Celebrate Your Inner Super Hero Today

Stop dwelling on all of the things that 'could' be better! Seriously, this is NOT helping you.

I want you to answer a question. Take a quick moment and think about some of the things you say to yourself. When you think about your life, what kind of inner monologue do you use? What are the words that come to mind when you contemplate where you are and where you're going?

One more question, and it's the big one. Is your self-talk primarily positive or negative?

Negative Thinking Can Easily Invade Our Minds When We're Trying To Make Changes

If you're like a lot of people, you frequently focus on the things that 'could be better'. Also, if you are a current client, you are most likely on a weight loss journey and at least one of those 'could be better' areas is always present each and every day.

It can be very easy to focus on the fact that maybe you could have put a little more effort into your exercise routine yesterday, or maybe you could have done without that second serving, or maybe if you had planned a little better that your week would have ended with a larger number in the 'lost' column.

Constantly Thinking About What Could Be Better Is Counter Productive

As odd as it may sound, constantly dwelling on the 'could be betters' will not help you to fix them any faster. You and I only have so much capacity for change in our lives at any given moment. Sure, we might be able to see a dozen areas to improve, but if we try to tackle them all at once, we'll inevitably get to that point of being overwhelmed at the impossibility and simply quit.

Even more, when we frequently think about things we could have done better, we're subconsciously telling ourselves that we didn't do our best. ...and since being and doing our best is often our goal, we are also inadvertently telling ourselves that we've failed.

By constantly telling ourselves that we've failed, we begin to believe and adopt those ideas. We embrace the concept and belief system that we are failures and begin walking down a path that says we're never going to be good enough, we'll never get it right, and there's no use in trying because (as we've been telling ourselves) 'we always fail'. This thought process has the very likely potential of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Aim for 80% Positive

A good rule of thumb to aim for is to spend 80% of your time and energy focusing on the things that you're doing right. And think about it for a second, you are doing a lot of things right.

Simply reading this article is something that you took the time to do today that has the potential to improve your quality of life. Even if your floundering through an attempt to lose weight, you're still accomplishing more than you would be if you didn't care at all.

Are you further along than you were this time last year? Regardless of how fast you're going, are you moving in the right direction? Are these changes having a positive effect on your family and relationships?

I'm pretty sure that if you take the time to think about it, there's a lot that you could celebrate right now about who you are and what you're doing right! Sure there are some things that could be better, but we're going to limit the amount of time and energy we focus on those things to about 20%. Doing so keeps them manageable and attainable.

Thinking less about the things that could be better might be the single most effective way to change those things! Just like the negative self-speak has the potential to cause you to live up to your own expectations, so does the positive self-speak. Celebrating the conqueror that you are has very real and practical results on how you approach life. Think about that!!!

Focusing on What is Right is also Truly Christian Approach

If all of that evidence wasn't enough, I'll leave you with this to wrap things up. God admonishes us in the Word to not focus on things that are wrong. Don't constantly focus on what's wrong. Not in ourselves, not in others, not in our churches, not in our communities, not anywhere! We are admonished to let our minds be dominated by the good.

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Philippians 4:8

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* Individual results may vary.