Health is a choice.
Success is a choice.
It isn’t one giant step.
It’s small daily steps.
Creating the right habits.
Being consistent and accountable.
Most importantly, taking action.
Mapping Success
Over the past 15 years, I’ve read somewhere in the vicinity of 200 books.
Not bad for someone who initially wasn’t a fan of reading. These days, I can’t seem to read enough.
I’m constantly reading and I love it.
Regardless of what you’re out to accomplish, it’s no longer necessary to try and figure out what works and what doesn’t. If you’re looking to lose weight, start a business, invest, travel, or learn how to code, there’s others who’ve already done it and have documented all that worked and didn’t work along the way.
Paths have been blazed, frameworks and blueprints already created.
It’s no longer a guessing game.
Health & Weight Loss
During my 15 year reading journey, I’ve identified 15 of the most common factors that are applicable to all types of success.
For the sake of this discussion, I will apply these 15 factors specifically to weight loss.
The more of these you apply, the greater your chance of weight loss becomes.
Mindset
Get your head in the game. Eliminate limiting thoughts and fears you have about failing. Visualize yourself already there, wearing the clothes you want, having the energy you want, confident when you look in the mirror – feeling, looking, and living your best.
Use phrases such as “I can” and “I will“. When it comes to making decisions, make choices based on what’s important to you and what you want. If your goal is to lose weight, the decision between a burger and a salad becomes an easy and obvious one to make.
Your thoughts are powerful. Think that you can and you’re half way there.
Goals
Define your goal. Be specific. “Lose weight” or “feel good” aren’t defined or specific. How much weight? 10, 20, 30lbs? Tie your desire to feeling good to a measurable outcome. It could be to drop a specific percentage of body fat percentage or to drop a few dress or pant sizes.
Your goal must be measurable.
Write it Down
A goal not written down is only a wish.
Once you define your goal, write it down. It’s not enough to think about it and keep it just in your thoughts. Write it down, look at it, commit to it.
Statistics show that people who write down their goals have over an 80% higher success rate of achieving them.
Use a pen, pencil, marker, crayon, whatever – just be sure to write it down.
Prioritize
Career, kids, spouse, family, friends, travel – it’s all part of life. Prioritize your health and weight loss goals. It doesn’t need to come before your kids, spouse, or family, but it must come right after them on your priority list.
It must come before watching television, happy hours, social media, even sleeping in.
Schedule your priorities, don’t prioritize your schedule.
Planning
Create or purchase a plan that you’re comfortable and confident with that is designed to help you achieve your weight loss goal. Any goal, including weight loss, requires a plan. How will you get there? How will you achieve your goal? Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Success doesn’t just happen, it’s planned for.
Action
The perfect plan is worthless if it’s never acted upon. Plan your work, then work your plan.
Take action, follow through on your plan. It’s the small steps, taken consistently on a daily basis, that’ll get you there; 15 minutes of exercise, a glass of water, piece of fruit, a salad, vitamins.
Nothing works unless you do.
Accountability
The number one killer of all weight loss success is lack of accountability. Having someone to hold you accountable, encourage, and motivate you to follow through on your goal and your plan is a must.
Create accountability. It can be a friend that also has a weight loss goal, a family member who cares about you and your health, an online accountability or support community, a weight loss or running group you meet with weekly.
Tell someone what you’re up to.
Surroundings
Your surroundings, those you spend the most time with, will make or break your success.
Evaluate who you spend the most time with. Are they supportive? Do they encourage and motivate you? Eliminate or spend less time with those who do not help or support your decision to lose weight. Surround yourself with people who motivate you, those who tell you “you can do it.”
“Evaluate the people in your life; then promote, demote, or terminate. You’re the CEO of your life.”
Assess
Create weekly and monthly checkpoints where you assess your progress. What worked? What didn’t? What challenges did you face? What could you have done differently or better? Assess and identify areas of improvement and then implement them the following week or month.
“Evaluate what you want – because what gets measured, gets produced.”
Reward
Rewards, when used correctly, have the ability to motivate and encourage you to work harder and strive to do more. They provide the opportunity to appreciate and reflect on your work, efforts and sacrifices you’ve put in. It’s your weekly and monthly successes, when added up, that create your end goal.
Decide on rewards ahead of time so that you know what you’re working towards.
Serve
Give and you shall receive. Help and serve others every chance you get. As you begin to lose weight, others will notice and begin reaching out to you for help and guidance on how you did it.
The best way to remember and pay tribute to those who have helped, encouraged, and motivated you along the way, is to turn around and provide that same level of support and guidance to others.
“If you get, give. If you learn, teach.”
Keep a Journal
Keep a journal of all your weight loss activity and efforts. Track when you exercise, what you do, and for how long you do it. Give yourself visibility into what you’re doing so that when you assess your progress, you can see what you did and didn’t do and make the necessary adjustments going forward.
Most importantly, track how and what you eat.
Again, doing so not only provides you with data for when you’re assessing your progress, but it also helps with keeping you accountable for what you eat.
Studies show that those who keep daily food records lose twice as much weight as those who do not.
Bucket List
Create a bucket list of all the things you want and will do along the way and after you’ve achieved your weight loss goal. It could be running a marathon, traveling, hiking Mt Kilimanjaro, starting your own health and weight loss business, doing a boudoir photo shoot, or wearing a size you haven’t worn since high school.
Make it fun, make it exciting.
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
Resharpen the Saw
As you get stronger, better, and healthier, continue to look for additional ways to improve – to do more, push more, and take it to the next level. Strive to be better than the person you were yesterday.
Once you achieve your weight loss goal, ask yourself… what’s next?
Keep moving forward.
Which of these have you used and found most success with? Which ones will you try going forward? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
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The best two that I have used, have been the mindset (bikini body) and who I surround myself with. The people around you really have a huge impact, whether you realize it or not. Thanks for sharing the above, great post!
Thanks for comment and sharing your top two Kristen! 🙂 Those are two biggie’s for sure.
Another great post, Mike! The 3 that have worked for me have been “planning”, “action”, & “journalling”. I feel these 3 form the core of any goal we embark upon.
Thanks man! Three great ones, especially taking action. Nothing works unless we do. Cheers!
Great post, Mike. I like that you started with Mindset as, in my opinion, it is the chief factor in planning any changes in your life. If your mindset is right, everything else follows.
Thanks for your comment and being here Anna! 🙂 No question, it all begins with our thoughts, how and what we think. They’re powerful beyond measure.