Motivation and Goal Setting: Part 3

Now, here is the fun part, where the creativity will kick into high gear. I would like for you to wipe the dust off of that pile of magazines that are sitting in the corner of your living room. Start to dig through them, or if you have to, go to the store and find some that are in line with the topic of each of your goals. Flip through and find images, pictures, words or phrases that allow you to get lost in the vision of your goal. Take all of these and paste them in one place. You can either use a notebook, poster board, a sheet of paper, or whatever you feel will correctly portray these visions! This is where you can allow your creativity to come out and shine! Keep this handy as you will need to look at it 2-4 times per DAY!

You need to keep these goals in your mind, they need to become a part of you, a part of your life, and this collection of pictures and phrases will be your motivational vision book, poster, or page. Every time you look at it, visually imagine yourself as if you had already achieved this goal. You have been successful at following through and you have attained this goal. It is yours and you own it. Now is the time to act, so don’t put this step off. Put it at the top of your to do list! You won’t regret it… it is a very powerful tool in the process of achieving your goals.

There is no time to waste, your goals are waiting on you to achieve them!

Have fun with your crativity over the next couple of days and then return for the next step!


Sincerely,
















Alissa Nelms
TheFitCouple

Motivation and Goal Setting: Part 2

Next, I want you to write out some rewards. Yes, you read correctly! I want you to think of some constructive ways that you can reward yourself as you start to achieve these small goals. Talk about some motivation! This will not only help keep you focused and motivated, but it will allow you to work hard on attaining and ultimately achieving these goals. Think about smaller rewards for your smaller goals and larger rewards for your larger goals. This will keep you on track and focused on what is important.

As you think of the rewards be sure to make them constructive and not destructive. For example, if your goal is to lose 10 pounds by bikini season, your reward shouldn’t be a large hot fudge sundae covered in chocolate and caramel sauce. Instead, pick something along the lines of a new shirt or a mini vacation. Your rewards should support and provide positive reinforcements for what you are trying to accomplish.

The next step is to let your mind be free to dream, be creative (even if you are not creatively inclined), and let your mind soar as you begin to envision your goals vividly. They say that if you vividly envision your goals on a daily basis, your brain treats them as if they are real experiences. In fact, it is as if they have truly happened in real time.

What do your goals look like? What would be the perfect picture or way that you would display your goal? What would make them stay at the forefront of your mind at all times? It needs to be a vision that you can ingrain in your mind as a visual image, picture, or type of word that will trigger your mind to think of this goal as often as possible.

Go on, do this step now, don’t wait.

You should have these goals down and ready to go before I post the next step in a couple of days...It is your turn to take action, make it happen and don't get behind! :)

Sincerely,















Alissa Nelms

TheFitCouple.com

Motivation and Goal Setting - Part 1

What makes us do the things that we do? Why do we find the motivation to succeed in some things, yet we fail miserably in other things? This is such a valid question for our society today. If each of us really and truly put our minds to work and focused specifically on our goals, wouldn’t we all be a lot more successful in each area of our lives?

They say that the most successful people have very specific goals. They write their goals down, read these goals daily, attack them and ultimately achieve them. Knowing this, why don’t we all follow this type of goal setting? It sounds so easy and so attainable, so why don’t we all set our minds to this system and go after what we are all wanting in life…success? Is it because we are too lazy to do what it takes? Or are we too busy to sit down for a few minutes to prioritize and set goals for ourselves?

Wouldn’t this allow us to be more efficient in ALL that we do? Is this not motivation enough to kick ourselves into gear and take action by starting NOW? Today, I would like to discuss motivational tips that you can implement immediately to step out, take charge and achieve the goals that have been on your mind’s “to do” list for the past decade!

First off, I want you to take action immediately. Don’t put this step off another second. Go find a pad of paper and pen and begin to write down 5-10 goals. I don’t want you to hold back… I want you to dream! Let your mind roam… the sky is the limit!

Be specific: include numbers, dates, times, locations, etc. These cannot be specific enough. Then under each goal, I would like for you to write out 3 powerful reasons WHY you would like to achieve these goals and what these goals mean to YOU. You must make these powerful, emotional and motivational in order to get the full and desired effects from these statements.

Take action and write these out now before reading on.

Secondly, take each of one these goals individually and break them down into smaller, more attainable goals. This will not only allow you to become less overwhelmed with your goals, but it will also allow you to stay highly motivated as you start achieving these smaller goals.

Go on, do this step now, don’t wait.

You should have these goals down and ready to go before I post the next step in a couple of days...It is your turn to take action, don't get behind! :)

Sincerely,

Alissa Nelms

http://www.thefitcouple.com/

Mental Toughness and Goal Setting: Part 2

In my last blog article, I began the process of defining mental toughness and explaining how the goal achievement process is crucial to the actual development and creation of mental toughness. The next step in the process is:

Implementation. This is absolutely key to achieving mental toughness. Start by making a plan, be detailed, and be specific on what steps you will need to take in order to achieve these goals. Take a minute, RIGHT NOW, and write out a game plan on what you intend to do to make this all happen. If you don't know, don't be afraid to ask!

Ask friends, family, significant others or professionals on what they think will be the best way to achieve your goals, collaborate with them and come up with the best organizational chart as possible. You know what they say, two heads are better than one.

Now I need to mention one caveat, do not get hung up on mistakes whether they are big or small. This will be a process and you will not be perfect; we all make mistakes. The take home message here is don't let your mind creep into that "All or Nothing" mindset or even second guess yourself. Such negative thinking is NOT the mental toughness you are looking for.

If you mess up or become frustrated, be tough enough to admit it, learn from it and push forward even harder and even more intensely. This is the creation of true mental toughness. So, use it to your advantage… don't let it hinder your progress and get in the way of your ultimate goals.

Negative self-talk. This is huge in learning mental toughness and for achieving your goals. Our mind is very powerful, and more often than not, we allow the negative side of our mind to dominate our thoughts and, ultimately, our lives. Although negativity, or “brain trash”, as I like to call it, is hard to get rid of completely, it is very important to retrain our brains to replace the negative thoughts with positive ones.

I would suggest that every time you have a negative thought cross your mind, you IMMEDIATELY replace it with a positive one, one that is opposite of the negative thought that you just had. You will then repeat this positive thought at least five (5) times in order to retrain your mental thoughts into positive ones. Negative thoughts are like poison and you need to reverse the poison by ingesting the antidote or positive thoughts into your system.

Immediately halting and destroying negative thoughts are the key ingredients to goal achievement and the improvement of yourself as a human being, as well as the foundation for mental toughness. Negative thoughts are often tough to overcome, but if you can overcome these negative thoughts, you will have made incredible progress towards mental toughness.

Lastly, be a "difference" maker. Go out there and make a difference, in your life, as well as in others. This will not only make you feel absolutely wonderful about yourself, but it will also give you confidence and positivity in all that you say and do.

Now, go and take action, be a doer and make it happen. Don't put it off another second, minute, hour, day, week or even year. You owe it to yourself to become mentally tough and achieve those long awaited goals NOW...nothing is better than the present for taking action.

Sincerely,


Alissa Nelms

www.TheFitCouple.com

One of the best goal setting tools that I would strongly suggest is by a wonderful colleague and friend, Day Moy. He has developed a phenomenal goal setting program that is a complete 100 day blueprint for positive ACTION that'll lead to positive RESULTS! Jeremy and I have both used it and simply can’t recommend it strongly enough. You can find his program, called The Magic Hundred, by clicking here!

Mental Toughness & Goal Setting: Part 1

What is mental toughness and who defines it? Do we define it as individuals or is there a standard for this term? Is this just a sports term or can the average Joe/Sue use this term and apply it to their everyday life? I firmly believe that mental toughness applies to everyone in all facets of life. It can be applied to sports, performance, nutrition, weight loss, career, relationships, friendships, illnesses and sickness and many other areas of our everyday lives.

Someone very near and dear to me recently told me that they were impressed with my mental toughness, and they wanted to know how I learned and applied it. To my surprise, I really hadn't thought about it. After spending some time thinking, I realized that I literally grew up with it. As many of you know, my background led me to become a nationally-ranked competitive figure skater. I attribute my mental toughness to my skating, as well as my parents.

This is not to say that one needs a sport or competitive situation to learn this remarkable trait, but rather a willingness to push through tough situations and a desire to come out on the other side with flying colors. It is learning just how much you can truly endure mentally, physically and emotionally.

I believe that so many of us underestimate our peak potential in almost all areas of our lives. This not only hurts our self esteem, but it also hampers our success! Just think how much MORE you could achieve or succeed if you could increase your mental toughness by just 5%; you would be unstoppable. Think of your weight loss/physical goals and how much more quickly you could achieve them if only you could accomplish mental toughness. Think about how much more productive you could be at work and how much more confidence you could exuberate in the office and more importantly, at home with your family.

The first step is to commit to learning and acquiring mental toughness, no matter what the cost. I never said that this would be an easy thing, so you must be sure that you are committed 100% to the task of achieving mental toughness. You must be in the right mindset in order to reshape the strength of your thoughts. You must have an unmistakable belief in yourself and the goals that you want to achieve. This is what creates confidence in all areas of your life. Whether it be work goals, relationship goals, weight loss goals… the sky is the limit. Take a moment and think of your top 3 goals that you desire to achieve and remember, be specific.

Next, expect only the best from yourself, affirm what you are GOING to do to be successful. Write out 3-5 positive affirmations for each of the goals above and remember to put it in a tense that makes it as if you have already achieved these goals (i.e. I can...I will...I am going to...).

For example, say my goal is to lose 20 lbs for the class reunion that is in three months. I might write an affirmation that states that "I am 20 lbs lighter and weigh ‘x’ amount as I make my grand entrance into the school auditorium for my 10 year class reunion. Everyone can't stop gazing and talking about how amazing I look!"

Be confident! Don't be afraid! I know what you are thinking: this IS NOT being conceited. Rather, it is a strong self confidence in yourself and how you WILL achieve your goal – no ifs, ands, or buts. Now is YOUR time and you will succeed!

Now, take a moment to visualize these affirmations. Feel the confidence radiate through you, feel the energy from your core, and feel yourself full of focused energy to achieving this affirmation!

For my next blog article, I will talk about the next steps in developing mental toughness, as well as successfully achieving goals.

Sincerely,


Alissa Nelms

www.TheFitCouple.com

Welcome to the Fit Couple blog!

Hi, everyone, and welcome to our blog!

We will be using the blog sight to post articles, some video, as well as provide valuable information regarding weight loss, performance, and relationships!

Feel free to leave comments, ask questions, and let us know exactly what you would like for us to cover. We are here for YOU, and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

Sincerely,

Jeremy and Alissa Nelms
The World's Happiest Fitness Couple!
www.TheFitCouple.com