Hi guys! Welcome to episode 352 of the Wildly successful lifestyle podcast! Thanks for hanging out with me.
I heard a Jim Rohn video on YouTube this week where he said You don’t get in life what you want, you get in life what you are.
I had to really think about that statement because it sounded a little off to me but once you think about it a minute it’s totally true. I may WANT to be healthy but if I consistently eat foods that are unhealthy, then I am going to be unhealthy.
I may want to be super fit but if I never exercise I’m not going to be super fit.
I may WANT to be financially secure but if I don’t plan for the future and save for the future, I will not be financially secure.
And we have good intentions. We will tell ourselves this is the year I get healthy. Or this is the year I’m going to get my spending under control. Or whatever it is you want. But then we turn around and do the opposite.
We make life hard because we let ourselves down every time we turn around. We say things like…
I’m going to the gym tomorrow. And you don’t go
I’m only drinking two days this week and you drink 5 days.
Im going to start saving 10% of my income for my future but you never end up doing it.
These may seem subtle but it’s death by a thousand cuts all those little lies we tell ourselves add up. What you tell yourself matters. What you say to yourself MATTERS. The promises you make to yourself matter as much as a promise you make to someone else. Honestly it’s better to be honest with yourself than say something you know you don’t mean. I used to say Im not going to eat one bite of sugar at this party or Im eating nothing tonight because I ate so bad this morning. At the time I felt like it was true but when it came time and I was at the party or it was dinner time and I was hungry, I disregarded what I had said earlier and ate anyway or ate the sugar and more of it than I probably would have. I acted like it was no big deal but I realized that I was lying to myself and part of the reason was because I was being unreasonable. I know now if Im going to trust myself, I have to be reasonable Because If I make a promise to myself, Im gonna keep it. No use in being miserable while I do it.
My husband Eric and I were back home visiting my big sister and my parents. We had brought them shortbread cookies and tea from London. London shortbread cookies are really yummy in case you haven’t had them. So I’ve told myself I’m back on my clean eating now that we are back from vacation. My eating was off from the norm as you can expect. So I’m getting myself back on track. But for some reason going home is a trigger for me to eat poorly. I’m sure some Psychologist could explain it but I know that’s a danger zone for me for whatever reason. And now I’ve even brought some of the ammunition in the form of two boxes of shortbread cookies. My mom is also a very very good cook. I’m being realistic here so I promise myself I will allow myself one cookie or one treat per day. Now, I want to eat all the things but because I trust myself and I made that promise to myself, that kept me from totally derailing. I did still eat a few things off my normal protocol but nothing out of control and a big part of that is I was realistic in my expectations and I don’t make promises to myself that I know I won’t keep, when I make a promise Im keeping it and look there will still be times where you have to make a deal with yourself and you will just like you would with a friend if you made a promise where something comes up. We are human. Getting what we want in life means we have to do the things that lead us in the direction of what we want.
Wanting something to turn out differently but not making the needed changes for that to happen is like wanting to make chocolate chip Cookies by using a carrot cake recipe. You aren’t going to get chocolate chip cookies, you’re gonna get carrot cake. That’s so easy for us to understand but when it comes to our life, we act like we are surprised that we put on 10 lbs in a year but we aren’t monitoring what we eat. Or we act like we are surprised that we don’t have a good relationship when we aren’t putting in the time and effort it takes to have that.
Who you are right now may not be who you want to be in the future but what you’ve been doing up to now is how you got there. So if you want something to change, it isn’t going to happen by accident.
Health and Fitness doesn’t happen by accident.
Really great relationships don’t happen by accident.
Financial security doesn’t happen by accident.
We aren’t going to wake up one day and be amazed that we are so healthy or be amazed that all of a sudden the spark is back with our partner…that takes work. It takes intentionality. And it takes consistent progress, not perfection.
So maybe you need to ask yourself and this can be in whatever area of your life that matters right now…but ask yourself “Am I getting what I want?” If the answer is no, then ask yourself….What is it that I need to do to get it? The interesting thing about this. Is if you sit with that question for a bit, you innately know the answer. You can answer it, it’s just are you willing to do what it takes? Because it isn’t going to happen by accident, if that were the case you’d already have it.
My challenge to you this week is to ask yourself if you keep heading in the exact direction you’re heading now, will you get what you want? If you don’t like the answer…speak to the person in charge, which just happens to be you. Share this with 3 people who deserve to get what they want. I love you guys, I’ll talk to you in a few days.
