My Essay Blog

Have you ever heard the saying, “Where there is a will, there is a way”? For the average person trying to lose weight, this particular phrase is so easy to say - yet so difficult to do. Whether you are struggling to shed a few unwanted pounds or to plummet ten pants sizes, success often depends on weight loss motivation.

Why lose the weight?

Looking slim and trim for your ten year class reunion. Fitting into your wedding dress when the ceremony is just weeks away. Securing a spot on your college wrestling team. Avoiding heart disease. To succeed, everyone needs a weight loss motivation that will make them want to put down the fork and step away from the double chocolate fudge cake.

So ask yourself: What drives you to achieve your weight loss goal? Deep inside, you must have a vision of what you want to look like and why you want to look that way. What feelings will weight loss make you feel? Confidence? Health? Happiness? Without knowing the answer to these questions, what prevents you from going to your favorite fast food restaurant right now and ordering three cheeseburgers and a large fry? At least realize the answer to that question: NOTHING.

Develop a strategy:

Once you have discovered what your weight loss motivation is, you can then create a plan to achieve your desired weight. Before you jump on the treadmill and start running, however, it is a very wise idea to put together a weight loss strategy.

Below you will find a sample strategy:

-The first thing on your weight loss strategy list should be to get a scale and place a blank notebook on the floor next to it. Now comes the hard part. Each and every day, make it mandatory for yourself to weigh in. (Note: It is important that you weigh in at approximately the same time of the day, every day. This will make your weight reading the most accurate.) Seeing your progress or failure in writing each day can be a superb motivator. You simply cannot hide from the facts.

-Next, it is a wise idea - especially if you have no will power - to remove from your home the junk food that you can’t trust yourself around. You don’t need to get rid of every little item with more than 100 calories. But if you know you can’t stop yourself from eating just 20 chips… get rid of the bag! And for some extra motivation, try hanging a picture of your favorite swimsuit model on your refrigerator door. That may stop you from eating that cream puff.

-Part of your weight loss strategy can even include one of the most motivating things around: a friend or family member who will take a walk with you on every lunch break, or who will sign up for an aerobics class with you. Don’t forget: the people around you can be a great weight loss motivation. Use them to your advantage. You may opt to go to Burger King at lunch time, but chances are if you have a health-conscious co-worker to take walks with, he or she will motivate (or guilt) you to exercise and eat an apple instead.

No one ever said that losing weight was easy. But if you ask yourself what your weight loss motivation is, figure out what your driving force is, and use some simple motivating strategies, you can achieve what you desire. There is always a way if you have the will.

How do we trust enough to trust abundance? It’s a koan or at least a dilemma. A few nights ago, a friend shared how he recently worked with his fears and limiting beliefs around money, trust, and abundance.

For six years he had been “at a loss”&ndashliterally, unable to figure out why he was living in poverty while everyone around him seemed to manifest abundance so easily. A few weeks ago, he decided to stop asking why and started to simply “walk the walk” of abundance. It started with his awareness that he was out of integrity with himself and his church. His church asks its members to agree to tithe 10% of their earnings to charity. Although he had made the agreement, he had been skimping, telling himself that he didn’t have enough money for food or rent so how could he possibly give 10%?

When he confronted this, he made a decision to tithe 10% anyway, even if it meant going hungry. He made one other behavioral change to stop reinforcing his fear of lack. He stopped letting his gas tank get dangerously close to empty or even running out of gas. From the moment he stopped letting the fear of lack control him, his business began to boom. Within two weeks, he was booked with work for the next three months and has since given the overflow to other contractors.

So how do we trust enough to trust God/the Universe? This is where faith and “working in concert” come in. Faith means allowing God/the Universe to provide even though we can’t know ahead of time how things will work out. Faith is trusting, even with our fears and limiting beliefs. Working in concert means not sabotaging God/the Universe through behaviors that reinforce our fears and limiting beliefs. It means acting as if&ndashas if we have perfect faith, as if it will all work out, as if we can help ourselves and others even when we don’t see how.

This is what my friend did by tithing and by filling up his gas tank. He behaved as if his fears and limiting beliefs didn’t have to be true or run the show anymore. I acknowledge him for his hard-won mastery of trust. He is an inspiration.

Often society dictates our thoughts, our wardrobe, our style, even our weight. But, what happens if we’re not perfect in “their” eyes? In my mind, there’s two choices: 1) Spend endless hours chasing images of what we “should” be or 2) Spend time discovering the answer to the question: “what’s perfect for me?”

If you’ve ever found yourself struggling with your image of self as it pertains to your peers, consider this your freedom ticket. Here, I’ll outline several ways to enhance your personal beauty and self-worth. Further, it won’t cost you anything more than your time and focus. It may even liberate you and empower you to be free to be who you are and become more of who you want to be. Here’s three of my favorite ways to get you moving toward the “you” you desire to become.

Take Time To Discover Your “Self”:

In effort to find ourselves truly and authentically, we need to first do what my favorite spiritual guru, Dr. Wayne Dyer says: “leave the tribe.” This does not mean moving to a remote area of the country, nor does it mean ex-communicating yourself from friends and family. Simply, taking time to dream and imagine who you’d like to be authentically can create a foundation for true self-definition.

Dr. Dyer also tells us that the tribe need not know we’ve even left! He explains: You are the only one who needs to know you are working toward establishing yourself away and apart from the masses. Again, this does not mean selling off worldly belongings and moving to the woods. Perhaps it simply means turning off the tube for a week and spending down-time being quiet. Or expressing your creativity through the art of writing, drawing or doing something of your choice that you love to do. The list is endless. You will know when you’ve found your own piece of nature if the place or activity gives you peace and quiets the world around you.

Take Responsibility For Your Gifts

We have all been given gifts by the universe, but here’s the challenge: It is up to us to use them! We know that our gifts were given to us for a reason, to use, explore, enjoy and share with others. As my friend tells me: When we use our gifts, God smiles. It pleases God when we use our talents and when doing so we are blessed.

Listen closely to your intuition to find what gives you energy. Follow this path toward your gifts. I truly believe If we each learn to live more authentically, share our gifts with the world and focus on the positive - we will be shown more ways to express our talents and serve the greater good. In my mind, it cannot happen any other way. What we care about and place our attention on expands. Take some time to observe yourself closely: Do you have an ear for music, eye for art, literature? What’s your gift? Ask yourself are you taking absolute responsibility for it (them)?

Create a Personal Mission Statement:

If you are with me so far, you’ll be taking time out of your busy schedule to find and nurture the God given gifts bestowed upon you. In addition, once you’ve identified your talents or dreams, try one of my favorite siren songs to the universe: create a personal mission statement. This is a technique I like to use and my contribution to the notion of discovering yourself.

Pause for a moment and ask yourself what you’d like people to remember about you. What do you believe you are here to do? In other words: What do you stand for? As Martin Luther King tells us: “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” It need only be a short statement. Here’s mine: To inspire. It’s that simple. Identify your mission (or choose one) and put it in pen - you’ll be amazed at what develops. Each day I look carefully for ways to use my gifts in concert with my personal mission statement.

In Conclusion:

In Conversations With God, the author Neale Donald Walsch teaches us that life has no purpose save the one we give it. What’s your purpose? It’s a simple, yet thought provoking question. Give it some thought. If you need help sorting out your ideas, check out the classic: What Color Is Your Parachute? By Richard Nelson Bolles or my personal favorite: Finding Your Own North Star By Martha Beck. Most of all, be brave! Declare you mission, identify and take responsibility for your gifts. Let them expand and contribute them to the world. You’re positive energy will become contagious. And when evaluating your self-image remember: it all begins with you.

This is a time of year when many people take stock of all that they are grateful for — or at least when we should do so. But this should also be a time when we take stock of all those people who contributed to those gifts — especially the intangible ones. Those gifts such as our self-esteem or confidence, our love of sports or music, and our spine. What person or group do you owe the greatest debt? Was there a special person or group that really helped you become the person you are today?

Was there someone who helped you believe in yourself and your ability? Was there someone who taught you to appreciate life in a new way? Was there just someone who was there so you could count on them no matter what?

Most of us have been fortunate to have not just one person but a whole team of teachers, coaches, and mentors who helped us grow and reach our potential. We should remember to thank those people again and again as we live the lives they helped us shape. Even more important we need to repay that debt — not to those individuals but to society. How is your debt? Have you paid it yet or are you still pretending it doesn’t exist?

We often hear the expression as it relates to criminals. It is sometimes used as a euphemism for incarceration. The truth is though that we all owe a debt to society. Not because we have done some harm to the community but instead because we have benefited from someone else doing good.

I am a Presbyterian and our expression of the Lord’s Prayer includes the phrase “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”. Obviously no matter how good we are and how exemplary our lives we can never repay our debt to God or his son so that part of the meaning is rather clear. I also think this means that we should do good for goodness sake rather than any potential benefit we may reap from the act.

I also think there is another level of meaning and this comes back to the central idea of our debt to society. I think when it comes down to acts of kindness there cannot be a one-to-one relationship. Obviously in many cases when a person is in need of help they may never be in a position to return that help in kind. But it isn’t really what we want or need when we offer help or kindness in any case.

Whenever I do something charitable, helpful, or kind, I tend to view the act as contributing to a vast fund of kindness. Many times in my life I have profited from this fund and very likely I will continue to profit from it.

One of the reasons I like this concept is that I do think of it as a sort of fund or bank. The value grows exponentially rather than incrementally just as money would do if similarly invested. We should all be grateful for this because the truth is that we usually don’t pay our debt to society.

Most of us will write the occasional check, buy a ticket for some raffle, and/or spend a few hours working here and there on some pet project. There are a few who will go much further than this and spend a large portion of their time, energy, and/or money for the greater good but they are far too few.

Often whenever we face pressure on our time or finances then it is our philanthropic activities that are the first to be sacrificed. I have been all too guilty of this myself. I wonder what would happen if we reversed this and instead put helping others first rather than last?

My challenge to you this week is simply to find a way to add to our goodness fund. Borrow from the concept of “Pay It Forward”. When someone offers you a helping hand then be sure to pass the favor along at the first opportunity. Don’t pick and choose. Don’t balance your checkbook first. Don’t take the easy path. Do what is right. You will know it when you see it.

Are you a person who loves challenges, or hates them? I must admit I’ve spent most of my life as a person who hates them. I always thought of challenges as frustrating, maddening obstacles keeping me from where I want to be. I even used to take them personally, feeling like the universe must hate me and like to see me struggle.

As I grow older and (hopefully) wiser - I find my competitive nature rising up to meet these challenges, and I’m learning to see them differently. Most of us know that great rewards require great sacrifice and effort. You know the old saying that nothing worthwhile comes easy? In a sense that’s true. If everything we wanted was handed to us, we probably wouldn’t have alot of appreciation for it. On the other hand, when we work hard for something and then see it manifest before our eyes, we get such a powerful sense of pride and accomplishment. We can point to it and say, “I did that. It was tough, but I did it anyway.”

Challenges are truly opportunities. Opportunities to grow and learn, to strengthen ourselves, to test ourselves and our faith. They reveal how badly we want to create the dreams in our hearts, and how hard we’re willing to work for them. This is such a blessing. It may not seem that way at first, but with a tiny shift in attitude, we can see that we have been handed an incredible opportunity.

The next time life hands you a challenge, stop and consider for a moment what it means. Is the universe saying “no”, or “I want you to try harder?” Don’t look at challenges as an end, look at them as a door leading to your heart’s desires. That door might be locked, but you have the key. Maybe you forgot where you put the key, or you forgot that you even had it to begin with. It might take some effort and patience to find it again - or you might even have to create a new one, but believe that you will, even if you’re not sure how yet.

I’m learning that it’s not important to have all the answers right now. When challenges rise up before us, we may not know how to get around them, or through them. It might seem hopeless at first. Challenges can seem so overwhelming when we don’t have a solution. However, life itself is very much like this too. Sometimes life is akin to bumping around in a dark room, trying to find the light switch. It is possible to get through the room without finding the light switch immediately, we just need to step slowly and carefully. Moment to moment, we find our way.

Rather than giving up when obstacles appear in your path, look at them as welcome challenges. The biggest challenge is choosing your own attitude. Will you get flustered and angry, or will you get excited and determined? Will you lay down and cry, or will you roll up your sleeves and get to work? Some of us take on a victim mentality when obstacles arise, and I can see why this happens. It does feel like the universe is picking on us, doesn’t it? I think we’ve all been there!

Why not change your mindset and think of obstacles as a personal challenge? Rather than feeling like the universe is picking on you, challenge yourself to figure out a solution. Say to yourself, “Okay, such and such has happened, now what am I going to do about it”? Put your problem-solving skills to work.

Once we begin to change our attitude about obstacles and challenges, they can actually become fun. Our competitive human nature rises up and gets ready to win, no matter what. We develop a steely determination to not be beaten.

In fact, I like to pretend there is a great critic in the sky who laughs mockingly at me and says, “You can’t do that.” I simply grin wickedly, roll up my sleeves and say, “Watch me!”

Let’s face it: not many of us like getting up in the morning to face the long day of work ahead. However, every working person still does this for his or her own personal reasons. These reasons make up a theory of motivation for going to work.

Most people do not work merely for the fun of it. Chances are, there is an underlying reason or reasons that drive the person to put the effort forth. Some key reasons that motivate individuals to work are:

-Money

-Responsibility

-Social life

Show me the money:

In many cases, money certainly does make the world go around. Money is the number one reason in the theory of motivation that makes people want to work. Money earned on the job will pay bills, support a family or an individual, or be put towards a material goal. Parents may work to pay for their child’s upbringing and education. A high school student may work to pay for auto insurance and possibly his or her own car. A college student may work to pay for university courses and books. Money is a highly important factor when it comes to living comfortably.

In the workplace theory of motivation, company owners and bosses understand how important money is. For this reason, they may offer employees monetary rewards or benefits for a job well done. They understand that an employee who is happy will reap prosperity for their company.

Who’s the boss?

On-the-job responsibility is another element in the workplace theory of motivation. Most workers take great pride in their work and in the job that they perform. People become motivated by the responsibilities that their jobs can bring. For example, an assistant manager at a retail store may do his or her best to get as many sales as possible and to learn as much as possible about management of the store. This may be due to the fact that this person has the hope of one day becoming manager of the entire store. Responsibility, therefore, is also rated highly in the theory of motivation.

The workplace as a meeting place:

Some people are not concerned about salary or job advancement. Instead, they are interested in the social part of the workplace. Because of this, the desire for a social life is part of the theory of motivation in the workplace. Typically, wives who are the secondary providers in a household that does not require them to work, still take jobs because they find that staying at home is boring.

At work, they will meet friends to chat with, go out with after work hours, or simply to confide in and share experiences with. Many elderly people also take on careers for this reason. Many older people become bored with retirement or lonely staying home alone. They work in order to have a social life. Thus, a social life is also part of the theory of motivation in the workplace.