Just like the Olympic athlete, you must have your mind in the right place to achieve your goals. If you mind isn’t there, then it doesn’t matter how hard you work at it you won’t achieve your goals–or if you manage to, they will be short-lived and lacking in satisfaction.
I love watching the Olympics…I get so inspired…not to become an Olympian…that was never one of my goals and now I’m old enough to be a parent of one of the “older” athletes…but I do get inspired to be my best, to work hard, and to dream big.
Apolo Ohno said he asks himself a simple question every day, “Did I do everything I could to be my best today?” Even for him, that is a difficult question to answer affirmatively every day.
Our dream of a healthy, energetic, slender body is as big as the quest for Olympic glory, more important for our health than gold, and (fortunately) easier to attain, and possible for ever single person on the planet to have without its losing value. What if for our dream we were to apply Ohno’s attitude and go for our best every day? How about we modify the question and ask, “Did I move myself towards my goal today?” That is a much easier question to answer affirmatively to…and something that anyone can accomplish no matter their condition or age.
One of the most important qualities the Olympic athletes have is tenacity. They don’t give up just because they were injured or because they lost a race or because they fell in front of the entire world. We can learn from that…we must be tenacious, too.
When we hear the call of doughnuts, chips or ice cream we can give in or we can ignore it…or we can use the call to inspire us to be our best…just as Hannah Kearney heard the crowd cheering after her Canadian counterpart finished an amazing mogul run. Kearney knew she could give up and give away her dream and let Jen Heil have the gold…or she could go for it and give it all she had and maybe win. She went for it–and won! We may face the call of our unhealthy past every day…and we can decide we are going to go for health rather than give up on our dreams.
Just like the athletes who train hard and so they can do things that we could never think of doing physically, we can train ourselves, our minds and our bodies, and learn that we do NOT need junk food to feel good…that we feel better when we care for our bodies…but we have to start with our mind and a simple decision–to go for our golden dream.
Remember, most of the athletes at the Olympics aren’t there to win gold…most know they are not in the group who are contending for medals of any kind. For most of the athletes, their dream is to be at the Olympics.
Get a clear picture in your mind what your goal is…what your Olympic dream is. Do you want to be a specific size, or do you want to be generally healthy? Do you want to be able to climb a mountain or just a flight of stairs. Is your dream to drop a dress size, or 100 pounds? Whatever your dream is–go for it. It may be different from everyone else’s–that doesn’t matter. Your dream may change with time, too. That’s the great thing about your dreams…YOU get to decide what the gold is!
For this month, get really clear on what your dream is for your health, your body. What do you want your body to look like, to feel like. What activities do you want to be able to do. Now create a vision board that helps you hold onto that image. Put pictures on it of people who are having fun doing the things you want to do, people who look the way you want to look, images that symbolize health, pictures of the kinds of healthy foods you eat, how you will take care of yourself as you achieve your goal, pictures of people who have achieved their goals…even a picture of an Olympic gold medal if you want…pick the pictures that mean something to you. Paste them on a posterboard and put that up somewhere that you will see it every day. Let it remind you of your goal and inspire you to not give up on your dream.
Keep your weight loss success dream alive by visualizing your triumph every day. Make a step towards your goal every day and you can and will have the healthy, energetic and slender body you deserve!
