Give Yourself Permission To Win!

When will you give yourself permission to win? Now, I ask this because many of us unfortunately will often give ourselves permission to stop, even though we, as I always say, we've got our goals and our dreams or our aims and so on. But one of the reasons that we often don't follow through is because before we even begin, we've given ourselves an opportunity to stop. It's like, oh, do this thing, and if it doesn't really work out, then not such a big deal. Or it's a case of, oh well, you know, I tried, and we kind of dabble in certain things. I dabbled in a new diet, I dabbled in a new exercise plan, and so on. Or we will see a new diet, hear that it's good, or see a friend that's gotten awesome results with it or something like that. And then what we will do is we will try to do the same thing, the same diet or the same exercise plan. But what we do is, oh well, I'll just change a few little bits that don't really work for me, that I don't like, and see if I still get results. Now, quite often we will do that because it gives us an escape route. It's like, oh, well, I tried it, it didn't work. So therefore, obviously that particular diet or program doesn't work for me. It wasn't good enough for the result I wanted. Now, whilst in rare occasions that may be the case, in reality, most diets will help you lose weight. Most exercise plans will help you lose weight and to maybe get fitter and leaner and so on. So from that perspective, most diets work, most exercise plans work. So what's the problem? It must be the fact that we're not working the diet or the program properly ourselves. So instead, we've taken this thing that may work and then we've done something to it, either not implemented fully or tried to change it in some way, which then prevented us from getting the result. Now, of course, deep down, we do want the result, but sometimes we don't want the lifestyle change that comes with having that result. We don't want the changes in our daily routine. We don't necessarily want the changes in our identity. We don't want the changes it's going to mean for us and our partner, or for me with my relationship with my friends and so on, and my social life and things like that. We don't want the things that we perceive are going to be negative to become a reality in our life, and therefore we take away our permission to win and instead create an opportunity for us to continue losing. Now I say continue losing because there are very few people who are overweight, tired, out of shape, weak, or in pain that feel like they're winning. You know, you might have certain areas of life where you're relatively successful. Perhaps your business is going well, there's money coming in, so that's awesome. You can keep a roof over your head and put food on the table. But when it's being done and produced, stuck inside a vessel that you're not happy with, it's never going to fully fulfill you. It will serve a need, but it won't serve all needs. So unfortunately, what we need to do is of course go, okay, well, at some point I need to allow myself to win this game. I'm struggling with this thing. I'm trying to get to a particular outcome, whether putting in effort or not. In my mind, I know I want it. So what is it I need to do? What is the shift I need to make within myself that will allow me to actually play this game from a perspective or a point of view where I want to win and not where I want to leave an opportunity open for me to continue losing? Why do I keep allowing myself and giving myself these opportunities to stop when stopping doesn't give me the outcome that I actually want? Now, of course, it's true that it's easier, as in easier to stop, like the lifestyle that you currently have, although not necessarily ideal, you may be not fully happy with it and so on, but it's comfortable in the respect that you are familiar with it. So there is a discomfort in the respect, well, I don't like this particular body and I want to change it, or there may be other areas of your life that you want to change too. But the catch is there's a familiarity that provides a comfort. It's a, what we call a familiar discomfort. And we would prefer to keep that familiar discomfort because in the moment that is more comfortable to us than the unknown, unfamiliar comfort that we would experience on the other side of getting results because we know there's going to be work required. And then obviously there's also a part of us that knows that some of the things that we maybe benefit from or enjoy now, which may be our favorite treats, sweets, snacks, this and that, certain things that we're doing are probably going to have to stop or be sacrificed. Now, I don't personally see them as sacrifices, and I would recommend that you have the same reframe rather than see the, the, the opportunity for these things to be removed from your life as a sacrifice. Instead, what we would say is, oh, well, it's an investment. So some people think, oh, well, if I have to remove alcohol, that's a sacrifice. If I have to remove my favorite treats, sweets and snacks, well, that's a sacrifice. If I now have to start putting in 30 to 60 minutes of exercise, 3 to 5 times a week, that's a sacrifice. But maybe it's not. Maybe it's not actually a sacrifice, and it's the investment required for you to get the profit that you, you desire in your body on the other side. Let's face it, in business, if we want more, often that's going to come as a result of an investment. We're going to either have to invest time or money, are the two main currencies that we would have to invest in business. Guess what? It's no different in our body. It's the exact same principle. So if I want new results for me, I will probably have to invest some money at some point in better food, maybe in a gym membership, maybe in a coach and so on. And I will probably have to invest— in fact, you will definitely have to invest some time. Now, some of you may be investing time into things that aren't serving you already. So what we can do, of course, is just take that time away from those things we know aren't serving us. And instead give it to— give it back to ourselves for the things that we know will serve us. Okay, well, now I can take 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes to go to the gym and actually get myself in shape. Or if I don't like going to the gym, maybe I could partake in a program that can be done at home and so on. But the catch is we have to have these mindset reframes so that we can put ourselves in the game to win it and not with the option to lose. That doesn't mean we have to play perfect every single day. It doesn't mean that we can't make mistakes or get sidetracked or have a day off and so on. But it means our long-term focus is on winning and not leaving the door open with opportunities for— sorry, with opportunities for ourselves to lose. Because if we continue to allow ourselves to lose, well, guess what? We continue to maintain the thing that we don't want. So if you're fed up of losing, one of the things I recommend you do is maybe head on over to my website, strongerthanlife.com. We've got a bunch of resources on there. They're all free, pretty much. So you can, you can get involved in those. All you have to do is drop your name and email and they will get sent straight over to you. Or of course, you can reach out to me in the DMs, kind of let me know where you're at, what you're struggling with, and I can recommend specific resources to you that will help you start moving forward and help you start getting your mind in the right place so that you can stop playing this game from the perspective of, I need to allow myself an opportunity to escape, and then instead we play the game all out and give yourself the opportunity to win. As always, people, I appreciate your time, and I thank you for watching, and I look forward to seeing you all in my next video. Take it easy.