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Who are You Becoming?

Think about this question for a second.  It’s possibly one of the most powerful questions you’ll even consider- and as you’ll see in part 2 of the post tomorrow, it has a lot to do with your success in losing the weight you want- and keeping it off.

Really asking this question deeply, and reflecting on it causes you to consider what you really want in life because here is a fact:

You are becoming something.  You can’t help this.  It’s a fact.

The past is gone…and all we have is the unfolding of present moments.  So this is a very good place to put your attention.

The decisions you make right now directly shape:

• How you think…
• What habits you oblige…
• What food choices you make…
• How you relate to yourself, your body and others…
• How you handle stress…
• How you react to and talk to your children…

All these decisions shape who you are becoming.  These choices create the causes and conditions for what happens next.

So the question becomes:

Since you’re becoming something (the energy and thinking and behavior that is you is unfolding into something), will you become that thing by design or by default?

I know that comes off pretty wordy, but I recommend you read it again so it sinks in.

Put another way, will you become that thing by habit or by choice?

You have a choice right now, on a moment-to-moment basis about what the quality of your life is going to be.

So you want to be asking yourself: “How well am I making that choice?”

Because the quality of that choice defines who you are becoming.

In part 2 of this post, I’m going to unpack this by going into some specific examples of how this fits into our lives, and how it also affects our waistline.

Finding The Motivation to Exercise

There are a couple of common trends I’ve noticed in people who don’t currently have a steady exercise habit in place.  Both of these ‘attitudes’ towards exercise make ‘logical sense’ but there is a big problem with them:

They just don’t work to get people off the couch and planted in a routine that they enjoy and that lasts.

Here are the two common attitudes we’ve noticed that keep people stuck in their ‘not-exercising habit’, and a few suggestions about how to begin changing them.

1.    “I’m just not motivated to exercise!”

People who carry around this attitude towards exercise actually have the ‘motivation formula’ backwards.  They wrongly think motivation will be like a light bulb that finally goes off in their head and then they’ll finally be motivated to take action.

What they don’t understand is that the motivation is much more likely to flow one they begin taking action.  Action leads to motivation, not the other way around.

The art is in getting off the couch.

One key reason this is true is actually biological in nature:

Once you start breathing harder and get your heart rate up, your brain will automatically start releasing endorphins (those little ‘happy chemicals’ that lift your mood and make you feel good) and your energy level will shift.  You will be feeling good, and consequently your motivation naturally builds.

I know this sounds a little trite and obvious, but there’s a reason Nike has clung to the same marketing message for so many years.

“Just Do It” has stood the test of time for them because there is a fundamental truth in the idea.

The art is in the start- not in thinking there is some hidden secret out there that will strike like a bolt of lightning and then make it somehow magically happen.

It’s sort of like an old fashioned ‘spinning top’.  Remember those?  One little flick of the wrist would set the thing in motion for minutes at a time.

But you had to pick it up and set it into motion- otherwise it was just an object that sat there motionless and did nothing.

So if this is you, then your challenge is to be that top and just pick it up and spin it.  Don’t think about it; don’t strategize about it; just do it.

Here is something specific you can try: (more…)