You start something new; eating better, exercising, less sugar, less snacking, quit smoking, drinking etc. You start out strong and well-intentioned but one day during lunch you slip up a little and you talk yourself into feelings of failure & inadequacy, reminding yourself of all the times you’ve repeated this behavior in the past and so you unintentionally give up for the day or for the week or month. You tell yourself this was a bad time to start and you justify your thoughts with excuses and decide that next month will be a better time to start.

That type of behavior is what keeps us from ever reaching our goals. That behavior comes from within your mind’s self-sabotaging ego. Self-sabotage is our emotional way of coming to terms that something probably won’t work; it helps us to excuse our failures ‘just in case’ we need to. Self-sabotage also excuses us from having to do something to reach our goals, our plans and our wishes.

Before you begin any project it’s important to prepare for it. When we do a household project we first need to take the steps necessary to begin, we decide why, how and we list what we will need to get it done. These steps are important in everything we do because without the why, how, what, and what if’s, we have no direction, no path to follow.

If you are planning to lose weight or just eat better for good health, you need to be fully in it and committed. Your first step is to decide if you truly want it for yourself or if you’re doing it because you ‘have’ to. If you are doing it because you were told you need to, there’s a good chance you won’t follow through and be successful. You must want it for yourself. Then you can list the why, how, what and what if’s and be more successful at reaching your goal.

If you’ve already begun or if you plan to begin better lifestyle habits, take a little time to write your “why, how, what and what if’s”; doing this will help you get on track and stay on track.

1- Why are you going to eat better and exercise?

2- How are you going to do this?

3- What will you do daily?

4- What if you slip up on one meal, one day or for a weekend?

What if? If you slip up you start from where you are and “do the next right thing”. So, you splurged a little, you ate more, you ate the wrong thing, you didn’t exercise today…so what! Put on your ‘can do’ attitude and start from where you are at each moment.

Don’t judge yourself by your failures but by your attempts at success.