Our current lifestyle of cell phones and social media is creating a lack of focus and attention. I used to curl up with a book for hours – but now? I find it hard to stay sitting and focused for more than a few pages. The urge to “multi-task” is overwhelming. Our culture is losing the ability to become immersed in a task and our kids can only stay focus for minutes. They have no experience of staying in the present moment, and older Americans are losing this ability as well. So get back in the present, quite the mind, meditate. I want to show you the difference in getting into the present with a process instead of chasing a goal.
Not that setting goals is a bad thing – it is an excellent thing. But in the US, we are so goal oriented, we are 100% focused on the end game and not at all right in the moment. Do we have the patience to even stay with the process that is going to move us closer to our goal?
I recently read “The Practicing Mind” by Thomas Sterner, and had the opportunity to spend 4 hours in seminar Tom. In this book, he demonstrates the idea of focusing on the process using competitive archery. For years our US archery team was losing to the Japanese. They were crushing it. It seems the approach to the entire process of archery was completely different for the Japanese. Our US archers were all about hitting the bulls eye – and that was the focus of their practice. But eastern thought is a very different thing. They did not focus on where the arrow was going. Instead their focus was on the art of drawing back the bow and releasing it. They were IN the process. It was the process that they worked on perfecting with no attachment at all on where the arrow went. That is what made them so good at this. Eventually we picked up on this and began working with our US athletes to develop this ability to focus completely on perfecting process and not on the end result. Have you seen Olympic divers standing beside the pool with their eyes closed, going through the process of their upcoming dive over and over. Practice. They are totally in the moment and in the process.
So what does all this mean for you? What on earth does this have to do with weight loss? EVERYTHING! We have a weight loss goal – maybe we even have learned to break it down into smaller goals so we are not overwhelmed or easily discouraged. Maybe you want to lose 50 lbs, 75 lbs, or 100 lbs. That larger goal is going to stay in your mind, even when you decide to shoot for the smaller goal of say 20 lbs. So you can hit 20 lbs, celebrate, and set the next small goal. But all the while we are pounding away, chipping away at the GOAL and we miss out entirely on the process. Weeks and months go by without our attention, without providing any emotional growth, without any joy – because we are just flogging ourselves towards the goal. The GOAL is supposed to be our reward, our joy. But we are working weeks to get it. The JOY is there all along, but we are missing it.
Getting into the process and practicing it is how we can better achieve our goals. First you need to fully plan and understand what your process is. This is your practice, like learning to play piano. At first it feels clumsy – like your fingers are in pain just trying to go where they need to be. But each stanza of music can get your 100% focus until your fingers start to feel a little more comfortable going to the needed keys. Eventually it becomes ingrained, second nature and that piece of the music just flows through you. So it will be with your practices you set up to resolve your weight issues. You can have your goal, but that is not the focus. First you have to get into the moment and into the practice.
This is just what we are going to do around weight loss. Discover your thoughts, your beliefs and current habits. Then begin new practices and ingrain new thoughts until they become second nature. We will not make the weight goal our focus. Instead, we are going to do the work and love the work, and hopefully love US as part of the process.
To encourage you to tackle the PROCESS, I’m on a mission to do 100 FREE transformations in mini-sessions in the next 60 days. At the end of each of the two months I will jump on my podcast and draw a name from that month’s sign ups to give away a $100 Amazon gift card. Whaaatttt? That’s right – I’m not only giving away free transformation, I’m giving away not one, but two $100 Amazon gift cards during those 60 days. Why am I doing this? Because I know not many people even know what a life coach does. I want to get it out there, what I do as a weight coach and what I do as a life coach.
We’ll get on a phone call together for 30 minutes where we can identify something that is currently causing you emotional pain – and we will resolve it right then, right on that call. I’ll also tell you about the programs I offer and if you would be a good fit to work with me. You will get one piece of actionable advice and get to experience what it is like to be coached by me. There’s no obligation, no hassle. So what are you waiting for? I’d love to talk to you. You can schedule a session with me just by clicking on the blue link button below. That’s it. That link will take you directly to my scheduling calendar. So go do it!
