Did you know that lack of confidence and low self-esteem are two of the biggest threats to success when it comes to making positive changes to your health and looks?
The thing is if you don’t value yourself enough you will never make the effort to break the habits which are making you unhealthy and overweight.
If you feel sub-consciously that you are not worth it, you will quickly give up any serious attempt at weight loss and will carry on eating too much or not taking exercise because you feel, deep down, your current state is all you deserve.
But is being overweight and unfit good enough for you?
Of course it’s not. We ALL deserve to enjoy good health, fitness and a weight which suits our height and build. Why would anyone deserve any less?
But, if you are not as healthy and slim as you’d like to be and you are not doing everything in your power to change that situation then evidently you do not think that you are worth the effort.
It’s a sobering thought isn’t it?
Maybe you thought your lack of confidence and self-esteem was due to not being in shape – if only you were thinner you imagine you would feel better about yourself. And chances are you will feel better. But you will only get there if you start to feel worthy in the first place!
So how to you go about getting that elusive confidence and self-esteem when you don’t have enough?
Of course this subject could fill a whole book and we can’t cover everything in this article but here are three useful tips to get you started and which will go a long way towards increasing your confidence and self-esteem as well as helping you lose weight.
1. Success in Small Steps
Success breeds success they say. Yet what do we do but set ourselves up for failure time after time by taking on grandiose plans to change our lives in one fell swoop. And of course we don’t succeed. It’s too much too soon. And each failure strikes another blow at our self esteem. Change is difficult for everyone so give yourself the best possible chance of success by making changes one step at a time.
And if you do fall by the wayside now and again remind yourself that you are a human not a robot and it’s perfectly Ok to take two steps forward and one step back. As long as you are learning from your mistakes, you can still hold your head high.
2. Act as If
Treat yourself and behave as if you had already arrived at your target weight and level of fitness. Take care of your body. Look after your hair and skin. Wear clothes which fit. Look the world in the eye and smile (even if you’re shaking inside).
You’ll be amazed at how the world will respond – you are showing that you value and respect yourself and the world will treat you accordingly – with the respect and consideration you give yourself.
3. Be Clear
Be clear about what you want for yourself – if you do not know you can easily waver from your goal. And once you have set your sights firmly on what you want make it clear to others by your words and actions that you mean business.
It’s when you say you want to lose weight and then don’t follow through that people feel free to sabotage your efforts by trying to get you to eat all sorts of things you can do without and to skip your work-outs. They treat your efforts as a joke because you do!
If you are clear and firm with them and you follow through with your actions they are more likely to back off and let you do as you wish after a while. They will see you are serious this time and will respect you more for it. Be clear about what you want and act as if you mean it.
These three steps will create a confidence cycle which will make all the difference to your weight loss efforts. The more you do them the more confident you feel and the more confident you feel the more success you will have.
Know in your heart of hearts you deserve to achieve the shape and fitness level you want – because you do!
Copyright 2006, Janice Elizabeth Small
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