Your mindset makes all the difference when you're making lifestyle changes. If you're not in the correct mindset you will experience more frustration and failures than someone who's locked in a strong mindset.

How do you have a strong mindset? I'm certainly not perfect but I'll share what I do to make sure my mind is ready for challenges of life- this includes making healthy choices.

1. Affirmations- Telling yourself positive things has a big impact. Turn your negative thoughts about yourself and your capabilities into positive statements. At first you won't believe what you're saying to yourself but be persistent with this practice and you'll soon find yourself successfully changing the way your mind perceives yourself.

2. Gratitude- Just this simple practice of listing five things you're grateful for when you're in a bad mood can completely change your outlook on life. Note: this is not denying your emotions. Sometimes your "negative" (uncomfortable) emotions need to be felt and dealt with. This is instead reminding yourself of the good when you have something bad to deal with.

3. Goals- People with strong mindset are moving towards a goal. They've focused in on something and they're on their way to reach it. If you don't have a goal you're kind of like a boat without a rudder. A mind that is strong is a mind with goals. 

4. Movement- A strong body creates a strong mind. Your body knows how you treat it and how much you've been exercising (or avoiding exercise). Talk to a person who never challenges their muscles about how confident they are and then go talk to someone who's been resistance training for a few months and they are notably more confident. 

5. Resilience- A strong mind is resilient. It can manage to fall seven times and get up eight. Just like walking takes practice, the more you get up from a fall the better you'll be at it. The most obvious example to this mom of a toddler- A toddler learning to walk will fall a lot. Not only are they improving their walking when they try again, they're improving their ability to get up from a fall. Be resilient. Get up and you'll get stronger every time you do.

2021 is almost here! And while 2020 didn't look like we wanted it to, 2021 seems to be starting without much changed yet. So what can you do to make the most of 2021? 

You can stop waiting. Many people are waiting for life to return to normal to start pursuing their goals. Stop waiting and start pursuing your goals now! Maybe you need to change your plan because of current events but you should still find a way to make progress towards your goals. After all, any progress is better than no progress and you have the potential to have great success only happens if you are moving. 

If you don't have any goals for 2021 yet because you're concerned about disappointment, make some goals that are mostly under your control. Make goals about books you want to read, healthy habits like sleeping enough or drinking more water, updating your resume or applying to schools, etc. Remember your goals should be SMART- specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound.

Once you decide on goals post them in a place that you'll be reminded of them. Add a brightly colored sticky note to your planner, use a dry erase marker on  your bathroom mirror, set reminders in your phone. Do a few things to put your goals in front of you. Life gets busy and distracting so remind yourself of your goals often. 


Action items:
1. Stop waiting- make a plan that allows you to pursue your goals during a pandemic
2. Make new goals for 2021 (SMART goals)
3. Post reminders of your goals so you don't get distracted


Ready to take on 2021? ​

Self- limiting beliefs are beliefs or assumptions you make about yourself that change how you interact with the world. These self-limiting beliefs can hold you back from making a goal that would keep you inspired and motivated. You'll find that you easily lose focus and feel defeated without inspiration and motivation.

So why not dream BIG????!!!! Your mind is a powerful thing and the more it's studied, the more we realize how big of an impact it has on your life. If you don't dream BIG you'll likely not achieve anything big. If you're dreaming big you'll stay motivated. You'll constantly desire to improve yourself, acquire new skills and push your limits. In the end, even if you don't achieve your big dream you'll achieve much more than you would've without a mindset that dreams big dreams.

Losing motivation is one of the biggest reasons people quit pursuing their goals. Another common reason is that they don't keep their "end-game" in mind and don't take time to think about what they truly want in life.  Have you taken the time to think about what you want your life to look like in five years?

Where will you live?
What will your job be?
Where will you go for vacation?
What will you do for fun?
What car will you drive?
Who will your friends be?
What will you look like?
How healthy will you be?

Imagining how you want your life to look in five years can really help set the tone of your goals for this year and even this month. Writing down what you need to achieve for life to look as you'd like it to in five years is a great way to reverse engineer your life, create goals and then action items to achieve those things. 

Give it a try and see what you come up with. What are your first steps towards your five year goals? 

Now we're in February and some of you have lost track of your goals or just given up on them because something got in your way. Sometimes though, we are getting in our own way- not by being lazy or because we are easily giving up but because we're being too ambitious. Yep, our goals may be too much for us to handle! And that's okay. Here's why-

I find many times that we (humans) are trying to be great at too many things at the same time which leaves us being mediocre (at best) in all areas. We attempt to juggle too many balls- or swords- to be successful at any of it so we end up dodging them all as they fall to the ground one by one. 

I encourage you to press pause on the juggling to sit and strategize. First, write down everything you want to accomplish this year (or maybe you've already done this) and then take on your top few priorities. Which goals can you effectively pursue at the same time? Maybe you need to get your biggest goal started before you can begin working on any of your other goals- even if they're small goals. 

Being successful at pursuing one of your goals will give you a sense of accomplishment and create momentum for you to keep going to pursue the remainder of your goals. 

We are about to enter June which is the halfway point of the year. So it's time to assess where you're at with the goals you made at the beginning of the year and possibly make new goals to reignite your fire or refocus your efforts. 

Have you been putting consistent effort towards your goals? If not, what are your obstacles to doing this. Strategize about how you can overcome each obstacle? 

If your goal was about forming a new habit, have you made that habit? If not, you need to decide to renew your efforts or move onto the next habit you need to change and revisit the one you haven't changed at a later date. 

Sometimes the reasons we don't reach our goals is because we don't truly care about the goal we've made. Maybe someone else really cares about you eating healthier foods or exercising more often but right now you care more about reducing your stress and getting sleep. Making goals you don't care about keeping are important for success!

Again, make sure your goals are SMART. Specific. Measurable. Achievable. Relevant. Time-bound. Make long-term goals and then several short-term goals that will help you achieve your long-term goals. 

I'd love to see what goals you've made for the second half of the year and what goals you've attained during the first half of the year. Send me an email at healthcoach@befitforpurpose.com to tell me about your goals!