Go get ‘em Tiger

It seems like only yesterday we were raising our champagne glasses to a ‘happy New Year’.

One minute we’re announcing our resolution to go to the gym more and the next minute we’ve blown off the spinning class for a takeaway and a bottle of Pinot Grigio.

It always seems easier to take the most comfortable option. Carrot cake or carrot sticks anyone?

After reading last month’s article, New Year, New You, you’ve hopefully managed to set yourself some goals to change your life for the better. Deciding on the goals is the easy part, sticking to them is where it gets difficult. The trick is to keep yourself motivated. You’ll only see the benefits of your hard work if you see it through to the end. What you want to do is change your bad habit into an old habit.

To keep yourself on track, try the following:

Once you’ve decided on your goal, visualise yourself with the end result. You’ve dropped a dress size and bought that designer dress that you’ve been coveting - how does it feel? What is your life like now that you’ve reached your desired size? Has your health improved, do you have more energy? Create a really detailed picture of this new you. Now keep going back to your visualisation - every day if possible. The more times that you re-visit your end result, the more times you remind yourself of why you are doing this.

What are the benefits of you achieving your goal? Will you be fitter, richer, or more knowledgeable? It’s also good to think about what will happen to you if you don’t make those changes? How is not doing anything towards your goal going to benefit your life? Sometimes, thinking of the worst case scenario, will give you the energy to take that first step towards making improvements and creating the best case scenario.

Next up, get your friends and family involved. The people closet to you can play a huge part in helping you achieve your goal. I call them your support network. Tell them what your goal is and what it means to you to achieve it. Give them the authority to give you that push in the right direction if you feel yourself slipping by the wayside.

Keep a bit of distance between yourself and those negative people who try and bring you down. When keeping yourself motivated, you need people around you who are positive and energetic. It’s hard enough trying to achieve something difficult without having to carry someone else too.

Once you have achieved something, no matter how small - reward yourself. If you’ve stuck to your objective of going to the gym 5 times a week, treat yourself for achieving your target. All work and no play is no fun for anyone. Also, don’t beat yourself up if you did have the carrot cake instead of the carrot sticks. You can always go back on the diet tomorrow. One day isn’t going make a huge amount of difference.

For the month of February, use the tips above to help get to where you want. If you keep using them they will become second nature. Before you know it, your bad habits will become old habits and you’ll be looking at a new you in the mirror. Go get em tiger…grrrr

Jayne Williams
Life Coach