Just do it !! Thinking Versus Doing...

This morning I received an email from one of my clients that reignited a train of thought I had last night that has been bugging me.

This particular client wholeheartedly admits she is an overthinker and tends to analyse every slip up or set back to the enth degree and she is not alone; many women do the same thing. The thing is this over-thinking is holding her back and again she is not alone.

Last night I was watching the Biggest Looser UK (it's research ok!) and one of the guys was crying about WHY he was overweight. For him it came back to some story about when he was 8 years old; he was crying, feeling sorry for himself and blamed this incident on why he was now a good 60 or 70kg overweight. He latched on to this new found story like it was a life bouy.

I was thinking to myself "Interesting but how will that help?"

Great for him because he thinks he has found his reason for being obese and in his mind it takes the blame away from himself for shoving in vast amounts of food for a very long time and not moving very much!

In the end though what does it achieve?

A big fat zero.

Finding the meaning has no value for me because it doesn't change the outcome and I have a hard time convincing myself that this guy is obese because of a lone incident at a dinner table some 20 years earlier - the fact he only just remembered it also rang some bells for me.

We want an excuse and any old excuse will do because it lessens our responsibility but an excuse does nothing about getting you where you want to go, in fact I would go as far as to say it holds you back because you now have this valid reason for your plight.

Anyway enough of that I think by now you get where I stand on that :)

As a life coach two of our fundamental principles are that we focus on we want (not on what has happened or why or what we don't want) and that behavior brings about change (as opposed to thinking things to death).

This is particularly relevant when we talk about weight loss; you can sit and think about the how's and why's till the cows come home but it will not change your outcome.

But the opposite is true when we change the behavior.

When we behave (do) in a way that helps us move towards our goals change occurs on two fronts.

Physically we begin to see a change in our bodies and the chemicals produced during exercise raise our mood and set us in a more positive mindset which is our second change.

The very act of doing creates the change you want in a far more powerful way of finding a reason for your situation and pondering it anyday.

Ever heard the term "Fake it till you make it" ?

I am a huge fan of that when it comes to achieving health, fitness or weight loss goals.

Behave like a thin / fit / healthy person and in time this is exactly what you will become.

Behaving your way to success is the coaching way and it works because everything other than the focus on doing and achieving falls away.

The wanting to know why or how falls away and if you do think of it later it is more of a "Oh yeah now I get why I thought of food that way" rather than " This is what happened and I blame this for my situation".

The information becomes interesting rather than an excuse you can use to keep you stuck.

Think of who you want to be and how you want to look and list 5 behaviors you know will get you there and start living them because I promise this is the shortcut to success you have been looking for.