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Manifesting your healthiest self is about inspiration and progress. As you prioritize your wellness, you become the change you need by choosing differently. Deciding to do something a new way, or completely different, requires action. The caveat is, to make progress, you must be inspired into action.
Inspired action is when you intentionally do something you believe will progress toward your goal. Inspired actions are like building blocks, you must do [this] before you can do [that]. So, how do you inspire yourself into action?
Be Inspired
Inspiration spawns’ feelings of excitement. Wanting and being enthusiastic about creating change, though, isn’t enough. You must use your desire and inspiration as a catalyst to act—to do something new, stop doing something, or modify something you are already doing. Let us look at a two people to see how their goal affects their motivation.
Sally wants to lose 20 pounds so she joins a weight loss group. After researching eating plans, she chooses a diet that best meets her needs. She hangs up her old bikini in the closet so she can see it every day as a reminder of her goal. Sally joins a local gym and plans a workout schedule. With complete excitement she cleans her kitchen out of non-compliant foods, goes grocery shopping, and prepares her healthy meals for the week ahead.
The night before Sally begins her new action plan, she finds herself look back and forth between the bikini hanging in her closet and her reflection in the mirror.
The following thoughts enter Sally’s mind:
– I am so fat; this is going to be hard.
– I cannot eat anything outside of my planned meals.
– This means I can’t go out with my friends like I use to. I will eat or drink something I shouldn’t.
– It’s going to rain on Thursday. I won’t be able to walk as I planned (recall she joined a gym!).
– If I lose the weight, will I have loose skin?
– I will never look good in that bikini again.
Are you inspired? … Me either.
Shift Your Focus
The goal of weight loss puts you into a depravation mindset which is the opposite of inspiration. Thinking about things you need to give up and wanting things to be the way they use to be (to fit into an old bikini) is a mind-trap that encages you in your own mental prison.
This mindset of thinking about days gone by, robs you of achievement and success you can experience now. Therefore, you may find yourself engaging in actions or behaviors that contradict reaching your goal. If you feel you must starve yourself to lose weight, you may find yourself eating to avoid the probability of starving. If you shift your focus toward the future, you have something to look forward to.
Make Progress
Nancy also wants to lose 20 pounds. Her focus is to start hiking again. She knows how she wants to feel when reengaging in this activity. Nancy used to enjoy hiking and misses doing so very much. She wants to feel exhilarated and experience no knee pain or loss of breath while hiking. Her goal is to work her way up to a 6-mile hike on weekends. Like Sally, Nancy also chooses a diet that best meets her needs and schedules time for extra movement in her daily routine.
The night before Nancy begins her new action plan, she finds herself imagining how moving a little more each day and incorporating more healthy foods into her diet will help her reach her goal of hiking again.
The following thoughts enter Nancy’s mind:
– If I walk an extra 500 steps per day, that’s over 3,000 extra steps this week!
– I’ll be sure to ice my knees if I feel any discomfort to ward off any inflammation.
– I’ll park in the very back of the parking lot at work and take the steps to my office.
– I will eat my lunch outside, or in the cafeteria if it’s raining, instead of my desk to get extra steps in.
– While I watch the news in the evening, I can walk on my rebounder.
– I cannot wait to hike this summer!
See the difference? Nancy is making healthy changes to her life that will result in weight loss, but her focus is on something in the future that excites her.
Identify what excites you, then go after it!