by Chris McGinty (According To Whim .com)
This is one way to diet…
Or you can do the goal writing diet…
This all started with Brian Tracy, or Lord Brian Tracy as I like to call him. I listened to a program of his called “Million Dollar Habits.” One thing he discussed in this program was writing your goals in the present tense in a notebook each day, and by present tense he means like it already is a reality. Apparently, lying to yourself is the best way to achieve goals. So in 2006, I tried this for a while, and I don’t know. I guess it was helpful, but it didn’t seem to be some magic bullet that gave me success, happiness, riches, and managed to take out JFK.
Flash forward to 2010, and Nathan hands me “Goals!” by Lord Brian Tracy. It’s a three disc program, and the other was two. Surely there would be more useful information, or he would talk much slower. Sure enough when I get to the part about writing your goals each day he says something about not just copying your list from yesterday, but writing your goals as your brain sees it today. Maybe I just misunderstood the last time, but now I felt obligated to give it a try this “new” way. No more radio edit goal writing for me.
So I tried it for a week or two. Some of the goals slipped right off the list, as in pretty much anything on our ten weeks goals list fell off. Ok, it wasn’t that bad. But writing in the present tense makes you write things down differently. Why write down “Finish Introduction,” when you can write, “I am a self-published book author.”? When you write sub-goals, you worry about the little things, like what book you’re going to finish and when. If you saw the SNL with Christian Slater, you know that the cover design is more important than the content anyway.
The goal, “I am financially self sufficient,” led me to finally lean into the idea of driving a taxi, even though I only wrote it for a week or two. I had one in there about finishing the Net Runner Virtual Expansion, and Nathan will tell you that I’m still riding the momentum wave on that one too. There was one though, and Nathan simply asked me, “Why?” when I told him about it.
“I weigh 170 pounds by October 3, 2010.”
So, why indeed. I think one motivation was the magic bullet. The idea here is that when you write it down each day that your brain thinks in that direction, and it provides you with the focus and resources you need (your brain, and apparently the universe). That’s where new age self help sometimes loses me. The idea that you attract things from “out there” that come to you and help you. But I can’t say it’s wrong, because it’s one of those immeasurables. If I managed to drop around 25 pounds over the course of the ten weeks then it would say something about the power of the goal writing. Now I don’t believe that it would happen by just writing it down. Taking action is one of the requisites. So I started eating more fruits and vegetables with my meals to keep myself from filling up on more fatty, caloric stuff. And the odd thing is that over the two weeks that I was writing this down, I lost 10 pounds. Then I stopped writing it down, and I started hovering at 185 (I started at around 195).
The second motivation is that I was about to break the 200 seal, and while I know that there are some of you out there who are trying to break the 200 seal coming from the other direction, and probably are rolling your eyes at me right now, I’m not trying to irritate you. Here’s the thing. I’ve gained about ten pounds every five years of my life since teenage years. 15 = 145. 20 = 155. 25 = 165. 30 = 175. 35 = 185. So first thing being that I jumped up 10 pounds extra against the trend. I shouldn’t have been hitting the 195 until about 40. And second, while I’m not all about the vanity, there is a point where it kicks in, and besides I like being able to squeeze through small openings if I need to. Call it a fetish.
I’m lucky. I was able to catch myself before I hit a point that I didn’t want to be, while some people hit that point long before they realize they don’t want to be there. I feel that I shouldn’t feel guilty that I’ve had a great metabolism supporting me all these years, and therefore, a natural inclination to not sitting still for too long. I feel that I should do what anyone else would do in my position, and adjust to what my body seems to think it should be doing without my say so.
This of course led to… no, not adjusting my lifestyle. It led to research. But I used the web browser on my phone, and I tend to pace when I use the phone.
In Part Two, I will deal with my research and my thoughts on what I read.