Excuses. I don’t want to hear them, they are old hat, I’ve heard them all before.
They bore me to tears because they are same old ones over and over again only from different people (There must be a book out there!).
You know in my 20 plus years as a "fat fighter" I've heard them all and they never change; work (you don't work 24 hours per 7 days a week), time (do you have time to get sick?), big boned (I've never seen a fat skeleton), blah blah blah!!!
Just visit your local hospital and you'll find wards full of excuse makers!
Nobody has ever comes up with a novel excuse why they can’t transform their bodies.
If it's important enough - you will always find a way.
I really don’t want to hear what’s holding you back!
What I want to hear is how committed you are in achieving and what YOU are going to do to make it happen.
Remember, a big factor contributing to success in weight loss (or anything) is the mind. It’s achievable provided you WANT to achieve it.
Most want to do it but can’t see it. Sometimes I feel like screaming at the top of my lungs, “So stop making excuses and decide to make it happen!”
OK it’s confession time again from someone that WAS the biggest Excuse Maker in history.
Yes – ME!
The year before I won my first Australian bodybuilding title I placed 2nd and the following year whilst preparing for another crack at the Nationals I was making excuses in my mind why I wouldn’t win.
That’s how much self-belief I lacked but that was nothing new, that lack of confidence stemmed all the way back to my childhood.
As a kid I was groomed by my father to realise his dream and become a soccer player. Although I wasn't extremely gifted I made up for it with work ethic and commitment to nearly get me to realise my father’s dream. Only problem was I didn't believe in myself and maybe didn't want it bad enough.
This is the first time I’m saying it publicly. The reason I failed as a soccer player is because I did not believe that I was worthy enough to make it to the top. I was good enough but I was mentally weak, I was plagued by a lack of self-belief!
And that lack of self belief was now threatening to envelop and destroy my bodybuilding dream.
After coming second I was more focused on winning than ever, I hit the gym with a vengeance, worked diligently on improving my weaknesses and left no stone unturned in my endeavour to succeed.
BUT (yes there’s always a but isn't there?) half way through my preparation I realised was visualising myself as runner up again, as a loser. I was even formulating the excuses I was going to use when I lost yet again.
Eight weeks away from the show I pulled myself up and like a good Gemini I had a good long hard look at myself followed by a long talk.
I asked myself “Why the hell I was training and dieting like a mad man if all I was going to do was lose?”
Why put myself through this hell just to lose? Why the hell couldn’t I win?
And I couldn’t come up with any reasonable answers.
Was my conqueror bigger than me? No! Was he leaner? No! Was he more symmetrical? No! Could he pose better? Maybe, but it could be rectified!
So I came to the conclusion that it was my loser attitude that was holding me back. So I went about changing it.
I visualised standing on top of the dais holding the 1st place trophy aloft.
I visualised my joy, the joy on my kids’ faces when I came home with the winner’s trophy.
I visualised the applause and the comments ( I call them WTF?! comments) from the audience.
I even visualised and prepared myself for the back stage mind games that I knew my nemesis would play in order to put me off my game.
I plastered pictures of him all over the place, in my training diary, my desk, my office wall, the fridge you name it his face was everywhere.
Then I adopted the following motto: “He who dares to face death by a thousand cuts will unseat the emperor”. Again this was plastered everywhere!
Once I had all that in place, every time those niggling negative losing thoughts crept into my mind or every time I thought about the competition I automatically blocked them out and repeated my mantra chastising myself for thinking negatively.
It took a fair bit of work but when I rocked up at the show I was ready to win and boy did I win - I destroyed him!
So it wasn’t until I visualised winning that I actually did!
Since then, whenever I visualise myself losing - and believe me it does happen at various stages during the arduous dieting phase of a contest preparation - I remind myself of the day that I changed my attitude from "a loser" to "a winner".
As long as I’m prepared to face death by a thousand cuts – I cannot lose!
Since that fateful day in 1998 I have come to realise that I have no control over the judges, so I don’t worry about them. I’m only concerned about what I have control over and that is my actions and how I go about preparing for a show.
Only that will determine whether I win or lose!
So there you go, in order to win you must first change your attitude.
