Looking to Lose Weight? Set Your Hair on Fire

Reducing weight isn’t painless. I don’t really have to tell you that, though, do I?. If you’re looking at this you’ve already been through it. There’s a secret, however, to reaching your weight loss goal. Better still, the same strategy can be applied to any goal. Think small, set your hair on fire, and keep going. What’s Your Goal? Hint: Think Small Like many goals losing weight seems to be a big, hairy project at first which often makes it appear inaccessible. Most rewarding goals are massive and difficult, though, so that’s part of the bargain. You would like something really, really good? You will have to climb a mountain to get it. The secret is to never concern yourself with the whole goal. Once you’ve committed to it, separate it up into smaller components and forget about the big picture for a little while. You want to drop 20 pounds? Wonderful. Commit to it, then reset your goal to burning off 3 pounds this week, then 3 pounds next week, 3 pounds the week after, etc and then forget about the 20 for the time being. Dropping 3 pounds seems a lot easier to contemplate than losing 20, and it’s much easier to stay on course for a week than for five months. Your Hair is on Fire - What’s Your First Priority? If you get out of bed in the morning and your hair is on fire, what’s the first thing you need to do? Check your e-mail? Read the newspaper? Heck no. You put the fire out. If your aim is to lose 3 pounds this week, what’s the first thing you do in the morning? Get it? Excellent. It’s way too easy to get sidetracked from our goals, especially when the new toy sparkle fades and the work starts. The very first thing you must do each morning is work on your objective. If you haven’t developed your menu and grocery list for that week (you are planning meals, aren’t you?) get it done when you first wake up. Don’t brush your pearly whites first, don’t walk your dog, don’t feed the youngsters - work on your objective for 30 minutes to an hour. If it’s an exercise day, get the training session in first. Before you've got a chance to think about not doing it. Before you consider putting it off for only 5 minutes while you check your messages or send a text. Work on your goal first. Get it done and out of the way and you can spend the remainder of the day putting other things off. Get out of bed then work on your objective as if your hair is on fire. Give Up? Wrong! Goals are particularly exhilarating when we’re first motivated to commit to them, that’s why we commit to them in the first place. Woohoo! You’re going to shed pounds and slim down! You’re gonna look like a Greek statue! People will gaze at you at the shore and wonder who the heck that tasty-looking guy or girl is! Then you dive in. And progress becomes tougher. And tougher. When the dazzling newness of the goal wears off, most people will fade and quit. It’s difficult to carry on when confronted with adversity. It’s challenging to keep on when you hit a wall. Know this when you commit to your objective: it’s going to be very hard at times, you’re going to experience setbacks, and you’re going to taste some failure. Don’t allow it to frighten you. The strategy to succeeding in the face of all of that scaryness is to keep working. I’ll say it again: Keep going. No matter what. If you fail terribly one week, don’t stop. Pick yourself up, figure out what went wrong and how to correct it, and start again. You can accomplish your objective if you pick yourself up one more time than you fail. Don’t finish on a failure, end on success. Your hair is on fire. What should you do about it?