Losing weight is difficult. Keeping it off is also a challenge.
I know, I’ve been there. My whole life I’ve struggled with weight issues. I was a fat kid most of my school days, got skinny in high school and then slowly let myself get fat again in my 20s.
I allowed myself to balloon up to almost 300 pounds. Then I decided to make a big change: I quit smoking cold turkey and turned my health around. I attacked my weight with a fervor and got back to around 180 pounds.
Why am I writing about health issues on a “business” website that’s geared towards Internet marketing success, SEO and web development?
Because it’s all about mindset.
Whatever you do, it comes from your mindset first and foremost. You can quite literally will things to happen.
Granted, they don’t happen overnight. Most things are like a seedling taking root. You don’t see the changes taking place right away, but if you keep plugging away at it, eventually you’ll see the seed sprout up through the ground. Eventually you’ll have a whole, big, beautiful plant.
Kinda cheesy but true.
Business is a lot like that, as is losing weight. We can lump anything else into this, like paying off your home mortgage, killing your debt, selling your house, cleaning your house (if you’re a hoarder), quitting smoking; anything huge and seemingly insurmountable really isn’t.
How did I lose over 100 pounds? I didn’t just decide and eat the right thing and run a little bit and magically the fat melted away.
You have to ATTACK your problem with a ferocity. You kind of have to have a little bit of hate in you. A good kind of hate. Or you can call it a burning fire for what you want to achieve. You have to desire your results so strongly that nothing will stand in your way. You have to be a warrior.
THIS IS SPARTA!
You need to hate where you’re at right now so much that the small setbacks are just that – little bumps in the road.
Entreprenuerism is similar. There’s no one way to success and it’s not easy. It’s a ton of hard work, but with persistence and a burning fire, a little bit of hatred towards that which you DON’T want (i.e. maybe that’s a 9-5 job in a retail store like Walmart or something) you can get there.
- Attack your problem.
- Define your problem. Write it down and break up the steps to overcome it in smaller, easier to manage pieces that don’t overwhelm you.
- Have an outline. Make an outline or list of actions to take and refer to it every morning to make sure you’re on course.
- When a setback happens (and they will) recognize it for what it is. See the bigger picture and limit the fallout from this one setback. For instance, if losing weight and you have a couple of cookies, don’t go off the rails and say “screw it, it doesn’t matter now, I’m eating the WHOLE BOX OF OREOS!” Cut your losses and start again tomorrow.
- Have a cheat day. Once a week have a “cheat day” where you can cut loose a little. The problem with total abstinence is that it doesn’t work. We need to have a little fun and simply looking forward to our cheat day all week allows us to buckle down and be more disciplined. We can work harder with the knowledge that eventually we can have what we want; that life isn’t all about abstinence.
- Chart your progress. You need to see how you’re doing overall and have a visible record that you’re actually getting somewhere. Some days are very difficult and trying and make you want to crawl into a hole and never come out. Some days you want to say screw it and abort the whole plan. Keeping a record of where you’re at keeps you positive & motivated! Seeing some success (however small) garners more success.
- Celebrate your successes. It’s important to acknowledge milestones. It’s up to you whether you want them to be public or not. Sometimes it’s better to share everything with some close friends and family, but other times it can hurt your progress because of the expectations that are set. It all depends on you as an individual and what the problem you’re attack is.
- Stay on target.
Stay on target and stay with it, Red 5.
- Keep aiming and adjusting. Some things will work better for you and you’ll find out what those are as you go. Tweak your battle plan a little bit as you find out what works and what doesn’t. Revise and stay on that treadmill.
- Success!!! At long last you’ve achieve your goal! Celebrate, shout it from the rooftops and on all your social networks. Take photos and be proud, baby! However, stay sharp and don’t let that bad habit creep up again. Use everything you learned during the process to make a new plan to keep that negative thing out of your life. (Or in the case of being an entrepreneur or building something, how to keep at it.)
It really is all the same, no matter the problem. You have to attack it with a ferocity and persistence that no one and nothing can stop. Then you’re invincible!
This is kind of what we’re going for. Maintain Zen but give a fuck you middle finger to the stuff you don’t want in your life.
So get a little bit of hate on and GET ON IT! 🙂
