If you read the title and thought to yourself, “dull dull dull… I already know about goals”.
STOP RIGHT NOW
SIT TIGHT
READ ON
Goal setting is one of the most underrated aspects of weight loss.
Here’s the thing.
You’re either at your happy weight or you’re not.
If you’re in the latter group, why wouldn’t you do yourself a favour and set yourself some sexy goals so in a year’s time you’re not back here, still at your unhappy weight?
True or true, ladies?
Without goals you drift and when you drift you’re not in control. If you’re not in control, someone else is.
I too used to think goal setting was ho hum, a bit dreary. That was until a mentor showed me where I was going wrong.
My mentor taught me how to speak the language of my unconscious mind. And that’s a good thing as it’s the unconscious mind which is at the helm of all achievement, accomplishment and fulfilment.
Your unconscious mind is like a goal-getting compass. That’s the 90% of your mind which most people aren’t aware of and yet is extraordinarily powerful when given clear instructions.
But most of us don’t know how to skipper our unconscious mind so we continue to drift, all the while getting more and more frustrated when the scales don’t budge.
So who here would like to know the tips to giving good goal instruction? Great….here we go….
– What do you want, specifically?
Exactly what do you want to achieve? Avoid nebulous thinking and get reeeeeal clear on what you want.
“I want to be fit, healthy and weigh 65kgs” is specific.
While “I want to lose some weight”, isn’t.
The unconscious mind hears “I want to lose some weight” and thinks that by losing 1kg the goal is achieved.
You want to ditch more than 1kg? Tell it exactly how much. Get clear. Get specific.
– What do you want?
State your goal how you want it to be, NOT how you don’t want it.
Many people who want to lose weight have a long list of what they don’t want and no picture of what they DO want. They set themselves up for failure because the unconscious mind cannot process a negative. Here’s what I mean…
If you say “I don’t want a big tush”, your mind hears, “I want a big tush”, because it doesn’t hear the ‘don’t’.
Your mind has to focus on what you don’t want, and then think, “OK, so the opposite of that’, in order to make sense of what you do want. So make it easy for your mind and tell it what you DO want.
“I want a lovely, peachy bottom”…or whatever floats your boat 🙂
Remember, what do you want?
– It already exists
Another quirk of the unconscious mind is that it doesn’t distinguish between the truth and a lie. It simply accepts whatever you tell it.
So state your goal as if it is already done. Use words like “I am” not, “I will be”.
Your logical conscious mind may have issues with this language. That is expected, don’t fight it, instead accept that your goals are achieved by your unconscious.
So write, “I now weigh ______” not “I want to weigh ______”.
– Ditch the lose, losing, lost
The words ‘lose’, ‘lost’ and ‘losing’ have negative connotations to the unconscious mind. Think about how terrible you feel when you ‘lose your wallet’ or you ‘lost your mobile’ or ‘I am losing my mind’.
The unconscious mind doesn’t like ‘losing’ anything, and ‘losing’ weight is no exception.
Far better to say I am at my goal weight of ________ rather than ‘I have lost 10kgs’.
Or use I have binned, ditched or shed ______ kgs.
– Get sparkly with your language
Use lots of sensory-based language when you describe your ideal situation.
What will you be seeing, hearing, telling yourself, smelling, touching, feeling when you have achieved your goal?
Doing this gets your emotions in on the game and paints a magnetic picture which will pull you forward and inspire you.
There’s a big difference between:
“It is July 10th and I weigh 65kgs”.
and…
“It is July 10th, I weigh 65kgs, my clothes feel lose, I look great in the mirror, and my friends are telling me “you look hot babe”. I feel proud of myself because of all the new habits and discipline and persistence I have developed along the way and I am enjoying loving who I have become.
Have fun with it. Use colourful, engaging, magnetising language. Give yourself goose bumps.
If you write your goal like a list of factual bullet points you will not engage your unconscious mind.
– Scribble it
The act of writing your goals down engraves them into your unconscious. It makes them a reality, something that you can see, touch and smell.
If you don’t write it down you’ll lessen your chances of achieving it.
It doesn’t matter how you write them down. You might choose to draw them, or cut out photos and paste them in a book.
However you do it, just DO it.
– une obsession magnifique
Your goal has to be attractive and meaningful to you.
Not your partner.
You must want this for you.
Being obsessive about your goals means that your goal is only ever a blink away, it’s in the back of your mind. This may sound a bit extreme but if a goal is worth achieving, then it is worth some obsession.
Before you make any decision in your day-to-day activities ask yourself , “Will what I am about to do move me closer or further from my goal?”
So there you go, ladies.
Now you know the theory.
Get out your trusty pen, sit down alone, uninterrupted for 15 minutes and use the guidelines above to help you set some goals for yourself.
Let me know how you go in the comments below. That’s the 8th step in goal setting – public accountability!
Love etc, Avril
PS: Do you accept yourself now?
When we focus on our health goals for the future, it can sometimes seem as though we are rejecting who we are in the present.
Take a few minutes to stand in front of your mirror today and send love and approval to your body.
And know this: acceptance doesn’t mean that you don’t want to change something. It simply means that you are willing to accept that where you are now, is where you are now.
