Tools For Success: Attitudes-Thoughts- Beliefs
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we create the world. -Buddha
If you want a better life, start working on your attitude, your thoughts and beliefs first. Attitudes and beliefs have been shown to affect objective reality in many ways: cortisol levels can be lowered with positive thinking while depression is linked to negative thinking patterns. Positive attitudes have been connected to lower stress hormones and an increased immune response while negative attitudes can lead to chronic illness or even cancer.
The part about these things being connected to the self is key. If you believe that a positive attitude makes you healthier, then your body will respond accordingly (that's what self-hypnosis does!). If you think negative thoughts about yourself, then your body reacts to those messages and it really doesn't matter what's going on in reality (that's a true statement). I'm not saying that there aren't any circumstances that can be taken into account. Your environment plays a huge role in how you feel, but the majority of the effects of your negative thought patterns are completely within your control.
In this article I'll be talking about feelings, beliefs and attitudes as they relate to weight loss and fitness. The weight loss part of this conversation is not exactly that difficult, but beliefs and attitudes are something that most people take for granted.
It's important to remember that you can't outthink your thoughts, but straight up-thinking will work better in the long run. The more successful you are with your weight loss efforts and fitness goals, the easier it'll be to maintain those efforts. I'm not saying that there isn't a lot of luck involved in weight loss and fitness goals, but there is no one set of rules within these issues. The more you focus on going after your goals and putting in the effort to make them happen, the more likely they'll happen.
The more positive your thoughts, the higher your success rate is going to be.
I could go into all of the psychological studies that have been conducted over the years that show that a positive attitude helps people succeed in areas like fitness and weight loss, but I'm not going to do that here. If you're interested in those kinds of things, they're easy enough to look up. Just keep in mind that science has shown over and over again throughout the years how important it is to keep things positive. It's also worth noting that many of these studies have been done on kids and teens who are still forming their belief systems. This shows just how powerful beliefs really are.
To me, it's obvious that positive beliefs are needed for weight loss and fitness success as well. One thing about this subject is that it doesn't always have to be a totally positive environment to succeed in these areas. The more negative your thinking is, the more difficult it will be to achieve success. If you're feeling down about something and you're trying to work out or make some other sort of change in your life, don't do it. More often than not, you'll waste your time while causing yourself unnecessary pain. Just start with a new attitude instead of getting back on track with what you were doing before. You'll find that fitness or weight loss can come a lot easier when you do things in a new way.
A positive belief system will not only help you achieve your fitness and weight loss goals, it'll help you achieve other things in your life as well. Positive thinking can be the difference between success and failure in a lot of areas, but there are those who would disagree with this statement. I'm not going to go into all the examples that show how important self-beliefs are, because there are tons of them online; just look around. This article is about self-beliefs as they relate to weight loss and fitness alone – there are other articles available on this topic if you want to learn more.
I'm also not talking about blind optimism here; such an idea can sometimes be a good thing. If you've been under a lot of stress lately, it's easy to start to feel like things will never get better. If you're feeling down, try channeling that energy into something positive. It might even help your situation! For example, if you've lost weight and you're happy about that but still feel like things aren't good enough, think about how great it is that you've lost weight (don't dwell on the past). The more focused on the positive side of things you can be, the easier things will go for you.
The way I see it, self-beliefs are important because they allow us to keep our eyes on the prize; whatever that might be for a given individual.
One of my rules for success -or should I say one of the rules that I try to follow- is to always keep my eye on the prize. Never get too distracted with something that doesn't matter in the long run. If you're trying to lose weight, it's easy to get into the idea of how it's going to feel once you reach your goal weight. It can be more difficult to stay focused on what's right in front of you, but this is where self-beliefs come in. Your feelings might not be as important as they used to be (at least while you're striving towards a fitness or weight loss goal), but they'll still be there. You won't be so easily swayed by something that you don't think will help you achieve your goal.
You don't need to find some ideal weight or ideal form to work towards. That's way too much pressure! If you really want to lose weight, focus on goal-setting in a way that makes sense for you. For example, if losing weight is important for you but your main motivation is the way that it will make you feel, then the focus needs to be more on how happy and healthy you'll be instead of how much weight you'll have lost at a certain point in time.
I know that this can cause fear and anxiety in some people, but I think that it's an admirable goal of sorts. If you honestly want to be successful in achieving your goals then I think it's always a good idea to work towards something that you truly want. You don't need to find some ideal weight or ideal form to work towards; that's way too much pressure! If you really want to lose weight, focus on goal-setting in a way that makes sense for you. For example, if losing weight is important for you but your main motivation is the way that it will make you feel, then the focus needs to be more on how happy and healthy you'll be instead of how much weight you'll have lost at a certain point in time.
I used to work with a lady who did this all the time. She was a very thin woman with a lot of weight to lose, but she used to tell me that she didn't care that much about the weight. Her priority was getting healthy and feeling better about herself. I think it's possible for someone who wants to get into shape or lose weight to have that same kind of goal, but it's not the same thing. This is one of the reasons why I believe self-beliefs are so important in this area; they help us keep our eyes on things that we really want to achieve.
If self-beliefs aren't working out for you, then try using something else instead.
Conclusion
Self-beliefs are one of the most important elements of fitness and weight loss. I know that using this term in some way has become a lame cliché, but I don't care; it's true! If you want to lose weight, use everything at your disposal to help you get there. It doesn't mean that you'll never be able to do anything wrong; just that your belief system is working for you instead of against you. Sometimes there can be a time when self-beliefs have no effect on your success rate. Even if that happens, try not to give up completely; keep trying different things until something works for you again.