1. BREAK IT UP
Whatever your goals, whether it is losing weight, writing a book, or getting fit, the key is the same: break it up. A student facing five or more years of med school might think of the task ahead as daunting; how will she ever learn all that stuff! But how many people have done just that? The answer is simple: one day, one chapter, one step at a time.
When I first joined my local gym, I was overweight and totally unfit. I had never done any exercise harder that walking, and I set myself the task to start running. My instructor told me to set the machine so that I would run for 30 seconds, no more. 30 seconds doesn't seem like a lot, but when you're as unfit as I was, it feels like half an hour. So I tried it and yes, it was hard, but I did it, and the small sense of achievement stayed with me a lot longer. Soon I was running for a minute, then five, then ten, and after a while I started measuring my training in distance, not time.
Don't set yourself too hard a task to begin with. Success breeds success, so keep it small, and before long you'll be surprising yourself.
2. THE GLASS HALF FULL
If you encounter a setback, try not to think of it in negative terms. If you can see the positive in a situation, you can learn from it.
So if you didn't get that job you wanted, don't be down, think of the things you learned at the interview that might help you succeed next time.
If you're trying to lose weight, and have a disaster of a day, don't think: "well, I might as well give in". Instead, think of all the good days you've had, and how well you've already done. Everybody has a bad day, but you know what? There's always tomorrow. You can start again.
3. DON'T BE DEPRESSED
Everybody has bad days, days when they can't be bothered, or don't have any energy. The key is to turn bad days into good days. How? Be good to yourself. If you're feeling in a bad mood, put on your favourite music, treat yourself to an ice cream, take the dog for a walk, whatever you know will improve your mood. When you're feeling happy, you can achieve so much more than if you're grumpy and sad.
4. DON'T THINK!
If you're the sort of person who can talk yourself out of anything (I'm one!) the key is not to let yourself do it. I can find any excuse not to do the things I really need to. If I find myself thinking: I won't go to the gym today, instead I'll check out my friends on the internet I stop and start trying to name every state in the USA. Any distraction, TV, radio, even counting the roses on the wallpaper will do! If you don't think about it, you can't talk yourself out of it. And once you've done it, you'll feel a lot better for it, believe me!
4. NEVER SAY "I CAN'T"
We've all done it. We watch people running a marathon, doing a bungee jump, even more everyday things like learning to drive or going for a promotion at work. We think about it and say: "no. I can't do it." Well, my view is how do you know, until you try?
At the beginning of this article I told a story from the days when I couldn't run for a bus, yet now I regularly run five or six miles. If you had asked me back then if I would ever be able to run that far, I would probably have laughed at you. But now I'm doing it, and if I can do it, so can you.
We are all capable of far more than we think we are. So the next time you see that promotion advertised, why not give it a go? Think of it this way: if you try and fail, At least you'll have tried, and you might find your boss is impressed with your ambition and recommends you for another position. If you don't try, you won't get the job, and you might always wonder: 'what if?' And you might get the job!
It's not difficult to start thinking positively. You really have nothing to lose, and a lot to gain. It could even change your life!
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