, SUPERSTAR!I

Michelangelo said that “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” While I wholeheartedly agree with the great master I find that the vast majority of people can become overwhelmed with trying to do too much… all at once. That last part is the key, “too much, all at once”. You don’t have to be perfect… yet. Another great quote that comes to mind is that “Perfectionism nourishes procrastination”. I heard Doug Grady say that once on a podcast and it really resonated with me. How many times in the past had I decided that since I didn’t have time (or wouldn’t make the time) to go to the gym for an hour I’d put off a workout until tomorrow… or the next day… or the next… How about eating habits? Have you ever abandoned your healthy eating because you had a piece, or several pieces of chocolate? Decided you’d start back to your healthy eating or heaven forbid your “diet” on Monday and it’s only Tuesday?

A whole lot of people when setting goals or making resolutions aim too high… again, at first. Most of you are far more capable and talented than you or anyone has ever given you credit for. And you can and will achieve great things, one step at a time. I’m going to ask you to set one small goal. That’s it, just one. Because one small goal is realistic, it’s achievable. Once you’ve mastered that one goal (or gotten really good at it remembering you don’t have to be perfect), you can add another. Let’s take one for example. Do want to improve your health? What’s one thing that you could do TODAY to be healthier? What if you chose to eat 2 servings of fruits or vegetables every day? “But wait”, you may be saying “I’ve heard that I need at least 5 servings of fruits or vegetables a day”. Agreed, and actually many health experts would say it should be more like 7-10 or more. BUT remember, we’re not aiming for perfection. A former colleague of mine, Colleen Mac Intyre says, “You don’t have to be perfect, to be perfectly successful.” If you’re a person who rarely if ever is consuming fruits and vegetables, 2 servings is a huge increase. When I first began my journey into a healthy active lifestyle I’d go weeks at times without having any fruits or vegetables that weren’t fried or baked in a pie. 2 a day was a monumental improvement. I soon found that I was eating 7 or more without even trying. If you’re already eating 2, make it 3 or 4.

Or maybe you’d like to adopt a keystone habit like regular exercise. Charles Duhigg in his book, “The power of habit” describes a keystone habit as ones that “start a process that, over time, transforms everything.” He goes on to mention that many studies over the past decade have shown that people who exercise, as little as once a week, smoke less, eat better, are more productive, etc. (Duhigg 2012 100, 109-110) Here again though make it reasonable, something that you really can do regularly no matter what. Could you commit to doing just 5 minutes of some physical activity like a walk, doing a few push-ups, some stretching, or just playing with your kids every day? How about 3 times a week or even once a week? Trust me you’ll start feeling so much better and so much more energetic you’ll soon be doing 20 minutes or more, easily.

Over the years I’ve had many hypnotherapy clients that will say month after month, “this time I’m just going to make myself do 30 minutes or an hour of exercise 3 times a week (or more)”. This “make myself” approach is rarely successful. Let’s face it, an hour or even 30 minutes of exercise can be a lot to handle physically AND mentally if you’re going from doing none at all. The task can seem daunting mentally while physically you may not even have the strength or stamina do it. Just making the time for it can be overwhelming and seemingly impossible. Most people though can find the time and can talk themselves into doing just about anything for 5 minutes and even exercising for 1-2 minutes on a regular basis if you’re significantly overweight or out of shape will eventually lead to you being able to do more. I had a client once who truly could only handle 2 minutes of walking on a treadmill. She stuck with it though. She got stronger, increased her endurance, and was soon able to do more.

Whatever you focus on in life you’ll get more of. When you focus on health and wellness you’ll get more of it. Even the time available seems to somehow inexplicably expand when you are really focused on something. In addition to the aforementioned examples here a few other things you might try depending on your particular goals; Smile at one person every day, save a dollar a week, read one book a month, listen to music that excites you every day, make a date with your spouse or your kid(s) once a week, schedule and do one really fun activity every month, take one training or class every year that will propel your career, etc. Remember that notecard I mentioned in the very first paragraph? Go grab one right now, or grab your phone or something else and write out that one goal. Put it up somewhere, or carry it around with you or set a reminder on your phone and look at it at least once a day. Again remember, whatever you focus on in life you’ll get more of.

A final note; at times clients will come in thinking that the hypnosis will somehow just “make” them exercise, eat healthy, etc. Believe me, hypnosis works, it’s not magic though. By combining hypnosis with very realistic goals you’ll be much more successful in achieving whatever goal you’re aiming for.

To try a FREE hypnosis download, text - EZTRANCE to 313131

References Duhigg, Charles 2012. The power of habit. New York: Random House

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