Most of my blog posts are primarily for my own edification, a "confessional", if you will. Some of them are explanations of thoughts, attitudes, or actions. A couple of them, like my last one about collecting evidence of your success, are directed squarely at my fellow Losers. This one falls into that category, as well.
My mind is such that, when I see something, I begin thinking about it from a different angle. Our PHC team knows that when Barry releases the statistics each Monday/Tuesday from that week's weigh-in, I'm all over it, pulling out information, keying it all into another spreadsheet, and going over various "what-if" scenarios. By the time I see Mark and Donna at PHC, I know exactly what I want to shoot for that week. This entire experience has been a study in goal-setting for me, personally.
As of April 1, we have 44 days left in this competition (depending on when our last weigh-in before the finale will be held). We all had a picture in our mind 5 months ago of where we wanted to be at the end of this process, whether it was a specific weight, a specific size, or a specific set of lifestyle changes. How close are you to what you wanted to accomplish? Can you finish what you set out to do in 44 days?
If you cannot realistically accomplish your 6-month goal between now and the finale, I would encourage you to give it up. NOTE: I did not say "QUIT"... what I mean is, if you have not re-evaluated your goal since the beginning, and you have no hope of reaching that goal, re-adjust your goal to something specific and attainable in the next 44 days. When we all reach the finale and are standing on that stage, every single one of us will have something to be proud of, no matter where we finish in this competition. If, on that day, you choose to focus on your "failure" in reaching your goal, you are setting yourself up for failure on May 17th, or shortly thereafter. To keep pressing on towards an unattainable goal is not a good strategy. There are several alternatives: you can re-adjust your goal; you can re-adjust your personal end-date; or you can make a change in what's important to you.
How do you know if your goal is unattainable? The best predictor of future performance is past performance, to quote Dr. Phil McGraw. If you've lost 20 pounds a month for the past six months, you are not going to lose 150 pounds in the next 44 days. It's not going to happen; there's no sense in kidding yourself. In order to be attainable, a goal must be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Action-related, Realistic, and Time-related. You must know where you are going, there must be a way of gauging your success, you must have the knowledge and tools for getting there, you have to understand what can and cannot be done, and you should be able to track your progress against time.
I say all that to say this: even if you can point to times during this competition where you have not given it your best effort (and we ALL have had those times), give yourself something in the next 44 days that you carry away as a trophy of success, and use it to move forward in your continued success.
Some of you may be saying, "That's all well and good... you can say those things, because you're going to win. You've accomplished everything you wanted to." The first statement is definitely not a given, and the second is definitely not true. I've done OK, but I don't look like what I want to look like; I don't feel how I want to feel, and I am battling many of the same insecurities and inadequacies that I was facing back before November 2nd.
Whether you are in a position to "win", or find yourself "not even close", I want to challenge you to determine what you can achieve between now and the end, and create your own success that will fuel the fire to continue even after Barry, Johnnie, Mark, Donna, and Rob are no longer in your ear telling you what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.
My mind is such that, when I see something, I begin thinking about it from a different angle. Our PHC team knows that when Barry releases the statistics each Monday/Tuesday from that week's weigh-in, I'm all over it, pulling out information, keying it all into another spreadsheet, and going over various "what-if" scenarios. By the time I see Mark and Donna at PHC, I know exactly what I want to shoot for that week. This entire experience has been a study in goal-setting for me, personally.
As of April 1, we have 44 days left in this competition (depending on when our last weigh-in before the finale will be held). We all had a picture in our mind 5 months ago of where we wanted to be at the end of this process, whether it was a specific weight, a specific size, or a specific set of lifestyle changes. How close are you to what you wanted to accomplish? Can you finish what you set out to do in 44 days?
If you cannot realistically accomplish your 6-month goal between now and the finale, I would encourage you to give it up. NOTE: I did not say "QUIT"... what I mean is, if you have not re-evaluated your goal since the beginning, and you have no hope of reaching that goal, re-adjust your goal to something specific and attainable in the next 44 days. When we all reach the finale and are standing on that stage, every single one of us will have something to be proud of, no matter where we finish in this competition. If, on that day, you choose to focus on your "failure" in reaching your goal, you are setting yourself up for failure on May 17th, or shortly thereafter. To keep pressing on towards an unattainable goal is not a good strategy. There are several alternatives: you can re-adjust your goal; you can re-adjust your personal end-date; or you can make a change in what's important to you.
How do you know if your goal is unattainable? The best predictor of future performance is past performance, to quote Dr. Phil McGraw. If you've lost 20 pounds a month for the past six months, you are not going to lose 150 pounds in the next 44 days. It's not going to happen; there's no sense in kidding yourself. In order to be attainable, a goal must be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Action-related, Realistic, and Time-related. You must know where you are going, there must be a way of gauging your success, you must have the knowledge and tools for getting there, you have to understand what can and cannot be done, and you should be able to track your progress against time.
I say all that to say this: even if you can point to times during this competition where you have not given it your best effort (and we ALL have had those times), give yourself something in the next 44 days that you carry away as a trophy of success, and use it to move forward in your continued success.
Some of you may be saying, "That's all well and good... you can say those things, because you're going to win. You've accomplished everything you wanted to." The first statement is definitely not a given, and the second is definitely not true. I've done OK, but I don't look like what I want to look like; I don't feel how I want to feel, and I am battling many of the same insecurities and inadequacies that I was facing back before November 2nd.
Whether you are in a position to "win", or find yourself "not even close", I want to challenge you to determine what you can achieve between now and the end, and create your own success that will fuel the fire to continue even after Barry, Johnnie, Mark, Donna, and Rob are no longer in your ear telling you what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.
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