Do you have a minute to dedicate to your goals?
How about half a minute?
I'm not going to tell you to give up soda or do lunges in your living room for 30-seconds - not today, anyway. ;-) Today, I want you to take a quick inventory of your self-talk. More specifically, I want you to hone in on negative self-talk.
So many times every single day I hear the following from women:
"I am lazy."
"I am out of shape."
"I can't…"
"It's too hard."
"I've never been able to…."
This negative self-talk does 2 things:
1) It makes your brain UNHAPPY, sending it on the hunt to find comfort as soon as possible. For most people I know, food and/or alcohol are quick fixes here. Comfort is a negative sum game. Meaning, your brain WILL get the comfort from somewhere if you've put yourself under attack.
2) It forces you to identify as the person you are feeling like you are. If you think it's too hard, it WILL feel too hard. If you think you're out of shape, you will collect plenty of evidence to prove you are "out of shape". From this place, are you making decisions and taking actions that will propel you forward towards your goals?
Nope.
Here's the 30-second trick…every time you catch yourself thinking or saying out loud something negative about you, your body, or your health, I want you to pause and replace that thought with something that's positive (or at least neutral).
This is what that looks like:
"Tara, you're so lazy! You've been sitting on the couch after work every single night this week."
Pause. Take a breath. Then say, "It's ok that you've sat on the couch because maybe you needed the rest. Now you can get up and go for the walk." (neutral)
OR...
"You're not lazy! Remember that time when you worked full-time and went to school full-time when 9 months pregnant?!" (positive)
It will feel really awkward at first. Then you might start to feel like you want to beat yourself up for the negative self-talk in the first place, but don't! Simply replacing the old thought by telling yourself the new thought right after will start to help you think differently.
When you think differently, you won't be self-sabotaging as often (hello full-pint ice cream Netflix nights!) and you'll be in a better state to gain momentum.
Change your brain, change your life! So, whaddya say?! Are you in?