Weight Loss Suggestions

A New Year is starting in 6 days and for a lot of us dieting is on our minds. Mark Brown of the Naked Soul Blog has graciously agreed to write an artilce discussing the impact making changes has in helping us reach our goals.

Thank you, Mark for the following article:

The Impact of Change Vs Continuing to Do What Use to Always Work

How often do you find yourself thinking, “I don’t understand why this (whatever this may be) isn’t working, I haven’t changed anything I am doing, and it always worked for me before.” This is one of the most frequent statements I hear when I have been asked to provide coaching to someone.

My answer is almost always the same, “That’s the problem” The person being coached will say, “What’s the problem”, to which I will say, “you haven’t changed anything!”. This is a trap that many of us fall into so very easily. We are going about our daily business, using the same habits, methods, what have you that produce the results that we are looking for and then all of a sudden it seems that something changes and we are not seeing the results that we are used to seeing. The first thing we do is to review our habits and methods which we quickly conclude have not changed, therefore there must be some external reason for the change in our results. We then begin to point the finger of blame at all kinds of externals, when in fact the reason for the change in results is because we have not changed!

Our habits and or methods have not changed while things around us have changed and we grow stagnant and blinded to our own self imposed limitations. Think about musical groups and singers, some have been around for 20 plus years and still produce hits, while most fade away after a few hits. Why does this happen, because they don’t change, they continue to make the same music even though the direction of popular music changes. Large successful companies go belly up because they become too complacent and do not make the changes to keep up with cultural or technological shifts.

This same thing applies to us as we continue on our journey. It has been said that we cannot solve our problems using the same thoughts that got us there in the first place. To have different results we must be willing to change and we must be aware that what works for us today, may not work for us this time next month or next year.

This applies to our eating habits, we all know that our metabolism changes as we grow older and that we can no longer eat like we ate when we were a teenager and expect the same results. In a relationship, what worked for us when were dating, may not have the same effect in a long-term relationship. This is why we must always be aware of ourselves and open to change, to shift as needed.

Consider a boxer, if a boxer through the same combination of punches each time, that combination may work at first, however his/her opponent would soon figure out what punches were being thrown and the boxer would soon be knocked out. This is why a boxer is always on the move, sticking and moving, mixing it up, constantly changing because that is the only way to successfully survive in the rink. Life is the same way, no matter what your goals are, you must continually assess, re-evaluate and make changes as needed to continue being successful.

Change is the key to growth! Trying to lose weight, then consider that your body adapts to whatever your diet is and that is why you must vary your food intake in many ways. Trying to attract a new person into your life, then consider what changes you could make in your approach that would render you more attractive (hint, the hairdo that worked for you 20 years ago, probably is holding you back, ha), seriously though you understand what I am saying. Trying to revitalize an existing relationship, then it’s probably time to make some changes in your habits. Trying to get promoted, what changes could you make that would help your talents get recognized?

I am not saying that you have to go out and morph into somebody else. No, quite the contrary, I am suggesting that you be your best possible self and understand that we are all evolving and that sometimes a slight change in your habits and methods can have a dramatic impact on your results.

Submitted by Mark Brown of the Naked Soul