I admit. I’m a total self improvement junkie. I love reading books on self improvement, I read blogs, I watch youtubes, I listen to podcasts, and get tips on self improvement anywhere I can. I recently heard John Assaraf talk about 10 tips for achieving your dreams and thought it would be cool to apply his tips to your health, so here it is.
- Get Clarity – you need to prime your brain on exactly what you want it to focus on. What does optimal health look like to you? Is it having an amazing body? Is it having boundless energy? Is it eating your veggies every day? Maybe it’s all of these. You need to decide what it is for you and get a very clear picture of what optimal health is to you.
- Big Why – what is your underlying reason for achieving optimal health? Is it because you will feel amazing and this will improve your confidence? Is it because you want to live to a ripe old age to see your children and grand children grow up? Is it because chronic illness runs in your family and you don’t want it to impact your life? You need to understand your big why and keep it as part of your focus. This really comes in to play when you have those days when you just don’t feel like being healthy and you need some motivation to keep you on track.
- Visualize – when you visualize you interact with the visual cortex in your brain and it doesn’t know the difference between what is real and what is imagined. Visualization builds new neural pathways and makes your actions automatic. For example, visualize yourself exercising, looking amazing, and waking up feeling great. Pretty soon your actions to get you to optimal health will be on autopilot.
- Emotionalize – this is energy in motion. When you add emotion to your picture of what optimal health means to you, and then visualize, you add another level of energy to your ideas. The more emotion you can put behind your thoughts, the greater the force of your mental vibrations, and the greater your outcome.
- Recognize & Release – you want to do this with your limiting beliefs and unproductive habits. Recognize what’s holding you back from optimal health and release it. Keep your constructive habits that keep you moving towards your health goals and get rid of your destructive habits that work against them.
- Strengths & Weaknesses – know your strengths and play to them and know your weaknesses and learn to manage them. If you naturally gravitate towards yoga or lifting weights then do these for your exercise. Don’t take up running if you find it boring and find it hard to motivate to do it. Know your weaknesses and get some support in these areas. Maybe you have a sweet tooth. Then don’t keep candy in your home. There’s too much temptation. You can also get a coach or have a friend keep you accountable to stay away from these things.
- Roadmap – you need a plan of how you will move towards your goal of being healthy. Management guru Peter Drucker said, “Don’t fall prey to the narrative philosophy which says that life will work out. You must manage your life for it to work out.” This quote applies to your health too. Hope & prayer is not a strategy. Identify what you need to do to achieve the health you want to have.
- Focus – learn how to stay focused on what you need to do to achieve your health goals. Life is full of distractions. Learn to tune out the noise and focus on what matters. Train your brain to pay deliberate attention to your new habits around health.
- Manage Fear – there are more than 50 types of fear – fear of failure, fear of success, fear of sickness, fear of gaining weight, fear of pain, fear of going bald, etc. Recognize your fear, reframe and release it. Maybe you believe that you will never have a great body. Instead say, I love my body and take action each day to make it look better and better.
- Relentless & Resourceful – you’re going to do whatever it takes until you achieve your goal. Ask yourself, are you interested in better health or committed to better health? You need to make sure you’re committed. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to achieve your health goals. You’ll figure it out and do whatever it takes.
- BONUS – G.O.Y.A. – Get Off Your ASS! 🙂
You decide. Do you want average health, good health, or optimal health? Of course you can use these tips to achieve anything you want. So get out there and go for it!