My aunt-in-law sent my husband, an aspiring entrepreneur, this book for Christmas, in the hopes it would help him align his business goals with his mind. I read it on Sunday, literally in 1 hour, and am now convinced everyone working on losing weight should read it.

It's called The Instant Millionaire by Mark Fisher. It deals a lot with convincing yourself of your goals. Setting plans, developing mantras and creating a "healthy obsession" with gaining wealth. But, as I read it, I realized...this applies to weight loss, too!

The crux of it is create specific goals, say daily mantras (50 to 100 times per day is suggested at certain points!) and keep your goal your focus. As you become acclimated to creating your can-do attitude, your goal will seem easier and easier.

I thought this would be important for all of us. In my experience, personal and from what I've seen, we get hyped up, create a goal with our ticker, and then begin to mentally distance ourselves when it seems "too hard" - even though it's a perfectly reasonable and attainable goal.

So, for myself, I've been pushing this to the forefront of my sub-conscious. Each time I see something that makes me want to go OP, the back of my mind jumps in and says, "But our goal! Stay away!" I also took the opportunity that presented itself today - as I drove by a new strip mall, I saw that a small gym had just opened. No enrollment fee, open 24/7 and $35 per month. I seized my chance, and now I have to make it work.

Obviously I can't do the book any justice here...but really, just read it! It was so helpful and informative in such a small space.

I can sort of relate to this although I have not read the book.

Last year I started a small business and every morning I asked myself "what can I do today to make my company succeed?" And believe me there were some mornings that I didn't even want to go up to the office and there were some mornings where it was so unbelievably overwhelming because I was responsible for everything!!

Lately I've been thinking that I SHOULD be doing the same thing with my weight loss!! Specific actions, focus, commitment...especially when I don't feel like it. No one else is responsible. I mean, I am responsible for my weight loss. It's my journey. Shouldn't I give myself the same chance as I gave my small company.

So that's what I'm doing!

Thanks for mentioning the book!

I *AM* going to win the lottery! I *AM* going to win the lottery! I *AM* going to win the lottery!

Sounds good!! Thanks for the heads up!

Glory87

I get your point, but I think the idea is just that positive self-talk has a more helpful effect than negative self-talk.

Jay

Thank you for the tip, Altari! And for the reminder of the importance of setting goals.

I've been listening to an audio book from the library called, "Eat That Frog!" by Brian Tracy. It sounds similar to the one you recommend.

"There's an old saying: if you eat a live frog the first thing each morning, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that it's probably the worst thing you'll do all day. Using "eat that frog" as a metaphor for tackling the most challenging task of your day - the one you are most likely to procrastinate on, but also the one that might have the greatest positive impact on your life - Eat That Frog shows you how to zero in on these critical tasks and organize your day."
He also says, "If you have to eat two frogs, eat the biggest one first."

Jay

I run a small business and have been burnt out lately, I need a daily mantra to help me stay focused on my goals and get my sales up. Most of us in business do business plans every Dec/Jan, I just did mine, last year I didn't do very good, it's hard to stay motivated. It's hard to stay motivated when dieting/exercising to lose weight too. I seem to go in spurts, like in my business. Perhaps Nike put it best "just do it!" if you want to or not... There's a lot to be said for mind set. I've been listening to tapes lately learning about how the mind works - what we think, and especially the negative... I've been learning to thought stop, especially the negative thoughts, and until I tracked them I didn't realize how bad I really was. Negativity doesn't help, in sales or weight loss. I'm mad at myself right now for gaining back some of the weight I lost, thus I'm back to doing a business plan for my body (yes there's a book titled this too), tracking daily my efforts, counting calories and I'm going to "just do it" every single day.