Note: We recently launched of a seminar series, “Five Things You Must Know To Make Your Life Better.”  Each week we’re taking a quick look at each of the five.

#4: Close the Back Door.

Make it as easy as possible to move forward and as difficult as possible to stop. Clean your environment of triggers and replace it with support.

> If your goal is to lose weight, put your scale, measuring cups, and journal right in plain view.  Get rid of “red light foods.” As soon as you lose a size, get rid of your old clothes. Keeping them “just in case…” usually turns out to be “it just so happened…”

> If you’re goal is to walk more, put your walking shoes right in front of the door. Wear your pedometer wherever you go. Better yet, get a second pair and keep them in the where you can see them. Look for opportunities to walk.

That’s a mistake.

One of the best ways to close the back door is to tell anyone who cares about you what you’re doing and how they can help. If you decide to stop moving forward, that’s your option, but after closing the back door, it becomes a very conscious decision and you have to “own it,” rather than believing you were a victim and it “just happened.”

Remember: Don’t sneak into success; leap loudly with as much noise as you can make.

Every Monday, a new motivational memo is posted by Scott “Q” Marcus, Motivational Weight Loss Expert for Baby Boomers and Life Balance and Productivity Expert. Subscribers to 21DayHabitChange.com and Scott’s coaching service get this – and many more benefits – sent to them directly. If you’d like to get these delivered to your email box (and get a free motivational book of quotations downloaded to your computer), follow this link.