21/04/2024
Make simple your healthy living - 1 step to your self-belief.
Often, the lack of belief in ourselves prevents us from starting to lead a healthy lifestyle.
Self-belief means believing in your abilities and skills enough to meet your needs and reach your goals.
This belief has three parts:
1. The psychological part is about dealing with fear. What are we afraid of when we don't believe in ourselves:
that we will fail
that others will judge or laugh at us in case of failure
that we will not achieve the results we want.
Which can make us feel inferior.
2. The mental part is about whether we think we can achieve our big goal or not.
3. The practical part is about taking action.
The essence of the problem:
Lack of self-belief generates fear.
If there is fear, there is no action.
No action means no result.
The paradox is that to regain self-belief, one needs to start taking action. The more we act, the better we become, boosting our confidence and belief in ourselves.
How it works?
1. Start small.
Start by setting smaller, achievable goals and define success criteria for them, that lead to your main goal. If you're aiming for a healthier lifestyle you can replace the main part of fast carbs with slow carbs with a low glycemic index, and you significantly contribute to your health and weight loss.
For instance, begin with simple changes like:
choosing whole-grain oatmeal over quick oats for breakfast
or skipping sugar in your coffee
or swapping soda for water
Choose one and perform these simple actions every day for some time. And celebrate EVERY DAY your small victory to build momentum. Continue setting new small goals and achieving more results. And you will see how unfounded your fears are regarding your goals.
2. Accept that you will make mistakes. It's also important to remember the relationship between mistakes and self-belief.
Ever been on a diet and eaten something you shouldn't have? Then you thought, "I've already messed up my diet today, might as well eat more. I'll start the diet tomorrow." Making a mistake doesn't mean you're bad or weak; it means you're human.
It's crucial to understand how we react to mistakes. In response to a mistake, there are always two reactions in the human brain:
The first is universal - the moment of realization - "damn, I made a mistake."
The second learned reaction from childhood: either I'm okay and will handle everything or I'm not okay and will fail at everything.
But the good news is that the second reaction can be changed.
If you've already made a mistake today (forgetting and adding sugar to your coffee) then don't blame yourself. Say to yourself, yes I made a mistake, but I will keep trying today. Do not postpone the beginning of your action to the next day or week. Keep going despite the mistake.
Forgiving yourself and trying to do better next time is more effective. The research shows that how we talk to ourselves can influence our motivation and behavior.
Remember, your journey to achieve a big goal will mostly not go as planned. You'll make mistakes, adjust, and keep moving forward, and that's completely okay.
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