OnePhatMan

Everyone has the ability to achieve great things. You can create any reality you set your mind to. There’s a problem, though.

We get in our own way because we limit ourselves with what we choose to believe.

Think about that for a second. How are you letting your thoughts limit you?

Do you believe that you’re so fat and out of shape you shouldn’t even bother trying? I once did. Consider this, though: you’re probably capable of far more than you tell yourself you are. It’s easy to listen to that inner voice, to its insidious whisper that tells you that’s impossible, or give it up, tubby, you’ll never get there, but you know what? It’s only a voice, nothing more. Letting it control you or affect you in any way is simply a choice. The next time he—or she—pipes up with another putdown, either ignore it or tell it to shut the hell up.

Tell it enough times, and it will.

Do you believe that since you have some medical condition you might as well give up now? I hear you, and I know exactly what you mean. Right now, it would be easy for me to say, my shoulder’s a little achy today, I think I’ll skip the workout, or (more recently) my knee’s been hurting every night, I should make today a rest day. The problem with those is that they’re both bogus. I already know that no matter what I do, they’re both going to hurt, my shoulder because of the surgery in August and my knee for as-yet undetermined reasons.

So I don’t skip the workouts.

What about your friends? Do they keep you from becoming what you know you can become, because they limit you with their own thoughts? Been there, done that. Know what a good friend of mine did when I told him five years ago that I was going to drop almost half of my body weight without a diet, or pills, or surgery?

He laughed and told me I wouldn’t be able to do it. Not because he was cruel (or at least, that’s what I tell myself), but because he’d seen me do it again and again, trying this fad and that fad, always ending up bigger in the end than I was when I started. Looking back with the eye of experience, I understand completely why he laughed at me, though understanding it doesn’t make it right.

You don’t have to take any of it—the inner voice, the excuses, or the friends who are bringing you down. With a simple choice, you can change your life, exploding out of the shell you’ve let trap you and getting a taste of what real life is all about. You simply have to decide to not settle for anything less than your very best. Refuse to give in to the naysayers, refuse to keep living at the same low standards, and refuse to ever give up on yourself. You’re better than that, and you’re worth more than that.

A lot more.

You’re worth every bit of effort. Open up your mind and release the limiting thoughts, and you will soar.

There are a few new recipes up, and a new page of books on fitness that I think stand out above the rest.

Remember: Your life is as good or as bad as you choose to believe it is. Choose a good one, because it’s the only one you get.

motivation, weight+loss, health+and+wellness, fitness