Negative Thoughts ~ You’re Thinking About It All Wrong
Negative Thoughts ~ You’re Thinking About It All Wrong
By Michael Harland
Today’s blog was inspired as I was sitting down checking people into one of our orientations. When we have orientation, we have everyone fill out a questionnaire. In this questionnaire, if you haven’t filled one out before, it has a bunch of questions regarding health history, liability information, general information, and some goal specific questions asking how we can make the biggest impact in someone’s life. There are a few very straight-forward questions relating to a person’s goals. We have to know this information in order to actually accomplish the things people come here for.
Now, as positive as I would want this blog to be, it’s actually about how negative we are about ourselves. In a perfect world, we would get the person that’s already in great shape, super excited to start, and ready to do what it takes to become better. The reality is, however, that most of our new trial members are a little older, a little scared, and not their best self. They have self-doubt, body image issues, and are entering a program of the fittest people on the planet (that’s the thought process, not the reality).
We start telling ourselves we can’t do it, it’s going to be too hard, I’m going to make a fool of myself, and many other negative phrases. Because of these thoughts, we start talking ourselves out of anything before we even begin. We focus on goals that are 3, 6, 12 months or more away from us and can’t actually picture success.
Well, I’m here to tell you that you’re thinking about it all wrong. For the person attending orientation with us, you’ve already had your first success. What should you focus on next? Your first workout or second success. That’s all. Nothing matters beyond that point. Your 12-month goal is impossible without the small goals along the way.
What you should also be doing is celebrating those victories. Tell your significant others or kids or friends or just stare in the mirror and think “I did it!”. You should be proud of yourself for every small victory.
Now, once we start celebrating those victories and finding happiness in what we’re doing, our negative thoughts will soon be replaced with more positive ones. This will create more excitement, which will lead to more accomplishments, which will lead to your goals in 3, 6, or 12 months from now.
