August 22, 2018

When you wake up in the morning and take a good look in the mirror, are you happy with the person staring back at you? Are you in the body that you want to be in? Or do you see the body of someone who took advantage of the holiday season with too much great food, a few too many holiday beverages and not nearly enough time for exercise? If you’re nodding your head like one of those pretentious plastic bobble-heads right about now—and let’s be honest—most of you are, the following information is imperative to whatever life-change you are planning now or in the not too distant future.

 

The late Dr. Maxwell Maltz, One of the most widely known and highly regarded plastic surgeons of our time once wrote in his mega bestselling book; PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS; “When you change a man’s face you almost invariably change his future.”[1]

 But this change occurs on a much deeper level than mere cosmetics. The change also occurs in personality, behavior-and sometimes even basic talents and abilities.

 

Dr. Maltz noted that some patients—no matter how physically altered through surgery—showed no change at all in personality. It was as if nothing at all had changed, and that in their minds they still remained scarred or ugly. Dr. Maltz later went on to discover that a person’s “self-image” or the true way in which the individual perceived themselves, is the real key to a person’s personality and behavior.

 

“Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed possible. This power becomes available to you just as you can change your beliefs.”

— Author Unknown

 

Let’s use exercise as an example. If you plan to change the way you look, feel and perform, proper exercise is no longer an option. But unfortunately 50 percent of the people that start an exercise program in the New Year, quit during the first six months. Could it be that the 50 percent who quit don’t have enough self-belief? A study published in the Journals of Gerontology indicates that how you think (in terms of what exercise can or cannot do for you), will determine how well exercise will work for you.

 

“Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.”

— Charles F. Kettering

After questioning 364 women over 55 years of age for the study, lead researcher Joanne Schneider, Ph.D., came to the realization that those who believed the most in the benefits of exercise were the ones who benefited the most physiologically and psychologically by exercising for longer periods of time and with more intensity.[2]

 

“If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won't, you most assuredly won't. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad.”

— Denis Waitley

 

Another study published in the journal Obesity Research showed that the longer people are successful at keeping excess weight off their frames, the easier it becomes and the less effort it requires as time goes by.[3]

 This makes sense since the more a behavior—such as exercising or eating right—is repeated, the more likely it is to become a habit.

“You can have anything you want if you will give up the belief that you can't have it.”

— Dr. Robert Anthony

Habits become your character and your character eventually becomes your destiny.

So in case you haven’t gotten it by now, unless you believe 100%—within your soul—that you are ready to make a change in your life (i.e. lose the excess fat), no matter what you do, you will be destined for failure time and time again. But once you truly believe that change is not only possible but merely a matter of time, your personality and behaviors will guide you to your ultimate destiny—in this case, the new leaner, more energetic You!

 

“Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.”

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

 

References:

[1] Maltz, M.; PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS, Pocket Books, New York, NY, 1969.

[1] Schneider, J.K; Self-regulation and exercise behavior in older women. Journals of Gerontology, 52, 235-241, 1997.

[1] Klem, M.L., Wing, R.R., Lang, W., McGuire, M.T., & O. Hill, Does weight loss maintenance become easier over time? Obesity Research, 8, 438-444, 2000.

 

© Copyright 2018, Brad King

 

 

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