Wednesday, January 10, 2007

The Journey Of A Lifetime - By JeNeika Smith

The journey of a lifetime...can only begin when you take your first step forward. If you REALLY want to make your dream a reality...you must be willing to step into your destiny. No dream was ever realized by sitting and just THINKING about it...action is necessary.

Let's say you want to lose twenty pounds. Now, to meet that goal, you'd need to have a game plan, right? You won't lose it by sitting in front of the TV. Now, you go and order the latest exercise video...go and buy workout clothes...equipment, etc. You're all set, you think, and make plans to get up EARLY the next morning to begin your journey.

That next morning, you wake up, and you're not ready to get up yet. You want an extra 30 minutes to sleep, so you say you'll put off the exercise until that evening.
You make the resolution to skip breakfast, hoping that will start you on your way. At lunch, you're starving because you skipped breakfast, so you eat a big meal and think, "Oh, I'll eat a small dinner AND work out 5 more minutes later. "

Dinner time comes around, and what's for dinner? Your absolute favorite meal ever...which of course you can't pass up having just a little bit, right? That little bit turns into a second helping...and by that time, you're stuffed, so you've already decided to start exercising TOMORROW...and go ahead with your dessert.

And so the cycle begins...and two weeks later, you're still resolving to take that first step...soon.

Now, where did we go wrong? What could have been done differently to motivate us to begin that exercise program? One thing that can help is along with SETTING a goal...set smaller milestones along the way to track your progress and keep you working towards the end result. An example of a milestone would be:

I want to lose 1.5 pounds by *insert date*.

The date would one by one you could reasonably expect to lose that amount. You've then got a marker set, and rather than trying to focus solely on the BIG goal, you can work on the smaller milestone. You can set milestones as often as you want/need to help you along. Along with that milestone, identify three current habits you have right now that you feel are impeding your goal to lose weight. Replace those with three positive habits in line with your goal.

Now, you've taken that first step of the journey! You've prepared, and now you're in your persistence/perserverance mode. At this point, you may want to consider hooking up with an accountability/motivation partner-someone who will help you stay on the journey and not fall off when a bump in the road occurs!

JeNeika Smith is a coach and writer based in Houston, TX. She is the CEO of Dream Your Best Life Now, a company focusing on women’s empowerment and self improvement. She is firmly committed to helping the world, one person at a time, live up to their highest potential and create the life they dream of! Visit her on-line at http://www.dreamyourbestlifenow.com or e-mail her personally at coach@dreamyourbestlifenow.com.

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