Feeling stuck? Did you set a SMART goal and reach a plateau? Maybe you’re like me and you started out to lose weight, become more flexible, and increase your physical strength. My goal is to be fit and active and well, I want to hit the middle of my BMI.
I did amazing when I first started out. Lost 20 pounds in the first 6 months. I worked out daily, joined a Shred10 group and began modifying my diet and limiting my portions. I had a foundation of nutrition every day and began drinking the recommended 8 glasses of water a day.
Then I gained five pounds. Then five more. So now up ten pounds I am like, wait a minute. What has changed?
I hit a plateau about 8 pounds ago and just couldn’t seem to shred another pound. Then I began to treat myself to weekend binges until the weekend habits slipped into mid week. Well, you get the picture. All the great habits that helped me lose my first 20 pounds were deteriorating.
I had changed a few outward habits but I hadn’t changed my brain. In the book, “Train Your Brain,” Dana Wilde explains how our unconscious mind makes most of our decisions throughout the day. We can consciously make some changes but when we stop making that a focus and priority our unconscious takes over.
So in order to make lasting changes, we must change our unconscious thoughts so that our brain will work for us even we aren’t thinking about it.
One of the tools that Dana teaches and many leaders in neuroscience proport is the power of mantras. A mantra is a statement you repeat often. Writing a mantra down and putting it where you can read it several times a day is a powerful tool to train your unconscious mind to begin making automatic choices to affirm your mantra. I did a little experiment with this and I have to say it really does work. It’s made a powerful impact in many areas of my life.
My first mantra, “I am fit and active,” started helping me make better choices when I made conscious choices about what to eat or whether I would take the dog on a walk or take a nap. Repeating the mantra or seeing the statement, “I am fit and active” on a note by the fridge helped me choose a healthy, fresh handful of grapes over a slice of cheesecake. Looking between my dog napping and my pillow laying on my bed, I heard that little voice in my head, “I am fit and active.” I picked up his leash and we walked our daily mile.
To give your mantra a powerful punch, Dana suggests adding a positive “because” statement to it. “I am fit and active because…..” This adds a purpose to your statement. Simon Sinek teaches that starting with your why is more inspiring, it gives you a reason to act. It adds power to your mantra by letting your conscious and unconscious thoughts come into agreement with each other.
“I am fit and active because I live life to the fullest.”
Wow, now not only am I making conscious decisions to be fit and active but my unconscious mind is letting my brain create a life to the fullest while I am busy thinking about other things. Eventually, both my conscious thoughts and my unconscious thoughts will be proactive in helping me create a fit and active life to the fullest.
Here’s your homework:
Decide exactly what it is that you want, write a mantra that speaks to you as if you already have it (positive language) and then add your why to it. I _______________ because _____________. Now write that down and post it around your house. Repeat it several times a day until your conscious and unconscious mind agree to it.