People, like organizations, find making change easier when faced with a crisis. If you or someone close to you has had a health scare related to being overweight, it could be your call to action. These crises create a sense of urgency, but we don’t have to manufacture a crisis to create a sense of urgency. Effective leaders set stretch goals for their organization that need to be reached within a specified timeframe. A goal needs to have a deadline. A deadline helps create a sense of urgency. It helps establish priorities and prevents procrastination. After setting goals they look at leading and lagging indicators. Lead indicators are daily actions we can take to achieve our long term goal, measured by lag indicators. For example, generating sales leads might be a lead indicator, while the lag indicator would be an increase in sales revenue. Fat loss lead indicators are your daily caloric intake and total daily protein intake. The lag indicators are your weekly bodyweight averages and average body fat percentages.
I have always gotten in my best condition when I had a specific event or competition I was preparing for at the time. If you don’t have a competition or event, you are preparing for you can create one. Here are some examples that can create the sense of urgency that makes change easier:
1) Lose 10 pounds of body fat before your 10-year college reunion in 12 weeks.
2) Compete in a body transformation contest, like Body-for-Life or the Lean Body Challenge.
3) Lose 12 pounds before a professional photo shoot you have scheduled with your spouse in three months.
4) Lose 20 pounds before your scheduled vacation to Hawaii in four months.
5) Lose 15 pounds while you prepare for the MS 150 Bike Ride.
6) Lose 20 pounds before a yearly dinner party you have planned with family or college friends.
These are just a few examples of the types of goals you can set to create the necessary sense of urgency needed to make change easier. Think big. The bigger your goal the more motivated you’ll be to go after it every day. The higher a priority it will be to you. The less likely you’ll be to procrastinate. The more fuel you’ll have to grind it out, day after day. Seeing yourself achieving your compelling goal is going to push you to make it a reality. Imagine how great it’s going to feel once you accomplish your goal. I like to envision a naysayer, a real or imagined person, that’s hoping I’ll fail. I channel my anger toward that person into my workouts with an “I’ll prove you wrong” mentality. I adopt a “you don’t know me” attitude. You don’t know how determined I am. I like to imagine their dismay when they discover I have beaten their predictions. “Success is the best revenge,” Ed Sheeran.
Commit yourself to your goal. In the examples given, register for your event or race in advance, purchase your airplane tickets, book hotel reservations, schedule the photography session, etc. You can sign-up for a one-year gym membership, which often saves you money over month-to-month memberships. You can sign-up for personal training sessions and share your goals with your trainer. This will further commit you and create an additional layer of accountability. The crucial thing is that you create a real sense of urgency. Establishing a sense of urgency will provide you with the motivation you need to stick to the program and overcome temptation. When you are tempted to eat a piece of birthday cake at the office or skip a planned workout. You will remember that your event is only a few weeks away, you have made a significant financial commitment, and you need to keep making progress toward your goal. Letting supportive friends and family know about your plans can also help you commit.
Make the decision. In Latin, decision literally translates to “a cutting off.” Decide. Commit. Cut off all other options. Cut off the excuses. Cut off the negative people in your life. Cut off procrastination. Cut off laziness. In the military we say a unit is decisively engaged when it cannot retreat or advance. It must stand and fight or parish. Decide. Commit yourself. Commit, like Captain Cortes did by burning the boats. After his eleven ships carrying 600 Spaniards landed on the shores of Veracruz in 1519, he immediately gathered his men and ordered the boats be burned. By eliminating their only means of escape, he left them with only two options; succeed or die. There is no better time than now. Tony Robins says, “A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken action. If there’s no action, you haven’t really decided. If you want to take the island, then burn the boats. With absolute commitment come the insights that create real victory.”
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The Fat Loss Habit: Creating Routines that Make Willpower and Fat Loss Automatic takes a new approach to getting leaner, fitter, and stronger. The program uses high-impact change strategies that make the process of adopting a healthy lifestyle easier. The nutrition and workout program, like the change techniques have all been proven effective, and are all backed by research and scientific studies.
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