Sometimes, it’s tough enough to make a living as a motivational speaker; the competitors are getting younger and younger!
If he wasn’t born to do this, I don’t know who was! (Watch out fellow National Speakers Association members; we’re in trouble.)
Do Something, Do Anything
“We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.” ~ Frank Tibolt
“‘Excellence’ is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice. We do not act ‘rightly’ because we are ‘excellent’, in fact we achieve ‘excellence’ by acting ‘rightly.'” ~ Plato
“Fake it ’til you make it.” ~ Attributed to Alcoholics Anonymous
This is probably the most important thing I’ll ever write.
When people ask me how I lost over 130 pounds, this is the answer.
I don’t know how I made the connection – it was one of those so-called ‘Aha! Moments’ that so many people talk about. I had a bona fide epiphany one day as I was sitting in my living room, crying and feeling sorry for myself. Here is the story, and I hope you find it meaningful to you.
Once I had lost about 90 pounds, and I was no longer in what I kindly refer to as “the 200 Club,” meaning I no longer weighed over 200 pounds, I hit the mother of all plateaus. I couldn’t seem to get out of the 190s no matter what I tried. Everything I had done to lose 90 pounds just wasn’t working for me any more – or so it seemed. And so, I did what any normal human being would – I had a break down. I was so angry, so frustrated, so desperate I just didn’t know what to do with myself. And suddenly, it became very apparent that I had reached a fork in the road on my journey. What should I do?
I had two clear choices:
1) I could quit or…
2) I could forge ahead.
Where would quitting get me?
Well, I could go back to my old habits and slowly but surely undo all of my hard work. “But,” I argued, “at least I wouldn’t have to think about eating healthy and making sure I had time to exercise everyday. In fact, I would never have to think about ‘dieting’ ever again.” It was a happy thought until I realized that it wasn’t true. Just as I had old eating and exercising habits, I had old thought habits too. I knew it wouldn’t be long before I started beating myself up for being fat and lazy (my apologies to myself, but this is the kind of self-talk I regularly engaged in before I decided to change it) and that I would start feeling miserable and guilty like I did when I weighed 287 pounds. Then I remembered how physically painful it was to carry around those extra 90 pounds. So, it didn’t take me long to decide that all quitting would buy me was a ticket right back to Square One.
So where exactly could I go if I forged ahead?
At the time, it seemed all I could do was spin my wheels and go no where. “I’m really trying here, and I’m not making any progress!” I angrily told myself. But, I suddenly thought that perhaps there was something I was missing. I asked myself, “How do thin people live?” And I honestly didn’t know the answer. The only time I was ever thin was in college, and I wasn’t a healthy person then. I could go days without eating a bite. It’s very easy to be thin when you’re starving yourself. I never had a healthy relationship with food or my own self-image. How could I know how “normal” people behaved? There was no way for me to know. [Read more…]
Monday Motivational Memo: Building Willpower
Willpower is NOT the ability to say “NO.”
It’s the ability to say “Not right now.”
One of the biggest reasons we give up is we feel that it takes too much energy to resist whatever temptation we face. The thought of “going without” for long periods of time is daunting, overwhelming – and quite frankly – depressing.
The solution is to realize that willpower does not have to mean “forever,” it can simply mean “for the next few minutes.”
If you’re tempted to give up on your goals because you don’t feel you have the strength to stick with your plan, simply make a commitment that you’ll stick with it for the next ten minutes. That’s all. Most of the time, you’ll find the urge to give up passes in a few moments and before you know it, you’re back on track.
Note: Every Monday, a new motivational memo is posted. Subscribers to ThisTimeIMeanIt.com’s coaching service get this – and many more benefits – sent to them directly. If you’d like to know more, follow this link.
Are We Having Fun Yet?
First, allow me to apologize for not posting recently! No excuses, just a new goal to post at least two times per week. Now for this week’s post…
“He who laughs, lasts!”
~Mary Pettibone Poole
“I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!”
~Louise Bogan
I began running about 2 1/2 years ago. I never, ever thought of myself as a runner. I walked everyday, and I loved it. An online friend turned me on to fast walking and I got fantastic results from it. It was low impact and easy and fun to do, so that was my exercise of choice. Then, one day as I was walking my six-mile course, something snapped like an over-stretched rubber band. I’d torn a hip flexor muscle and it hurt – a lot. The short of it is, walking was never the same again. It hurt, and that sucked all the fun out of it. In addition, before the injury, I noticed that I had to walk further and further to work up a sweat and get my heart rate up. I was already walking for 75 minutes a day, and didn’t know how I was going to keep carving more and more time out for my walks. I started looking around for something else to do. Someone suggested running, and my first thought was, “Only masochists run.”
Me Before Race Time
After all, running is painful, and it’s really, really hard. Why would anyone do it unless they are being chased by large, carnivorous animals? But as I continued to search for a new activity to replace walking, I kept coming back around to running. I loved my bicycle, but the bike path in this town is fairly short so I was bored with the scenery already, and taking to the streets means taking your life in your hands (please, motorists, be kind to cyclists). Aerobics? Please. Workout tapes and treadmills and ellipticals were out, because I longed to be outdoors and quickly got bored with them. And suddenly I asked myself, “Just what are you afraid of?” I immediately came up with a list: I was afraid of injury, of how much pain I’d be in from the impact on my joints, the burning in my lungs, the cramps in my side (I clearly remembered these from gym classes past), the blisters on my feet. And then, once the list of fears was out there, I decided that none of them was really so terrible, and I was intrigued by the challenge of it. I was determined not to let fear dictate what I would and wouldn’t attempt. So, I strapped on some shoes and decided to run a mile.
The first time I did it, I hated it. It took me longer to jog than to fast-walk a mile! And I was hot and sweaty, my feet hurt, and I felt really out of shape – huffing and puffing down the bike bath like a 100 year-old steam engine. It took me a while to even attempt it again. But boredom and a plateau in my weight loss got me pounding the pavement. When I re-visited running I did it with a goal in mind – a friend had invited me to run a 5K for charity – that’s 3.12 miles. I felt it was do-able with a little training, so I set out to train. I had 12 weeks, and was determined to do it. I got myself an iPod, some proper running gear – including cheap, new shoes; I caution you against this. If you are seriously considering becoming a runner, make shoes your first priority, not your last. Anyway, in 12 weeks, I learned to love running. The first 2-3 minutes are miserable, but then your body warms up and gets used to the pace, and you’re off! With my favorite music in my ears, and the endorphins coursing through my veins, I am never happier than when I’m running and I’m in ‘the Zone.’ It’s bliss. The only thing to top it is running in a new locale and taking in spectacular scenery.
(More great pictures & inspiration follow the jump… ) [Read more…]
Keep Moving
Small steps taken regularly generate more results than large steps done periodically.
In other words, it’s better to promise to walk a block and actually do it than to promise to run a mile and sleep in.
Most of the time that we fail to accomplish our goals, it’s because we made the process too cumbersome, unrealistic, or large. Since it would involve rearranging vast portions of an-already busy life, we choose to avoid the task, remaining in place.
Pick something smaller when you’re stuck and move forward on that. Any movement is better than stagnation.
Note: Every Monday, a new motivational memo is posted. Subscribers to ThisTimeIMeanIt.com’s coaching service get this – and many more benefits – sent to them directly. If you’d like to know more, follow this link.