Self-Sabotage

Stemming from a heartfelt conversation with a client this morning, I realized that she is not alone & that I was not alone; we both at one point or another have sabotaged an area of our life without knowing it.  Although the manifestation is different, the inner conflict is much the same.  Maybe you can agree that if you think about the areas in your life that you struggle or have inner conflict, you can see that you also may be sabotaging your own life or path.

I have found a common theme in people who struggle to lose weight, they don’t REALLY believe that they can.  That belief in itself is usually the limiting factor.  Many people don’t realize that they don’t believe until they stop and ask themselves the question. Do I really believe (not just say I believe, but can I picture it happening) that I can actually lose the weight, or make the change necessary to move forward in another area of my life?

Do you?

My eyes were opened when I was the one who was not allowing myself to grow or heal in certain areas.  Eating healthy and staying fit are not the areas of my life that I sabotage, so I really didn’t think to apply these principles to my own life until just recently I stopped and asked myself if I believed that my life could be different….. I was shocked that the answer was really No, I didn’t believe it in my heart.  Today I believe it, it took me a while to get there, but none the less, I have arrived.  I wanted to share with you a short article that I found to motivate me.  This is from www.dailyom.com and it comes to me daily, I’ve been getting it for years and have shared it with many people.  I hope you find it motivating.

Finding Encouragement
Your True Inner Voice

Within each of us, there are numerous voices often that compete for our attention. It can be difficult to decide which one to listen to, particularly when their messages are all quite different, sometimes conflicting, and even alluring. One voice, however, is the speaker of truth. Among all your inner voices, your true inner voice is the one which encourages you, gives you hope, and pushes you to trust and believe in yourself. Conflict within oneself is often caused by dueling voices inside of each one of us. As we move through life, we get mixed messages from the various aspects of ourselves. Some of our voices, such as the naysayer or saboteur, can speak so loudly that they drown out the voice of truth. Listening to your true inner voice, often the voice of understanding, support, and self-assurance – can help lessen and even resolve internal conflict.

If you’re looking toward the future but your faith in your ability to succeed in life is wavering, you will benefit from finding and listening to your true inner voice. You can connect with it by remaining relaxed and alert, while listening carefully. If you have trouble distinguishing your true voice from the others, meditation may be helpful. You may hear many voices as you meditate, but the one you should pay attention to is the one that speaks to you with love, understanding, and compassion. It will bolster your spirits and urge you to go after your dreams. And it will never cause confusion, remind you of past mistakes, or cause you to doubt yourself.

The more you listen to and believe in what your true inner voice is telling you about your value and your potential, the stronger that voice will become. And the more you disregard the voices that can interfere with your resolve to succeed, the quieter those voices will become. Saying no to the voices that are judgmental and make you feel ashamed will help you stop being critical of your failures and afraid of success. By finding and strengthening your true inner voice, you will be able to ignore internal conflict and pick out the one that speaks the truth.

Wow, what 11 months of diet and training will do!

So I am going through old competition photos and came across my first “comparison photos” for 2008.  I had done one show in late 2007, just to test the water.  I did everything by trial and error and really didn’t know what I was doing.  So in 2008, I decided to try again, this time get a bit more serious.  So here you have my first photo taken in June of 2008.  Then you’ll see my recent photo from the night before my last show (May 15 2009).  I am amazed and super motivated, sometimes I forget how far I have come.  It is easy to criticize your self for not being exactly where you want to be now, but looking back at where you came from is so powerful.

So, if you’re shooting for a goal, keep your focus on where you have come from and the progress you have made so far and embrace the journey of change, it comes in due time.  Train hard!

7 days out…Yikes!

My next competition is only 7 days from tomorrow.  Going through day to day, it isn’t until I sit still for a few minutes that I realize just how tough it is to stay focused and comitted to one goal.  I can not tell  you  how much this has helped me both personally and professionally in understanding other people’s weight loss challenges, no matter their weight.

Restricting yourself from that which most of us are emotionally connected to is not easy.  It can definitely have a spiritual impact on your life, both the challenges of the journey and the satisfaction of reaching that destination.

Many people, myself sometimes included hold ourselves back because of the negative thought patterns we have developed about ourselves over the years.  These negative thoughts can begin to become real in your life, thus sabatoging that which you so desire.

If I can give you any inspiration, it would be to first ask yourself if you really truly believe that you can get to the goal you have set? If no, try to investigate why you do not believe it, to ultimately expose that negative thought and create a positive one.  The mind is a powerful thing and can both help you and inhibit you, no matter what diet you are on, what magical workout you do, or what amazing piece of exercise equipment you purchased from tv (which by the way my mom calls those “laundry hangers”).

Believe in yourself and your own power to reach  your goals. My first goal is only 7 days away.