You can change

By Steve Gronick

Do you wish you could change something about your life right now?

I’m here to argue that change can happen in an instant.

I know this goes against popular thought. Most people believe that change has to be worked at for months or even years. We expect to try to fail numerous times before we ultimately give up or succeed. 

How many people do you know who struggle with their weight? They want to make a healthy change by getting in shape, but the change never seems to take hold.

Is there something in your life that you want to change? Do you have weight to lose? Do you have high blood pressure? Do you have a pair of pants that you wish you could fit into? 

What is keeping you from making a positive change in your life?

According to professional speaker and author Tony Robbins, it’s the getting ready to change that takes time.

In the end there’s a single instant when the change occurs. Robbins goes on to outline three specific beliefs that you must have in order to instantly create a lasting change.

Belief #1: Something must change. 

• Do you sort of want to get into shape, or do you absolutely have to lose the weight?
• Does dropping a few pounds sound nice, or is living another day in your current body unbearable?
• In order to make a lasting change you must be convinced that the time has come. 

Belief #2: I must change it.

• It is vital that you take full responsibility in making the change.
• Sure, others may assist you, but in the end you are the one who is going to make it happen.
• You have to need this change enough to make it your personal mission — no one else will do it for you. 

Belief #3: I can change it. 

• Don’t let past failures get in your way. The truth is that you do amazing things when you put your mind to it. Believe that you are capable of losing weight or making any other positive change in your life. 
• Why do most people fail to make lasting change? They leave it up to willpower. This works for awhile, but you’ll always revert back to what’s comfortable. The solution? 
• Change what you’re comfortable with. 

You’ve probably heard that humans are motivated by two things:

• to avoid pain and
• to gain pleasure
  
  When you want to change a behaviour pattern the key is to associate pain with the behavior that you don’t want and pleasure with the behavior that you do want.  

You know that you want to lose weight and that to do so you need to quit eating comfort food late at night.

You also know that you need to start exercising on a regular basis. Up until this point, your brain is trained to associate pleasure with eating comfort food late at night and to associate pain with exercise. 

It’s time to retrain your brain to feel good about exercise and to feel bad about eating late at night.

Think about all of the negative things about being overweight and connect these unpleasant thoughts to your late night snack. 

Now, think about all of the wonderful things about being in shape and connect these pleasant thoughts to exercise. 

You are capable of making a big change in your life.

Steve Gronick is the owner of Kelowna Fit Body Boot Camp and Vernon Fit Body Boot Camp. He can be reached at [email protected].

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.