Healthy You Naturally       Monthly Newsletter

Living In Integrity, Health And Abundance

August is a time to savor the tranquil ambiance of nature in late summer and perhaps the best of times to spend a little quality time with yourself in reflection.  Before fall arrives and life resumes a more hectic pace, why not review your big goals for this year and next. 

Whether your goals relate to improving your health and wellness, enhancing your financial situation, expanding your skills and knowledge, or others; this issue is all about your success.

The Top Reason People Don’t Succeed ...

This may not surprise you, but the top reason people don’t succeed in achieving their dreams and goals is that despite the best of intentions, they don’t finish what they start.

Imagine you’ve enrolled in a new course which has a beginning and an end.  Now imagine you’ve worked hard all term, you have completed all the assignments, put in countless hours of study and you are just days away from writing the final exam ….

• But you never write it. 
• What do you think the chances of you passing that course are? 
• Your chances are virtually nil!

You didn’t complete the program.  No matter how much effort you put in during the course, no matter how well you completed the assignments, the fact remains, you will not pass the course because you didn’t complete the final exam.  

Completing what you start is the number one key to achieving your goals.  In fact, if you often fail to finish what you start, this inability to complete has really become a habit. 

Once an action repeated frequently becomes a habit, it is very hard to change. You will run on auto-pilot and your normal thinking will sound a lot like “I do not like doing this anymore and anyway, I do not think there is much change of being successful.

Every time you start something then part way through begin to think like that, you are feeding that habit which lets you take the easy way out and sets you up to fail at achieving your goal of completing the task.

If you want to be successful at improving your health and wellness, enhancing your financial situation, expanding your skills and knowledge or any task you choose to do, learning to complete what you start is absolutely ESSENTIAL.

Read on to find out how most successful people approach their tasks and goals ...

 The Habit That All Successful People Have …

Most successful people all have integrity.  Integrity in this case simply means that they have developed a trust in themselves and know that when they say they will do something, they do it.

Now, if you say you will do something, but you do not complete or even start it, then you are training your sub-conscious mind to mistrust your commitments which means you are training yourself to fail.  When that happens frequently, it is a habit.

If you want to be successful at small tasks and big goals, you are going to have to trust yourself to do it.  

This is known as the habit of integrity and in simplest terms what that means is if you say you are going to do something, then do it, no matter what, or don’t say you will.  It is that simple.

• What you repeatedly do becomes a habit, so act with integrity and choose to finish every task you begin as you work toward the bigger goals you have set for yourself. 
• If it was important enough to start, don’t let the habit of failure let you take the easy way out, finish what you start,  no matter what.
• This is your life, so the choices you make are yours alone. 
• If you say you will do something, then do it … or don’t say it in the first place.
• If you begin something, then finish it… or don’t start at all. 

I often use a quote from an unknown author, “You are what you are today because of the choices you made yesterday.”  This simple truth can become the basis of success in your life and all that you say or do.

So to be successful in your life, you must choose to do what you say and finish what you start.  You definitely need to build a track-record of self integrity.  

Read on to understanding how to go about creating a pattern of consistently so accomplishing your goals become the habit.

The 6 Steps To Realizing Your Goals ...

Step 1:  Be Aware Of Your Objectives

Stop! 

Before you say or commit to do anything, take some time by yourself and get really clear on what your top goal is.  Life is going to happen anyway, so don’t let your current pace of the day-to-day reality deflect you from finding some quiet time to reflect on what you really want to achieve.  Figure out what is most important to you.

People are so very busy living in the moment of daily life that they have actually lost track of where they are going, how they got where they are and why they are doing what they do. 

It is called the rat race and like a hamster in a tread-mill, there is be no end until you identify your ultimate goal. 

Remember, your ultimate goal will be comprised of many smaller goals.

With awareness comes the power of choice.

Step 2:  You Need A Plan 

OK, so you have  spent some time figuring out what it is you really want to achieve e.g. identified your ultimate goal and now you need a plan (a roadmap) on how you’re going to get there.

Most successful people will begin at the ending point, that point where they visualize achieving their ultimate goal.  From there, they work backwards by identifying the steps that that got them there. 

• If you plan on achieving a big goal, or any goal, DO NOT skip this task!

Beginning with the last step, work backwards one step at a time by identify each preceding task until you have a rough outline from beginning to end.  At first this may seem daunting but do not worry, the importance of this exercise is to loosely identify just the key actions needed without getting caught up in details. 

It is critical you to write these steps out (pen or computer) because they will give you focus and scope and identify the starting point.  “Ask yourself what happened before I achieved this step?” Put the steps you have identified in rough order, (you’ll have lots of time to fine-tune things and you go forward so precision not essential) because what you really want to do is identify the first task and then take action.

The time spent here is essential to achieving your goal and more importantly, the time you invest in creating your plan now will shorten the time it takes for you to achieve it.

• Now, can you get help with all this? 
• Absolutely!
• If you goal is related to your natural health, finance or wisdom then that’s what my coaching, training and mentoring services are all about. 
• Identifying people with the real knowledge and practical experience to support you and help you devise the best possible plan is essential to your success.

You can develop a much better plan using the knowledge and skills of someone who’s been there and walks the talk than you can by yourself.  I would welcome an opportunity to be on your team though before you consider calling me, there’s more …

Step 3:  Understand Your Obstacles From The Start

So, you have a plan, a grand roadmap on how you are finally going to achieve that big goal. 

Unless you have taken the time to think about the obstacles in each step of your plan, you are setting yourself up for challenges that could potentially cause you to fail!  Problems happen, and if you do not plan for them, they can spell certain disaster.

• Now is the time.

Take that plan you have developed and think about what problems you might encounter at each and every step.  As you consider them, add them to your plan then consider how you will address each should it come up.

• Remember: with knowledge comes power.

Expand your plan to include any obstacles you think you might face at each step and write down how you would deal with them.

At this point if you’ve been following along you will now have an orderly plan the identifies the key tasks you must complete to achieve your goal as well as a clear understanding of potential obstacles you may face, and how to deal with them.

• A carpenter will tell you to measure twice and cut once. 

It is good advice, when you plan properly, you chances of success increase greatly.  Put time into identifying the challenges at each step and how you will deal with each then …

Step 4:  Always Always Always Start Small

This might seem obvious to you, but the fact is, many people set great big goals for themselves then get bogged down in the details to the point of losing interest and giving up because it is just too much effort.

The real secret to achieving any task or goal is to start small by setting small achievable goals.  As each is completed in succession, you will be building upon one success after another and that confidence and persistence is what it takes to achieve your ultimate goal.

• Remember: If you can’t handle the little things, how are you ever going to handle the big ones?

For example, if you set a goal to lose 30 pounds (13.6 Kilograms) and get into better shape in the next 90 days but right now your diet is poor, you don’t drink much water, your conditioning is poor and you never exercise; your goal is not realistic and if you start without a plan, your chances of success are very poor.

So if losing 30 pounds is your goal, and you say you are going to do that, you need to complete Rule 2 and Rule 3 then take your first action right now.  What will you next meal consist of?  When are you going to take your next 30 minute walk?  When will you have your next glass of good clean water?  If you have not set your goals for each, how will you handle the rest of the week? 

• If you can’t take action on the small immediate goals; how will you ever lose the weight and get into better shape?

Humans are generally creatures of habit.  When you finally observe the habits are standing in your way, it is time to create new ones and the only proven method of success is to create them one at a time.
When you start small by adopting new habits, you’ll put yourself in a position where your big goals are achievable because your new habits will be so ingrained, success is guaranteed.  You’ll have developed habits of success by doing what you say you will do and complete every task you start.

Starting small is the secret of quickly achieving big goals though you have to do more ….

Step 5:  Take Action

You have to become a person of action.  Nothing happens until you make it happen and despite the best of planning, stuff happens. 

• There is a quote I like to use by another unknown author “The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places.”

You have got to get started on the path to your goal and no matter what happens along the way you must be willing to regroup and continue.   It is OK to make mistakes because without them, learning does not happen. 

• Be willing to make mistakes but just as importantly, learn from those mistakes and refine your plan as you go. 
• Successful people are people of action.

The path between where you are now and your ultimate goal is not a straight line so you must be willing to take the winding path as your remain focused on your big goal.  Making a decision that has risk is inevitable, but all truly successful people are risk-takers.  The fact is, they make decisions based on the degree of risk and adjust to ensure the main goal remains in sight.

You will need to recognize that decisions have to be made and hardship will happen so you must be willing to accept them as part of the process of achieving the big goal.  “Stuff happens.” 

What you do about it and how you decide to react to hardship that will determine your degree of success, or failure.  Accept failures as a lesson, resolve to make change and move forward.

Eventually, provided you stay the course and correct as necessary, you can not fail and success is going to happen for you.

In the end you will make mistakes, hardships will test your commitment but in the words of the immortal Winston Churchill ….

Step 6:  Never, Never, Never Give Up

When you define your ultimate goal, you have to make a commitment to yourself to never give up on your dream.  It is going to happen, the path will be difficult, hardships will happen and set backs will test your resolve yet the one time that is to your ultimate advantage is persistence. 

If you persevere regardless of the difficulty and are willing to modify your plan along the way, that persistence will result in your success.  Never give up and you will achieve your goals as it is an unavoidable fact of life and an approach to thinking that has or is part of every successful person who has or will have ever live.

Be willing to do the difficult things now, make the difficult decisions now, and take the actions that lead to change despite any immediate risk. 

• Commit yourself to never give up.
• “If you are willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy.  But if you are only willing to do what’s easy, life will be very, very hard.”  - Aaron Loh Blog

People who give up are the people who can’t commit to themselves and they never achieve great success because they never start or complete what they say they will do.

So never give up, do what’s hard, keep adjusting along the way and you’ll make it.  If you follow these six basic steps you are virtually guaranteed to succeed.

 

Next month I'll share the secrets of overcoming procrastination, getting massive results with only 20% effort and much more!

A Wellness Coach Can Turbo Charge Your Health & Wellness

As a Wellness Coach, Diane really can help you develop a solid no nonsense plan that will help you achieve dramatic improvements, changes that really will help you feel good and look great. 

Regardless of where you start your journey; Diane's skilled direction, advice and passionate guidance will help you naturally achieve better results faster, and as a bonus, you will get the knowledge and skills that will last a lifetime.

Schedule an in-depth assessment, identify the strengths and weaknesses in your body, clarify your goals and get a personal plan with an achievable timeline in place that will successfully take you from where you are to where you want to be. Call Diane today.