News
from Getting Clear
Linda Anderson, MA, MCC, SCAC
Featured Article: Something I Am Proud Of
Tips, Tools and Wisdom: My Life-Altering Strategy
Getting Healthy: Two Great Ten Minute Workouts
You Tube - Just For Fun: Polar Bears Playing With Dog
A few weeks ago, I had a quiet realization about something that I have achieved. It's something that I am quite proud of--something that surprises me about me.
In looking back over my life, I don't have any big shiny noteworthy moments to gloat over--awards that I've been given, lives I've saved, famous people I've met along the way that changed the course of my life forever.The thing that changed my life for the better, that I am really proud of, is this-- I go to the gym. In the family I grew up in sports and outdoor activity was not part of our life. We went swimming on vacations, played a little badminton, but we didn't garden, sail boats, or go camping like my friend Martha and her family did. I was always envious of Martha. I valued everything her family did that involved movement, the great outdoors, and activity versus my chair-based life.
It wasn't until a few years ago, well over five now, that I started going to the gym
and figured out how to make it work. It does take figuring out how to make it work. There is some planning to be achieved, like getting a bag and putting things in it that make the gym experience manageable from start to finish and figuring out how to put this into your schedule.
But I have one very special strategy, a life-altering strategy, that I know helped me achieve this going to the gym feat, long before I figured out the bag and schedule thing. I'm going to share it with you, but first I just want to say, "I'm doing it. I GO TO THE GYM!"
So, how does one leave behind a lifetime of inertia and start going to the gym? I watched my husband, for years, take his well-packed bag and get himself to the gym. In his hyper-focused way, he got there, still gets to the gym, religiously, because it has as much to do with his brain and mood as it does with his body, and he will tell you that.
One day, as I glanced to my left for the umpteenth time, from my spot in front of the computer, I saw my husband, gym bag in hand, walk by my office door. Once again, I heard myself say, "I'm going to go to the gym, someday." But this time I really heard myself. I realized that my words sounded wishful, anemic, and not very believable.
Suddenly, as I turned to my right to look out a window filled with sunshine, a bright shiny new idea struck. I had read once, that if you could think the perfect exercise, it would be as good for your body as actually doing the exercise. Well, why not believe this? It would be a heck of lot more fun than all this someday-maybe, wanting-wishing, getting nowhere thinking.
I said, emphatically, "I go to the gym!" I decided from that moment forward whenever the thought of the gym came to mind that I would say, with humor and absolute belief, "I go to the gym." And so I did. I said this at any time of day or night. Some days, I said it two or three times, other days not at all.
Then one day, about three months later, I found myself at the gym. I cannot think of any one thing that got me there. But this I do know. I changed my thinking before my behavior changed. To this I added the element of play. And I gave myself permission to try on the feeling of accomplishment before actually achieving it.
Was this successful outcome the result of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), a redirecting of attention and intention, or simply an example of the power of positive thinking? I don't know. I do know that it was just plain fun to pretend that I already went to the gym, even before I got there.
So, here's hoping you will have at least one goal in the year ahead, to play toward achieving, while trying on the feeling of success.
Getting Healthy
- Two Really Great Ten Minute Workouts
A 10 Minute Total Body Workout
Jason Aziz is an exercise physiologist at Concord Hospital and holds a Master of Science Degree in Kinesiology. This is a great easy routine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--ZQ4iBOFxQ
Sean Foy's 10-Minute Total Body Breakthrough
Sean Foy's workout is also excellent. This will take a little more starting and stopping the video to get the routine down. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXL7DyH9OAY.
You Tube - Just For Fun
- Polar Bears Playing With Dog Workouts
Polar Bears Playing With Dogs!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= JE-Nyt4Bmi
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