Stop Wasting Your Life & Do Something (5 page)

The thing with personal development is that it is personal. I have always taken this to mean that it is up to me to develop myself. Nobody can do it for me, and nobody can do it for you. It would be great if we could program our brains as they do in the movie “The Matrix”. We’d plug ourselves into a computer, and upload new software, and hey presto, we’re developed!

Unfortunately, there’s a bit more work involved, but this is one of those “challenges” we spoke about earlier. To develop yourself takes work, takes time, takes effort, and may take some money as well.

It’s worth it however. To get from where you are to where you want to be, you will need to BECOME a new person. You will need to evolve, and become better at what you do. You will need to become wiser, and have better answers and better skills. You will need to become stronger, and able to cope with bigger challenges.

In order to grow and develop consistently, you will need to be consistent. If you only develop yourself every now and then, you can still grow, but it will be at a much slower pace. This is fine if that’s what you want, but why grow slowly if you can grow quickly?

Never underestimate the benefits of personal development, but don’t worry if you’re not too sure about
how
to develop yourself at the start of the process.

It’s ok to just have a general idea of what you want, and where you want to be, and then start moving towards it. When you’re climbing a mountain, and standing at the bottom, you may not be able to see the peak. That doesn’t matter. Take the first step, and then the second, and keep going. Pretty soon you’ll see the top of the mountain.

Self development is like this. You take a step, and then the second. Then you see a new path, and you move towards it. Then take another step, and then another, and then another. All of a sudden, you’re looking back on your old self, and wondering how you managed to survive as that old individual.

When I look back to what I was like when I was in my early twenties, I can’t believe I got through. It’s like going for a long run, and looking back. You can’t see where you started any more, but you know you did start somewhere back there, and you know you’ve gone through a lot to get to where you are now. This is a great feeling. A feeling of “I did it, and I’m still going strong!”

You can’t beat it for happiness!

Here are a few pointers for you to start your personal development journey:

Books – I’ve said a lot about books already, so I won’t go on here.

Audio books – learn as you drive, learn as you exercise, learn as you sit on the train or bus.

Courses – These could be night courses, weekend courses, online courses, correspondence courses, one off lectures at your local university, etc. Use them all. A lot of them may be free as well.

Online – Look at forums, blogs, webinars etc. There are lots of ways of learning today, so you should be able to find something that suits you.

Clubs – Books clubs, running clubs, sport clubs, singles clubs, debating clubs, mentoring clubs; there are all sorts of clubs and associations out there that can help you.

Gyms – There are lots of healthy people at gyms. There may be some people that you’d want to associate with there.

Associate with people you want to be like. Pick their brains. Borrow their ideas and philosophies.

Find a mentor – Who can you ask for some tips and some help? Who do you know that’s doing what you want to do? How can you get in touch with them? How can they help you or inspire you?

Section 2

Health

Chapter 13

Food Choices

100 years ago, people didn’t really have the knowledge of what was good food and what was bad food. There were no programs on TV to educate you, and there weren’t thousands of books written on healthy eating. There was no internet, and there were no iPhone apps to track your eating, track your calories, track your fat and exercise either.

Today, there is little excuse for not knowing what to eat. I don’t mean this in the sense of knowing in minute detail of what every food does and doesn’t do, but in the general sense of what is healthy and what is unhealthy.

Everyone knows that if you stuff your face with burgers, pizza, and junk food, you will get fat. You will also be at risk of heart disease and other illnesses. Everyone also knows that if you consume plenty of healthy fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, water, and vitamin supplements, you will be slimmer and healthier. This is common knowledge, and very obvious.

So why don’t people do what they know they should?

It comes down to habits, choices, programming, and convenience. Again, this is all down to how we think.

Let’s look at each of these one at a time.

Our Food Habits

Shopping

When we go shopping, do we always put into our trolley what is good for our bodies? I always look at people’s trolley’s when I’m in the supermarket, and most of the time, just looking at the contents of someone’s trolley will tell you what that person’s state of health is likely to be. If their trolley is filled with bottles of Coke, crisps (chips), cakes, biscuits (cookies), chocolate, sweets, pizza’s, and ready meals, what would you imagine this person to be like health wise?

If someone’s trolley is filled up with vegetables, fruit, salad, nuts, and organic juice, what would you imagine that person’s general state of health to be like?

When we shop, we mainly shop by habit. What we bought two hours ago, will probably be very much like what we bought two weeks ago. Our shopping habits don’t really change that much unless we make a conscious effort to change them.

How can you change your habits?

Decide what you are going to buy before you leave and write a list. Don’t deviate from the list. If you walk down the cookie aisle, check your list. If cookie’s aren’t on the list, don’t buy them!

Pre-prepare one simple question to ask yourself whenever you walk into a place to either eat or buy food. Here is the question:

“What is the healthiest thing I can put into my body in this place?”

If you ask this question then your brain will automatically find the right answer for you. If you walk into a restaurant and ask the question: “What is the healthiest thing I can put into my body in this place?”, will the answer be steak, cheesy fries, and beer? Nope!

You brain will give you the answers salad, vegetables, grains, water, juice etc. The next thing you have to do is listen to the answer and take action on it.

This is the difficult part. Asking the question is easy. Listening to the answer is easy. Taking action and actually doing it is far from easy and will take a lot of discipline and determination. The question is, will you do it?

Convenience

Another thing that makes us eat all the wrong foods is convenience. If you have a choice between a pizza in the freezer, and getting in your car, driving to the shop, and buying a healthy meal, or healthy ingredients, which one would 95% of people choose? Right, the pizza.

This is why it’s important to be prepared. If you don’t have pizza in the freezer, you can’t choose it. If you have healthy food in the fridge or freezer, it makes it MUCH easier to eat healthily.

Make it more convenient to eat healthily, than unhealthily and you will start to get healthier.

One thing I learned from Perry Marshall (a marketing guru), is that if you want something to succeed, CHANGE THE SYSTEM. The example he gave was that if he wanted to exercise more, rather than try to force himself to go running, or go to the gym, he’d change his system. He’d move his home office from the ground floor into the attic so that he would have to walk up and down the stairs 20 times per day. This way, the exercise becomes automatic. You don’t have to “Force” it.

You can do the same with your eating. Want to avoid the temptation of buying cakes, cookies, pies, pizza? Shop only online so you’re not surrounded by the smells and sights of all of those glorious foods that have been designed to tempt you. Alternatively, get someone else to do your shopping for you.

Think about ways you can change your system to make your healthy eating more automatic.

Programming

If you’ve been eating junk food, crisps, chips, fizzy drinks etc since you were a kid, it’s going to be pretty tough to change it overnight. However, there are two things you need to know.

One – You CAN change your conditioning

Two – You MUST change your conditioning to lead a healthier life

Your programming will fight your new healthy way of eating at the start. This is normal. It’s to be expected. But don’t let your programming beat you! YOU’RE in charge, not the program.

They say it takes between 20 and 30 days to change a habit or program, so give yourself a month. I’d start it at the beginning of a new month, so it’s easier to track and see your progress.

Create your new program. This means you’re going to have to set up new routines, and new habits. These could include.

Shopping online

Throwing away all of your ‘junk’ food so there’s no temptation

Writing shopping lists and sticking to them

Asking yourself the “What’s the most healthy thing…” question when you are out

Drinking water instead of soda or coffee

Keeping a food diary/journal so you can see exactly what you are eating and drinking. This one thing could change your life. For it to work though, you MUST complete it every time you eat or drink.

Avoiding your regular eating haunts

So to sum up this chapter then, if you want to change your eating habits, then you need to actually do it. Your eating habits won’t change unless you do. Will you do it? Are you committed?

Chapter 14

Exercise

Before I start this chapter, I strongly suggest that before you begin any training or exercise regimen, you get your doctor to check you out and tell you that it’s ok.

Ok, now I’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about exercise.

Exercise is one of those things that you either like or don’t like! I’m lucky, as I love it. I love the buzz, I love the challenge, I love the feeling of being physically fit and active. I also know however, that a lot of people DON’T like to exercise. This makes it ten times harder to actually do it.

So if you’re not an exercise lover, how do you do it?

Well my first suggestion would be to try and do something you enjoy. If that means dancing instead of lifting weights, then so be it. If it means skipping in the garden instead of running, then do it!

If you have to force yourself to exercise, you should try and make it as much fun as you can. Have a friend that wants to get fit as well? Can you train together? Can you challenge each other?

This year, I decided that I was going to set myself some fitness and activity targets. I told a couple of my friends, and they bet me that they would beat me in how many miles I run this year, and how many push-ups and sit-ups I do this year. I LOVED this as it made me so determined to beat them (I am way ahead and it’s only the 1
week of Feb) and I’ve done double what I would have done just to make sure I win the bet.

Can you compete with a friend or family member? Can you make it competitive?

How else can you get some motivation?

Here are a few tips:

Get yourself a personal trainer. These cost a few pounds/dollars, but are well worth the investment.

Join a fitness club where you can meet like-minded individuals.

Make a public declaration. Why not start a YouTube fitness/fat loss diary with daily/weekly uploads of your progress. You can make it into a money-spinner as well.

Make outrageous bets with your friends/colleagues. Have a forfeit if you don’t do your exercises.

Keep a reminder in your smart phone to go off every day at a certain time to remind you that you have to do it!

Get yourself a heart-rate monitor and keep a spreadsheet of all of your workouts, runs, how many calories you’ve burned off etc. It’s very motivational to see the numbers come up through the course of your workout plan.

Create a folder of photo’s of your weight loss progress. Take a daily photo and compare them one week/month apart. You’ll see a big difference if you keep it up.

No Excuses

There are no excuses to NOT exercise. It’s so easy to do. You could get on the floor right now and have a go at some push-ups. How long does it take to get to the floor (provided you’re a fit and healthy individual)? About 1 second. How long does it take to do 20 push-ups? About 20 seconds. So if it takes you 21 seconds out of your 24 hour day, can anyone do this?

The problem with things that are easy to do, is that they are also easy NOT to do (got that concept from Jim Rohn). It’s easy to do the push-ups, but it’s even easier not to do them. Again, it comes down to choices, and self-discipline.

If you’ve told everyone that you’re going to get fit, you’ve started a photo journal of your progress, and you’ve put a reminder in your phone/calendar to do it every day, and you’re STILL not doing it, then what’s stopping you? It’s your mind……..