When people learn that I do “crossfit-like” workouts outdoors at 6:30am, they often tell me they “could never do that!” I used to believe that. And when I went to a reception recently and refused the desserts, a woman standing near me said, “You have such restraint! How do you do it?” I laughed and said, “It’s not restraint, I’ve just trained myself….I’m like a trained dog!” We both chuckled, and on my drive home, I thought about how I came to be this person. After all, I was the overweight night owl sugar addict who fantasized about how perfect my life would be, if only I was thin! Then I failed on every diet I tried and gave up on exercising because it all felt like drudgery. Luckily, I never lost my desire.
Eventually, I shifted my whole focus to studying how people actually reach goals. I learned that successful people “act as if” they’ve already achieved their goal. That’s when everything began to change. It reminds me of the Nike tag line: “Just Do It!” I had no magic formula. I simply had a strong desire to never again be overweight and unhappy. I began to “act as if” I was thin, happy, and physically fit. I decided that since I just like to eat, I was going to find foods that were good for me AND tasted good. I took exercise out of the “recreation” category and put it in the “hygiene” category. (In other words, it doesn’t have to be fun! Or, as my former dentist used to say, “only floss the teeth you want to keep!”) I looked at my schedule and decided that to guarantee myself time to exercise, I’d have to do it early in the morning. Through sheer repetition, I began to see changes. And gradually, I became the person I was pretending to be! And so can you. JUST DO IT!