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Believe, Achieve and Succeed
This week I watched with fascination as a 5’6″ Georgia teen, ranked 70th in the world, triumphed over her six foot Russian opponent at the US Open Tennis event. That was the fourth top seeded Russian she’s summarily dismissed since her debut at Wimbledon this year. Known as the Georgia “spark plug”, Melanie Oudin is a wonder to watch. But what caught my eye were her shoes. It wasn’t the neon rainbow colors, but the area on the side of her shoe at her heel that grabbed my attention. On each shoe, she had one word printed like a billboard of motivation -”Believe”. When questioned about it, she simply declared, “I know I can succeed because I really believe it.” Observing her is a lesson in what it takes to succeed. She’s not perfect and actually capitalizes on that. Actually, her other title is “the comeback kid”. She will often lose fairly miserably in the first set, and then come storming back. She notes the first set gives her time to learn the feel of her opponent. She appears impervious to any emotion of defeat or frustration. She learns, adapts, adjusts and moves on to success.
How does this apply to all of you who are seriously trying to improve your lifestyle habits? Here’s the lesson – all success starts with the mind. Not some diet craze or exercise boot camp. This laser focus mindset is something I call The Power Mind, which I describe in detail in Body for Life for Women and Fit to Live. One of the biggest mistakes I have observed when men and women embark on their journey to shed excess fat and get more fit, is that without really thinking about it, they hop onto the next “diet” or fitness craze thinking they’ve found the answer to their girth control problems. You know the drill. It’s always short lived and then you’re either back to square one or you really blow it and end up in worse shape.
The problem is that you can’t just approach your eating and exercise as though you’re a robot implementing technical commands. Your mind drives you. You need your head screwed on right to start with. So many people just launch into their well intentioned programs without being very clear about why they need to do this in the first place. Getting to the bottom of that “why” is often tougher than you think. Saying you just want to be “healthy” doesn’t work. Go deep and get personal about what drives you. You need to have a very clear vision, passion, strategy, accountability and measurable outcomes. Once you identify the meaning behind your desire to change, then you work on believing you can achieve your healthy lifestyle goal.
The great Olympic sprinter Florence Joyner (“Flo Jo”) once noted she used three words to power her through grueling training and competition: “Believe. Achieve. Succeed”. Watching Oudin I can see that put into action. How about you? I love those three words and regularly use them in my writing and teaching. If you believe then you lay down the path to be able to achieve and thus succeed. Stop right now and say to yourself “I believe I can patiently and persistently create a healthier lifestyle”. Write it down and keep copies of that one line commitment everywhere to get you through tough and challenging times. Be your own best coach and say it to yourself throughout the day. You can do this. Believe it!
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Labels: fitness, healthy eating, healthy lifestyle, motivation, positive thinking
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