by JJ Smith
#12 Create Abundance in Your Life
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Imagine you have a life filled with loving relationships and financial prosperity, overflowing with abundance. Imagine you have more professional success than you could have ever believed possible in your lifetime. Imagine you are overflowing with love, happiness, success, wealth, health, prosperity, and fitness. Imagine all these things happening in your life.
Imagine you have allowed greatness into every aspect of your life. Imagine you have become great and every cell in your body embodies greatness. You live a life of passion and success because you live up to your true potential. Day after day, you see life becoming healthier, happier, and more successful. You continue to watch the weight melting off and you see yourself living in your ideal body. You are living a life of purpose and you see your purpose manifested in the world. You manifest greatness and live your full potential in every aspect of life. You continue to grow and expand your knowledge and gifts. You remain on a mission and continue to fulfill your purpose.
Imagine you have mastered how to create success in every aspect of your life—spiritual, emotional, physical, financial, and professional. Your success is so overflowing that it floods out of your body and into the world. Your relationships at home and at work are loving and supportive. Your friendships are fun and rewarding. Your happiness and energy cause people to come up to you and ask for your help in directing them to similar success. They want to change their life because you are so amazingly successful. You are a magnet that draws people to you. They want your help with making decisions for their own life. They want the same energetic, healthy, happy life that you live. You know that for the rest of your life, you will be overflowing with abundance and be wildly successful in every aspect of your life.
CONCLUSION
I hope you have the same success that so many others have had using visualization to achieve dramatic weight loss. You too can become slimmer and healthier and end the struggle with weight forever. Commit to doing visualization for a few minutes each day to reap its tremendous benefits.
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Commit to Losing Weight
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I LOVE SPORTS AND so does the rest of my family. My youngest brother probably is the biggest sports fan in the family. When he was a toddler, he preferred to watch sports on television to Saturday-morning cartoons. If our mother changed the channel from a football game to cartoons, he would have a fit! One day when my brother was older, I asked him if he had a favorite sport. He responded, “I’m interested in all sports, but I’m committed to basketball.” I said to him, “You’re committed to basketball? What does that even mean?” He said something I had not really thought about. His answer made me realize that not everything we are interested in is something we are truly committed to.
My brother explained that he is interested in sports because they are fun, challenging, and emotional. There is a sense of pride and a feeling of accomplishment watching your hometown team win. He is also competitive, and sports bring about the purest form of competition: there is a winner and there is a loser. It does not get much more black and white than that.
However, with basketball the feelings go deeper. My brother is motivated by basketball. When he is playing basketball, he is motivated to practice harder to be the best player he can be. Or, if he is watching his favorite teams, he will cheer them on with pronounced passion because he craves the sensation of winning. My brother told me that there is a level of self-control and discipline attributed to just about anything basketball-related that is unmatched in other sports or pursuits of interest. When his coach implored him to shoot extra jump shots after practice, he didn’t complain. He knew those extra shots would make him a better player, and he was committed to being a better player. My brother did not have the same level of motivation or discipline in other sports as he did for basketball. He likes football, baseball, and other sports, but only basketball can push him to work his hardest and elicit the kind of discipline necessary to make sacrifices needed to achieve his desired results. When it comes to all things basketball, my brother is committed to doing whatever it takes to enjoy the sport to the fullest and be the best at it.
What about you? Are you committed to losing weight or are you just interested? For my brother, commitment was a little easier because of his love for basketball. Losing weight and keeping it off permanently is hard and can seem like an impossible task. I do not know many people who love hard work and seemingly impossible tasks. You may love the feeling of how you look after you have lost weight but enjoying the actual process? That is a rarity (or at least from my experience it is). For this reason, committing to losing weight and keeping it off permanently is going to take motivation, discipline, and willpower.
In this chapter, we will cover the different forms of motivation that influence our behaviors. It is important to understand the different types of motivation to determine which inspires us the most to lose weight and keep it off. We will also learn how to maintain the willpower and discipline necessary to stay the course until we have achieved the weight-loss goals we set for ourselves.
However, before we can start exploring different types of motivation that best light a fire to keep us along our weight-loss journey, we first must make sure we are not merely interested but actually committed to this process. To do so, let us define the characteristics of a truly committed person.
INTERESTED VS. COMMITTED
It is great to be someone who has multiple interests in a variety of topics. Often the most gregarious people you meet have interests in a wide range of subjects. It is why interesting people are enjoyable to talk to. They can hold a conversation on something that is dear to you and you will feel like they understand. People with multiple interests are good listeners because they enjoy learning something new, a new curiosity to pique their interest. Our sociable friends can use what they have learned from you in other social settings to strike up conversations and engage folks in an effort to share the knowledge or simply make conversation to pass the time. The more things they know (at least on a surface level), the more things they have to talk about to engage people. There is also a quality of being a good listener that should not get overlooked either. Think about it, it is hard to expand your interest barometer if you do not listen and find an appreciation in what others are telling you. For example, let us say you and I are having a conversation about music and I start to talk to you about my favorite type of music—hip-hop. As soon as I start to go into detail about why I prefer this particular genre, you tune me out. How is that beneficial to our conversation? Communication is a two-way street. Our conversation will die if you talk and do not hear a word I say.
Interested people are sociable, outgoing, and good listeners. They are willing to talk to just about anyone and listen to almost everything people have to say. Personally, I like interested people, but I love committed people. Interested people are numerous and commonplace. Put me in a social gathering and I can spot the interested ones immediately.
Committed people, however, are fewer in number and harder to find. Committed people tend to break away from the group when they notice others around them do not have the same drive toward results. A committed person moves with precision and operates as if they have a plan and everything they do is in support of that plan. For committed people, there are no excuses, only results. It is a desire for accomplishment that separates them from the pack. However, having desire is not all it takes; in fact, it is just the start. Your desire is what helps you separate things you are only interested in from the ones you are willing to put real effort into. However, you have to then decide to act and put in the work necessary to fulfill your desires.
As for my brother and his love of basketball, here is another quick story of how his desire pushed him to reach his goal. My brother was committed to earning a starting spot on the varsity basketball team. He knew he was a great passer and a great defender and adept at attackin
g the rim. However, he had a desire to be great, not just good, and he would not be considered great (at least in his coach’s eyes) until he improved his jump shot. To get to starter level, he decided to go all in and commit to becoming a better jump shooter. The level of commitment my brother made was to shoot hundreds and hundreds of jump shots every day over the summer to the point where he became a lights-out shooter. When practice opened up that next fall, the coach noticed his improved jump shot and, before the first scrimmage, he made my brother a starter. My brother accomplished his goal as varsity starter because he decided nothing under his control would hold him back. When you are committed to something, you accept zero excuses. You accept only results!
My brother loves basketball above all the other sports and is committed. He had a desire to become a better player and decided he was going to do what was required to get to the level he set as his goal—being a starter on the varsity team. That is what we must do to reach our weight-loss goals: separate what we are only interested in from what we are truly committed to, establish a desire to be better, and decide to put in the necessary work to achieve our weight-loss goals.
Making sacrifices and putting in the necessary work is commitment. People fail in trying to lose weight not because of a lack of interest but because of a failure to commit. How do we avoid failure and find the desire to make the sacrifices necessary to lose weight and feel better about ourselves? It starts with motivation. You must find the motivation necessary to keep yourself on track and commit to putting in the work every single day until you have reached the point where goals and milestones are being met.
Here are some tips for moving from Interested in Losing Weight to Committed to Losing Weight:
1. Write Down Your Commitment: A common success factor for weight loss is putting your commitment in writing, as this will increase your chance of success. Think of your commitment as a promise that you are making to yourself. By writing it down, you can refer to it later and it will help you continue making progress.
2. Tell Your Close Circle (Family and Friends): Do not try to go it alone. Seek the support of family and friends so they can help keep you accountable to your weight-loss goals. Having a good support system can make all the difference in staying truly committed to your success.
3. Get Your Mind Right: Adjust your mind-set in terms of what you say and think. Success begins in the mind so use the seven mental strategies in this book to build the mental mastery necessary to achieve your weight-loss goals. You will have to create a permanent shift in thoughts, feelings, habits, and behaviors about weight loss in order to have long-term success.
4. Plan for Success: Just saying you want to lose weight is not a plan. If you were to decide to get a new job, you would update your résumé, use online job searches, and schedule and prepare for interviews. You would plan to achieve your goal of finding a new job. The same goes for weight loss. It requires a plan of what weight-loss system you will follow, going grocery shopping, getting a support system, an exercise routine, et cetera. Take time to plan your weight loss for the greatest success.
5. Set a Deadline: Set a time frame for when you want to reach your first weight-loss goal. A goal without a deadline is less likely to be achieved. Set a deadline, create a plan, and work your plan.
In the next section, we will take a look at the different types of motivation that help to influence our behaviors and identify the types of motivation that best suit each personality.
COMMITMENT AND MOTIVATION
Studies have shown different forms of motivation influence our behavior in their own unique ways. What we need to do is tap into those motivations that most effectively influence our behaviors and actions toward losing weight and keeping it off. There are four common forms of motivation: incentive, fear, achievement, and social. Let us take a closer look and define each relative to losing weight.
Incentive
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Incentive is a form of motivation that revolves around the idea of rewards. The rewards can be monetary or nonmonetary in nature. The key that defines this type of motivation is a desire to do something based upon the idea at the end or when the action is completed, you will be recompensed. If you are the type of person who likes to be compensated for your efforts, or simply enjoys the reward itself, then this type of motivation is ideal for you.
To take advantage of this form of motivation to help you achieve your weight goals, set incremental goals or milestones. At the end of each one, reward yourself for achieving the goal. The thought here is that by setting multiple milestones, you are giving yourself multiple opportunities to be rewarded. I recommend reaching out to the people in your support system and allowing them to be in charge of doling out the rewards. The rewards should vary and be equivalent to the level of effort required to reach the goal. In other words, if the achievement is minor or an entry-level type of accomplishment, then the reward should be small. I will not define what is considered major or minor in terms of goals because we are all at different stages in our weight-loss journey and in this context, goals are relative. However, use common sense. Do not reward yourself with a week of cheat days after hitting the very first goal.
Fear
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The next form of motivation, fear, involves consequences. Motivation through fear is the antithesis of motivation through incentive. When motivation through incentive fails, fear is the next best alternative. A common expression when discussing motivation is “the carrot and the stick.” The carrot represents an incentive while the stick represents fear. What are your fears when it comes to losing weight and eating healthy? Write them down, make a mental note. Acknowledging your fears is the first step toward turning them into a positive motivator. If your fear is not being a certain size when you walk down the aisle of your own wedding, or of dying before you see your grandkids grow up, or of being dissatisfied with the reflection you see in the mirror, then whenever you’re feeling discouraged about losing weight, reflect on the trepidation these feelings caused. Turn your fear into a positive force and use it as willpower to propel you toward your goals.
We have to be careful when using fear as a motivator, however. If you are the type of person who does not perform well under pressure or if you are anxious to a fault, then fear may not be the best type of motivation for you. The last thing we want is for your fears to inundate you and impede your progress. I recommend acknowledging the worst of your fears when it comes to losing weight. If simply the thought of these fears leaves you frozen and completely overwhelmed, stop and reset your mind to positive thoughts. Try another type of motivation.
Achievement
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If you are on this journey to lose weight, eat clean, and live a healthy lifestyle, then naturally you have a desire for self-improvement. This is why you have set goals for yourself: the goals measure your performance. When thinking of motivation in terms of achievement, we refer to our drive for competency. We are driven by our goals and desire to improve to affirm competency in ourselves and to others. Whether your stated goal is to lose 20 pounds, 50 pounds, or even 100 pounds, achieving your goal is your chance to show others you can accomplish what you set out to do. It is your opportunity to show others and, perhaps most important, yourself, that you are competent.
While others may be happy, you accomplished whatever goals you set for yourself, no one will likely feel more satisfied than you will. After all, you put in the hard work, made the sacrifices, and pushed through when things looked bleak. You were motivated to achieve your goal, prove you were competent so you deserve self-congratulation! A little external recognition is welcome too. Whether it be a lofty reward or a simple pat on the back, acknowledgment from others can go a long way in helping to keep you motivated toward your goals. When relying on motivation via achievement, it does not matter if praise of accomplishment comes from internal satisfaction or recognition of others as long the drive for competency is met.
Social
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Social motivation is the desire to belong or be accepted by your peers. Social motivation is highly influential in the drive to lose weight. It feels good to be complimented and received favorably by your peers. However, be cautious about relying too much on the approval of others. No matter how much weight you may have lost or how great you look, there will always be someone to bring you down. I do not know why some people feel the need to talk badly about others or be discouraging. Perhaps it is a way for them to feel good about themselves. Regardless, you do not need to worry or focus any attention on people like this at all. They are roadblocks in your journey to be avoided, ignored, and dismissed outright!
When drawing upon social motivation to push you toward your goals, look to your support group, family, friends, and people you trust. These are the people who have your best interests at heart and whose opinions you should value. When you look good, they will be the ones to tell you. When there is still a little more work to do to get you to your best self, they will be sure to politely tell you so as well. It is totally cool and even valuable to be motivated by the affection of your loved ones, just make sure it is the right group of supportive people whose opinions you heed.
Each type of motivation has its positives and negatives. Basing it upon your personality type, you should know which will be most effective in helping you stay committed to your goal of losing weight and eating healthy. These four motivating types—incentive, fear, achievement, and social—are presented as a guide to help you understand the types of common drivers people use in everyday life. It is not to say one is better than the other or even have you focus solely on one motivation factor. Feel free to use them all if they are applicable to your situation. There is a time to push yourself using fear, or to feel inspired with a little incentive, or to simply strive for the recognition of your peers. The key is that you use whatever motivation strategy is most effective at the most opportune time to light a fire under your butt to stay committed to your goal of losing weight and keeping it off.
