1.
You Are As You Think: The Power Of Your
"Cognitions"
Cognitive psychology is a product of the last
few decades of the last century. The central
premise of cognitive psychology is that what
you think determines how you feel.
Understanding this connection will be central to
your success at fitness or anything else in your
life is.
However, people are sometimes reluctant to
accept this basic truth, because it requires
them to acknowledge responsibility for what they
experience in their lives. Some people prefer to
believe that their feelings either precede their
thoughts, or exist independently of them. Yet
the truth is that our feelings, good or bad, are
the products of our own thoughts.
It's impossible to have a feeling about
something until we first become aware of it.
This means we have to think about it before we
feel it. For example, if your mate gets upset
with you for some reason during the middle of
the day, but you don't find out about it until
later in the day, at what point do you have a
bad feeling about the event?
No matter how upset he or she was with you all
day long, you had no feeling about it
because you didn't think about it. Many people
suffer needlessly because they have this
relationship backwards.
If you believe that your feelings come before
your thoughts--that your feelings come out of
nowhere and land in your head like a flock of
stray birds--then you place yourself at the
mercy of whatever feelings happen to be
"descending on you" at the moment.
2.Taking Responsibility Gives You Power
To gain the power you need to make positive
changes in your life, you can't afford to see
yourself as a powerless victim of external
factors. This denies you the responsibility for
your own experience, and prevents you from
enjoying the power that is rightfully yours.
To use that power, you need to understand how it
works in connection with your beliefs.
It isn't that believing actually makes things
happen--though sometimes it does. But when you
believe something strongly, the "how to" of
achieving it comes to you virtually without
effort. What you need to know and do somehow
flows magically into your awareness.
In other words, the power of your belief becomes
a magnet for the precise solutions you need. The
stronger the belief, the better solutions you
attract. This phenomenon is at the core of our
human creative process. Once we are fully
focused on what we want to create, and then
believe we can create it, our results are
virtually assured!
Stated another way, once we're sufficiently
clear about what to do, we need not struggle to
figure out how. You see, much of the failure of
traditional weight loss is the result of trying
to force something to happen. Effort, struggle,
and relying on will power are all signs that
we're fighting with ourselves, that we're at
cross purposes with our own deeply held beliefs.
But when our beliefs are clear and positive, all
we need to do is "let it happen."
3.What Is Your Stage Of Fitness Consciousness?
With anything you do in life, psychologist
Abraham Maslow tells us there are four distinct
stages of consciousness you can be at:
Stage One:
Unconscious Incompetence. This is where we are
when we aren't reaching our goals and don't know
where to look for the problem, or may not even
know that there is a problem. An incredible
number of people are at this stage concerning
weight loss and fitness.
Stage Two:
Conscious Incompetence. At this stage we have
become fully aware that what we're doing isn't
working, and we know we need to be doing
something else, even if we're not sure what it
is. This is where most people are when they
start working with this success system.
Stage Three:
Conscious Competence. After the first 3-4 weeks
of Success Exercises, you will have identified
your problem beliefs and attitudes and very
consciously will have begun to replace them with
self-supporting ones. You are now solidly on
your way to...
Stage Four:
Unconscious Competence. This is your ultimate
destination. At this stage of development, you
now automatically and effortlessly do the things
that keep you fit and at your ideal weight. You
may or may not get there in 7 weeks, but you
will be unstoppably on your way if you stay with
the program.
If the task of changing your beliefs seems a bit
overwhelming, keep this in mind: Every single
belief you have right now was put into
your mind with your own cooperation. In other
words, you're already a "seasoned pro" at
creating beliefs. However conscious or
unconscious the process may have been, you
played a central role in the adoption of all of
your current beliefs.
And it is you who keeps them alive today and
lets them run your life by not challenging their
validity. Not a single one of your beliefs can
survive without your constant support.
You are the only one who can keep your beliefs
alive, and you are the only one who can replace
them.
But, contrary to many people's notions, your
beliefs are not just a bunch of thoughts
confined to your mind. Your beliefs are
interwoven into your body and spirit as
well. Have you ever gotten a "sinking feeling"
when you heard bad news? Have you ever felt like
you were hit in the stomach when a lover did you
wrong?
That's how we humans are built. We're
multi-level, multi-dimensional beings, and to
ignore that fact while we try to make changes is
to guarantee failure. And that's also why you
should never try to change your beliefs through
mental processes alone any more than you could
change your weight through physical processes
alone. Instead, you need to take the much more
powerful approach, by involving your body,
mind and spirit in all you set out to do.
So, if it's a new experience of life you
seek--even on the physical level--you need to
begin the process in your mind. Your mind is the
control center for your behaviors, and your
behaviors are what determine how you look and
what you accomplish. If your current experience
of yourself is not to your liking, don't run off
to the gym or seek out the latest diet. The
secret of your success is much closer--between
your ears. If you want to change your life,
start with your mind!
4 .How To Become A Success Story
I sincerely hope this has been time well spent
for you. Life is simply too short not to
understand how our own minds and bodies work, or
to be wasted on activities that can never get
you where you want to go.
I wish you total success in the coming year!
Sincerely, Dr. Frank B. Smoot, DD, MA
GHF's Success & Personal Growth Coach |
