There is no such thing as failure

There is no such thing as failure

Fear. It grips us so tightly, especially when we're attempting a
goal that we've 'failed at' before. But fear often becomes a
self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead of changing our pattern, we
end up doing the very things we were trying so hard to avoid.
Just as we feared, we fall off our diet plan, drop out of our
exercise program, and gain weight back.

A poor motivator!

When it comes to losing weight, fear hardly ever works as a
motivator. Instead, it keeps pulling us down until we mess up
and say things like 'See? I told you I couldn't do it. Now I've
failed again.'

So how do your prevent these crazy thoughts of failure from
ruining your weight-loss efforts? First of all, stop giving your
fears so much power.

Manage your brain

Your brain has a EMOTIONAL side and an LOGICAL side. Both of
these have a powerful influence on your thinking as well as your
behaviors. The emotional side panics a lot, and pushes fear to
the top of your thoughts. It convinces you that based on past
experience, your current plan will never work, and that once
again, you'll be a failure.

The logic side takes a totally different approach. It clarifies
the facts, gives you insight, and offers suggestions on how to
take action against your fears. It also helps you learn from
your past so that you don't repeat your old patterns.

Suppose you ate a big piece of chocolate cake or finished off a
carton of ice cream. Which of these responses would be your
first thought?

Emotional side: I've messed up big time today. It's just like I
thought. I'll never be successful with managing my weight.

Logic side: I had a difficult day, including some unplanned
eating. I'm going to analyze what happened, and make plans to
prevent doing the same thing tomorrow.

Conquering fears begins by getting more logical about them. Here
are three steps that will keep fear from ruining your efforts:

1. Catch it quickly.
Recognize when you’re being driven by the irrational, emotional
side of your brain. Notice your 'I'm a failure' or 'I can't do
it' messages immediately. Then push them away so they don't have
time to make things worse.

2. Get logical.
Once you've identified the fear or unreasonable thought, jump to
the logic side of your brain. Tell yourself, 'Wait a minute. I'm
not stuck with my problem behaviors. How could I fix this
situation or make it turn out better?'

3. Erase the board
Picture an erasable white board in your brain, then mentally
write your fear or problem on this board. Once you've followed
through with your logic plan, mentally erase the board. Then
remind yourself the fear is gone and it no longer has any power.

Failure is such a stupid word! Even if you have times where you
struggle or re-gain some weight, don't allow that awful word
into your day. Instead, put your energy into learning and
growing in life.

You have the power over what happens in your life. So today...
create plans, take actions, produce outcomes, learn new things,
and renew your spirit. Of course you can do it!