A few years ago, a good friend of mine decided to lose weight. He was tipping the scales a little over 300 pounds and he was unhappy with it.
Once he made the decision, he took action immediately.
He stopped eating fast food. He substituted water for soda. And he started running every day.
Not long after he began taking these actions, he lost weight.
Eventually he got down to the weight he was in during high school. He was skinny again. He looked really good. And he was happy with his transformation.
Problem is, he didn’t work on his mindset while he was losing the weight. In his mind, he was still the same person he was before, weighing 300 pounds, living on fast food and soda, and not exercising.
He managed to keep the weight off for a few months so long as he kept to his regimen of not eating fast food, drinking water instead of soda and running every day.
But as soon as he stopped doing that stuff; as soon as he started to eat just a little fast food, drink a little soda and skip running, he gained it all back.
And not only did he gain it all back, but he gained more.
He’s bigger now than he’s ever been. And he’s disappointed in himself for not being able to stick with the actions he was doing before.
You may be able to relate to this story, you may not be able to. Maybe you never had to lose weight before. But you most likely have tried to make a change in your life–to a habit or a patterned behavior–that you were only able to stick with for a little while, until you “gained it all back.”
And when this happens, it’s always and only because you put the action before the mindset.
Your mind is what controls everything you see and experience in your reality. It all starts between your ears.
So if you decide to make a change in your life, but start with action before mindset, you’re not going to succeed for very long.
And it’s not your fault. Not at all.
You just put the action before the mindset.
We’re taught to do this. We’re taught that if you want to make a change in your life, you must buckle down and take action. You must decide on your goal, make a list of “to dos” and then take action.
No action, no results.
And that might be partially true. But the bigger truth is that action won’t result in lasting change unless you also change your mindset along with taking the action.
Mindset before action. Always.
Had my friend who lost all that weight started by first thinking of himself as a fit and healthy person; by visualizing himself as being that person; by feeling in every ounce of his being that he was lean, fit and healthy, his physical actions would’ve resulted in a change that stuck.
That’s what true, lasting change requires.
It requires you to not only take physical action toward your goal, but also to adopt the mindset of a person who has already achieved that goal. It requires you to step into being that person, first in your mind and then in your physical actions.
Lasting change needs both a changed mindset and changed behavior.
Otherwise you can action yourself to death and you still may not achieve your goal. Or if you do achieve it, the results will be fleeting.
To make a real change in your life–regardless of what area of your life you want to change–you must first change your mindset. You must first change who you’re being. You must first change how you think of yourself.
And then from that place, you take whatever action you feel inspired to take.
That’s how you make changes from alignment. And when you do things from alignment, it not only sticks, but it also transforms your life as you now know it.
Mindset before action, always.
Unless, of course, you prefer to spend your time yo-yoing. The choice, as always, is yours.
