The Key To Reshape Your Body With Ease
The keys to success are taking action, having a follow-through attitude, having the resolve to stick to something with total belief in yourself, and having the right strategy.
To help you develop the right strategy, I am sharing with you all the knowledge on the market today about weight loss, spanning over 250 books, and countless interviews, articles, and seminars. Thousands of hours of research have been put into this book to pinpoint with exacting accuracy why some people get lasting results from their weight loss programs while others are caught up in a whirlwind cycle of gaining and losing. If you follow this book, you will get the results you are seeking. I have designed a system and a strategy that will work for anyone; you just have to make the commitment to change once and for all.
All of the people I have worked with who have successfully achieved their ideal, healthy weight and maintained it have one thing in common. As a matter of fact, all 250
autobiographies I have read about successful people confirm that they have all done this one thing to get where they are today. And that one thing is to set goals.
The late motivational speaker, Jim Rohn, once said,
“I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps it’s because escape is easier than change.” To be successful, you must understand the power of goal-setting, and master this skill.
Unfortunately, most of us have heard so much talk about goal-setting that we say to ourselves, “Please don’t talk to me about goal-setting! I already know everything there is to know about it.” Be careful not to get caught up in that trap! The most dangerous words in the English language—words that will hold you back from success in all areas of your life—are the words, “I know that.” 17
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If you’re not getting the weight loss results you want right now, following a goal-setting system is crucial. You must practice the basics over and over again. Repetition is the mother of mastery. And what differentiates people who keep their weight off from those who don’t is self-mastery.
They have learned to become the master of themselves and the master over their weight. They do not set goals for one month, two months, or three months and then stop; it has become a part of their daily routine.
Create a new habit
When some of my clients have an urge to go out and eat crappy food, they grab their goal-setting workbook and start writing in it. By grabbing their workbook instead of food, they break the old pattern and create a new habit.
Every time I teach goal-setting, I set some new goals for myself. So don’t take it for granted and say, “I already know this stuff on goal-setting.” If you’re not living it, you don’t know it. Let me say it one more time: If you’re not living it, you don’t know it!
So let’s break through those habits from the past and start to look at the world in a whole new way, a way that helps you understand that the basics have to be practiced every day. You have committed to do whatever it takes to succeed. Just because you have not succeeded in the past does not mean you cannot succeed this time. This is a whole new fresh start. Get excited about doing the basics daily, taking those small steps toward achieving your weight goal, because in the end, your reward will be massive. You will become a healthy, in shape, happy, excited, vibrant person who loves life.
You’re probably wondering why goals are so important.
Why do we need them to be a part of our lives? Why must they become a daily habit? Napoleon Hill once said, “A goal is just a dream with a deadline.” Goals give us mean-Think, Act, Love, Lose Weight
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ing and direction. Goals shape us as individuals, and they shape our lives.
We al have goals; the problem is, most people have very poorly-formed goals. A goal should engage your emotions and incite you to take action. Goals that are compelling give you the motivation to take off the weight, and keep it off once and for all. Goals can help you to become the person you have always wanted to be, and have the body you have always wanted. If your goals are set properly and are crystal clear, you will have the power to change your weight, your body, your emotions, and your life.
How to be smarter than Harvard
Mark McCormack, in his book, What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School, tells of a Harvard study conducted between 1979 and 1989. The graduates of the MBA program were asked, “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” It turned out that only three percent of the graduates had written goals and plans. Thirteen percent had goals that were not in writing. A full 84 percent had no specific goals at all, aside from getting out of school and enjoying the summer. Ten years later, in 1989, the researchers interviewed the members of that class again. They found that the 13 percent who had goals that were not in writing were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84
percent of students who had no goals at al . But most surprisingly, they found that the 3 percent of graduates who had clear, written goals when they left Harvard were earning, on average, 10 times as much! The only difference between the groups was the clarity of the goals they had set for themselves when they graduated. If this study does not give you the motivation to get off your butt, write your goals down daily, and review them, then I don’t know what will!
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I hope by now you can see the importance of having goals and writing them down. Do you want to join the three percent of the most successful people in life? Or do you want to act like the average Harvard graduate? I know that, for myself, writing down my goals has transformed my life, and it can transform yours too.
I set goals on a daily basis now. It’s a habit. One night, I had just finished writing my goals. I crawled into bed, turned out the light, pulled the covers over me, and then it occurred to me that I had forgotten to brush my teeth.
I realized that goal-setting was now at least as important to me as brushing my teeth. I knew in my heart, that was a true sign of success.
Of all the goals I have written down that have since become my reality, three experiences stand out the most to me. When I decided to stop using drugs, I took two full days to write out my goals and design plans for how I was going to achieve them. Second, I set an objective to find millionaires to mentor me to become a motivational speaker known around the world for helping thousands of people change their lives. Third, I set the goal to lose the extra 65 pounds I had gained, and keep it off.
When I set these goals, I had no idea how I was going to get there. At the time, some of these goals were well above my level of ability or talent. But there is a principle known to every religious man and woman, no matter what religion or god one worships, and that is the power of having absolute faith. I knew that if I could frame my goals in a way that got me excited, no matter how impossible it seemed that I could reach them, I would figure out a way to make them happen. Even if right then it seemed impossible, I would pull it off. I asked myself, “What do I want right now?
What do I have to do to make it happen?”
When it came to my weight, I described the person I wanted to be in very specific detail. I wrote 10 pages about the body I wanted, how I felt inside, my level of con-Think, Act, Love, Lose Weight
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fidence, my emotions, my energy level. I wrote about how my spouse would look at me and say, “You have a great body,” how I felt in those smaller jeans, and my overall health. Eighty percent of those goals that I wrote down have become reality.
I credit a lot of my success strictly to writing down my goals daily. No doubt, there were days when I would find myself off track, but by reviewing my goals, I would get right back on. I might miss the gym or my exercise routine, or go out and cheat a little on a chocolate bar, but thanks to my goal-setting, I never strayed so far away from my goal of losing 65 pounds that I did not achieve it and keep the weight off.
Define and write your future
You have to make your goals compelling enough so they are exciting. You don’t need to know how you are going to get there at this point; just get them down on paper. I am going to show you how to get there with the strategy I have for you to follow. The truth is, I don’t think anyone really knows how this thing called “goal-setting” actually works, but things just start to happen. They magically appear, or in your case, the fat will magically disappear. When you write things down, something happens; you become the author of your own story.
Anybody can set goals, but you must define why you want that goal. Knowing exactly why you want it is critical to the outcome. Think about this: whatever goal you set is going to define the kind of person you become. That’s why it’s really important to know why you are doing it when you set a goal.
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The biggest problem with goal-setting
The biggest problem with goal-setting is that people take it for granted. They think, “I know that stuff.” But are you getting the results in your life that you want? Most people are not. People get the New Year’s bug: “It’s a new year and I am going to set a goal.” But then they don’t even look at it until the following New Year’s. Is this you? The problem is, people do not set goals on a constant basis.
Take exercise. New Year’s comes around, everyone joins a gym, and three months later the only people who are still at the gym are the ones who had memberships before New Year’s. Don’t let this be you.
Experts say you need willpower. Wrong, you need staying power. Many people set a goal and when they don’t achieve it right away, they set a new one. They have no staying power, or they take their goals way too lightly. You need commitment and persistence to create something new in your life.
Poof! It’s magic after all
Realize that anything you can think of, you can achieve.
I am asking you to come from a place of belief, and watch what you can make your reality. Have you ever heard the saying, “Thoughts become things.”? What we consistently focus on becomes our reality. What we think, we manifest. That’s why goal-setting is so important. It keeps your thoughts consistently focused on what you want.
Remember how I get off track and then I get back on again? The ability to get back with the program is all about goal-setting. You can’t just set one goal, then never look at it again, and expect to get results. You need to look at your most important goals daily, weekly, and monthly to make them your reality. The power comes from consistently reviewing them on a daily basis. I truly believe the Think, Act, Love, Lose Weight
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more you focus on something, the quicker you will start to experience it. Focus on enjoying exercise, and you will start to experience good health.
Think about this: when you set a goal, you’re really saying to your mind, at both the conscious and unconscious levels, “I am not happy where I am right now.” You start to notice the difference between where you are right now and where you want to be. Your brain says, “I am just not satisfied. There has to be more out there. I am not satisfied with my weight. I am not satisfied with losing weight, and then a year later gaining it back and then some. I am not satisfied with leaving my health to chance anymore.” It is sometimes said that success actually holds us back.
Have you ever lost weight, reached your goal, and then gained all the weight back? What happened? You became too comfortable. You stopped doing all the things that got you there in the first place, so your success actually put you right back to where you were in the past. For a lot of people, success is a trap. They become successful, and start to party and eat the nights away.
Failing is not necessarily a bad thing. See it as an opportunity to change your beliefs and behaviors. When you’re failing, that’s when it is time to set some goals and achieve them. There is real power in using the things that you don’t want in your life to push you toward the things you do want. In goal-setting, we must demand more from ourselves. When we clearly define what we want and start to demand more from ourselves, it starts to give us the motivation we need to follow through. Your brain says,
“Okay, I realize that I am not already there, so I better find the drive and the means to get there.”
Look at demanding more from yourself as a tool to take you to the next level. When I decided I was going to lose 65 pounds, I did not just say, “Okay, I am going to lose this weight.” I sat down and figured out why I was doing it. I came up with reasons, like needing an abundance of Chapter 2: The Key To Reshape Your Body With Ease http://www.free-ebooks.net/t/98
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energy so I could achieve some massive goals I had set for myself. If I did not have enough fuel, then eventually, I would sputter to a halt. To have an abundance of energy, I had to exercise at least six days per week for the next year, and never miss a day. After a year, I might go back and re-evaluate my goals. But I linked having more energy to being able to achieve my financial goals, change other people’s lives, and be more effective when speaking on stage. I linked it to being there for my friends, and contributing to the world. As you can see, I had a lot of motivation.
Accountability
One of the techniques I teach is accountability. When I told people what I was going to do, I asked them to hold me accountable to my weight loss and fitness goals. I demanded more of myself. Once I told everyone, I had no way of turning back. So use the act of sharing your commitments with certain people as part of your strategy. Whatever it takes to achieve your goals, whatever it takes to get you to follow through and create results, do it.
I hope I have made it clear to you that you need a strong enough why to get yourself to take action and follow through. When I am using the why technique to help me achieve my goals, I make a list of positive reasons and a list of negative reasons. Let me give you an example of a positive reason: I am going to exercise every day because I know I will have more energy, and if I have more energy, that will help me grow my business. Now here is an example of a negative reason I use to push me forward: I ask myself, “Why would my life be worse if I did not exercise?” My answers? I would not have the energy to do business an extra two hours a day. I could end up having a heart attack or getting diabetes. And my emotions will not stay as positive throughout the day. The human brain works in mysterious ways. Sometimes we get more motivated by using the negative to push us forward rather than always using the positive.
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Remember that you can change your goals at any time.
The fact is, things change in our lives. Just because you picked a goal at one time does not mean you can’t go back and re-evaluate that goal. I have people set goals every four months, and review them twice per month. I have them review their top goals daily. It’s that kind of repetition that will keep you on track so you can achieve the outcomes you desire.
Why some people set goals and others
don’t
For a long time, I was interested in finding out why some people set goals and others have no goals at all.
Why is it that most people have heard of the importance of goal-setting, but very few take advantage of these simple, proven techniques to achieve dreams? Why are more people not setting goals? These questions led me on a passionate journey to uncover the answers. The first clue I uncovered confirmed my prediction that people do not think goal-setting is that important. Of all the hundreds of people I talked with, the most successful ones were the people who said, “I set goals every day.” The unsuccessful people would say things like, “I don’t believe in setting goals,”
“I don’t have the time,” “It doesn’t work,” and so on.
The people who were eating healthy, exercising, and following their plan all had clearly written goals. The majority of people who were overweight had no clear goals at all.
Some could tell me their goals, but they had never written them down. The wealthiest people also had clearly written goals, and reviewed them daily. Those who were broke had no written goals at all. I could clearly see a pattern. The successful ones took goal-setting very seriously. It was a daily routine, just like eating and brushing their teeth.
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not going to be as successful, and you’re not going to be as happy. How can you be when you have poor health?
Setting goals will have more of an effect on your life than any other skill. Look around you. How many of your friends or family members have clarity and commitment to their goals? Don’t fol ow the crowd. Step up and become a leader of yourself, others, and the world.
Lack of knowledge
Another reason I discovered that people don’t set goals is they simply do not know how. You can earn a degree from a leading university without ever receiving one hour of instruction in how to set goals. Even worse, some people think they have goals, when in reality what they have is a series of wishes or dreams, like “be healthy”, “make a lot of money”, and “have a great family”. But these are not goals at all. They are merely outcomes that everybody in society wishes for. We can al sit and daydream, but a goal, and a wish or dream are not one and the same. A goal is clear, specific, and written. It can quickly and easily be described to another person, and you can measure your progress.
Fear of failure
The third reason people don’t set goals is fear of failure.
Many people sabotage themselves by not setting goals at
which they might fail. Every time you go on a new weight
loss program and fail, it chips away at your faith in yourself.
You start thinking to yourself, “Why even try again? I fail at this every time. There’s just no point.” But remember what I talked about in the first chapter. You did not fail; you just did not have the right strategy. With the right strategy, anybody can succeed at anything.
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Throughout your journey in life you’re going to have to confront many fears. Fear is a natural thing. Whenever you start a new program, a new career, or a new relationship there is usually fear. The sad thing is that most people let fear stop them from taking action and achieving their dreams. Do not let fear stop you from having the body you deserve, and the long, healthy life you deserve.
In fact, don’t let fear stop you from having anything that you desire in life.
Some people will do anything to avoid the uncomfortable feeling of fear. Take a look at yourself and be totally honest. Is this you? If you are one of those people who lets fear run your life, you run the biggest risk of not achieving what you want in life. Successful people experience fear too, but keep taking action until they get what they want.
They understand what Susan Jeffers suggests in her book when she says, “Feel the fear and do it anyway.” Dispel your fears
I like how some psychologists refer to the word fear: Fantasized Experiences Appearing Real. We create fear in our minds before a negative outcome even exists. Our own insecurities can turn our drive to be slim and svelte into complacency. Of course we don’t want to pursue our goals after we have created scary stories in our heads where our worst fears come to life. If I followed these thought processes, I would probably not come out of my room all day long. Rather than pursue a healthier life, I would watch my bulges grow.
I know some of you are saying, “What if I am too fearful to start an exercise program because I may fail? How do I get rid of fear?” One of the quickest and most powerful ways that I know of to eliminate fear from your life is to first ask yourself what you’re fearful of, and notice the picture that appears in your mind. Let me give you an example: If Chapter 2: The Key To Reshape Your Body With Ease http://www.free-ebooks.net/t/98
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you think of yourself exercising, you may see yourself huffing and puffing, and hating the exercise. For some of us, it may get even more intense, as we hear certain messages that spark our insecurities. Maybe it is a spouse that used to say, “I told you there is no way you are going to stick to your exercise program.”So as you create an image in your mind of yourself exercising, you suddenly hear your spouse’s negative words. Now you’re even more fearful of joining another fitness program.
To destroy the fear of anything in life, all you have to do is manipulate the picture. Because the brain can’t tell the difference between what’s real and what’s vividly imagined, you can actually trick it. Picture yourself full of energy and vitality, and loving exercise. See yourself in the best shape of your life. Hear your spouse saying, “Great job! I knew you could do it.” Stop right now and imagine your body changing as you begin to think more positively.
It is impossible to be fearful if your brain cannot imagine you being fearful. You can now follow through with anything you set your mind to.
All successful people know what they want, and they are single-mindedly focused on achieving it. Every single day, you have the ability to draw from a great power by asking yourself why. Asking yourself why is critical to the outcome. For you to take action, follow through, and write down your goals every day, you must have that desire. You must develop an intense, burning desire to achieve your goals if you really want to make them happen. For me, to create the body I had always wanted, the mindset I had always wanted, and to attract the right type of friends into my life, I had to have that burning desire. I was already there in my mind before it even happened; it was that real to me. You must make it that real for yourself.
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Power strategies
Let me give you some powerful strategies you can apply to skyrocket your rate of success. These strategies can transform your life if you take action and apply them day in and day out. Remember, repetition is the mother of mastery. So let me say that one more time: you must apply them day in and day out.
What sets millionaires apart is the ability to take action.
Get into the habit of taking action and following through.
Once you start to form that new pattern, your life will completely change; you will begin to excel in all areas of your life.
Personal mission statements
What is a mission statement? Why is it so important?
And how do you write one?
A mission statement is very simple, yet it could be one of the most important things that you ever do in your life.
Just like goal-setting, people tend to take the powerful sim-plicity of this strategy for granted. A mission statement is the bigger vision that you want to achieve. It is something that should never be put in a desk drawer to be pulled out later. For it to work, a mission statement has to be placed somewhere prominent where you can read it every day.
Why is a personal mission statement so important?
First, if you have a personal mission statement, you do not need a New Year’s resolution. I get a real kick out of New Year’s – everyone scrambling to set new goals, and only three percent of people will ever stick to them. It is no wonder we fail over and over again. How can anyone expect to create a change when they have been doing the same thing over and over again throughout the year – the same habits, day in and day out, for years? The fact is, ninety-nine percent of human behavior is the same as our behavior the day before.
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New Year’s comes along, we set a new goal, and just expect that we can make it happen. But we have not set up the right strategy to change what we have always been doing, a strategy that focuses on our daily actions. Stop setting New Year’s resolutions, and start setting daily resolutions. If you create a personal mission statement
and hang it somewhere where you wil see it often, you can review it every day, and it will become embedded into your unconscious mind. You wil begin achieving al the goals you set out for yourself, and you will never ever make a New Year’s resolution again.
I have a mission statement for my health, one for my business, one for my personal life, one for my spiritual life, one for my relationship, and one for my contribution to others. You may be thinking that seems like a lot of work.
It will only take you about ten minutes to do one mission
statement; that’s less than an hour in total if you do all
five areas of your life. I am sure you can commit to less than an hour to better your life. How committed are you to success?
Get a big piece of paper, write all of your mission statements on that one page, and hang it where you can read it every day. In less than three months, your unconscious mind wil be repeating your mission statements without you having to do the work anymore. It’s extremely important to be in touch with your unconscious mind. Your brain has six levels, five-sixths of which are run by the unconscious mind. Those who tap into this resource wil produce greater results than those who don’t.
I remember the day I was writing out my health and fitness mission statement. I had just ended a three-year relationship. I got up that morning, looked in the mirror, and said to myself, “Where did this extra 65 pounds of fat come from?” For the first time in my life, I had let myself go.
It real y seemed like it just happened overnight. I remember feeling ripped off as I thought, “But I have written a mission statement for my health goals. This stuff must not work!
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Everything I have learned is useless.” But then I started digging a little deeper. And as I did, my unconscious mind blurted out, “How do you expect me to help you when your mission statement has been stuck away in a drawer and not reviewed for over seven months? You’re asking me to guide you but you’re giving me nothing to direct you with.” Hmmmm, my unconscious mind had a point. It said to me, “Shane, repetition is the mother of mastery; out of sight, out of mind.” Yes, now I remembered. When I was in great shape, I had my mission statement posted where I could see it, and I read it twice a day, when I awoke in the morning and right before bed at night. It was like the map for my unconscious mind; I gave it direction, and it took me to exactly where I wanted to go. We were a team, working together. If you want to be one hundred percent aligned within yourself, you must have the unconscious mind and conscious mind working as a whole. That day, I took my very first step toward taking off the 65 pounds of unwanted fat I had around my belly. I sat down and wrote my mission statement. I picked a place to hang it where I could see it every day, and I read it morning and night.
Once you read your mission