Success May Be Closer Than You Think

Success Is ALL About Motivation

Countless research studies have made it crystal clear that the single most important factor in fitness success is motivation. Of course, what you eat and how you exercise are also central components of your success. Developing an appropriate (for you) program of what to eat, when to eat it, and how and when to exercise is absolutely essential.

But without the proper motivation, you just won't do what you know you should do. And as we all sooner or later discover, knowledge without action produces...nothing.

The crucial link that turns knowing into doing is motivation. But the only motivation that counts is your own internal motivation. If you only have external motivation pushing you toward healthy behaviors (a dedicated fitness instructor, a "rah-rah" one-day workshop, or a nagging spouse), you're just not going to make it.

In fact, external motivation tends to create resentment in us, which usually makes us want to "be bad." That's why your motivation needs to be internally generated.

But there's one more piece to this puzzle, and it may be the most important piece of all.

The Hidden Factor That Turns "Effort" Into "Easy"

You see, we all have internal motivation -- of one kind or another. But too many us have the kind that prevents us from reaching our goals instead of helping us achieve them. You know what I'm talking about...the kind of motivation that makes us reach for that second helping of mashed potatoes, or make the midnight raid on the fridge.

Everything we do (and don't do) in our lives is the result of our own motivations. But some of our motivations are self-supportive, while others are self-sabotaging. When we have conflicting motivations, the stronger one always wins. And when your self-sabotaging motivations are stronger, you're going to end up doing things you'll later regret. (Sound familiar?)

Why would any intelligent person let that happen? Why don't we simply make ourselves do what we know is right? Because intelligence isn't part of the equation! The real decisions about what we will and won't do are being made at levels we don't even know about, let alone have any conscious control over.

Even if you're a genius, it won't help you -- because your brilliant conscious mind isn't going to be invited to the "summit table" where your real-world behaviors are being decided on. You won't even be consulted.

The result is that your conscious desires, no matter how healthy they may be, have no meaningful control over many of your behaviors. That's why will power is really no power at all. You can't overpower motivations you don't even know are there!

What You Don't Know CAN Hurt You -- And May Be Doing So Right Now!

The greatest problem that faces us, as far as our motivations are is concerned, is that we're simply unaware of so many of them. Now, this is hardly a new discovery. Freud pointed it out more than a century ago.

But knowing about it doesn't make it any less of a problem. In fact, it should make us realize that this is the one problem we most need to be paying attention to.

Yet even as you read this, millions of us are operating in the dark -- some because of unawareness, and some because of denial. Either way, the result is the same. Instead of dealing with the real issue -- our own motivations -- we waste precious time and energy fiddling around with diet and exercise, in the vain hope that some combination of the two is going to get us where we want to go.

It's not! As long as you have self-sabotaging internal motivations that are even a tiny bit stronger than your healthy, conscious desire to be fit and at your ideal weight, your fate is sealed. You will NOT reach your goals. Your own motivations will short-circuit you. And every time you try, your only reward will be struggle, stress, and -- ultimately -- more failure.

Oh, you may lose a pound or two, or even a bunch of them. But they won't stay off. Even worse, getting rid of them will be like pulling teeth. It won't be easy, and it won't be fun.

Working Smart Beats Working Hard Every Time

Imagine for just a moment how your life would be if, instead of sabotaging your progress every step of the way, your inner motivations were actually helping you get where you want to go.

The struggle to do what's right would simply disappear from your life, and the healthy actions that will make you fit and trim would become be just as natural and just as automatic as the ones that may now be keeping you overweight and out of shape!

Automatic? We could learn to automatically do what's healthy? Yes! In fact, just by making a few small changes where it matters most, you can literally trade in your failure-producing habits for success-producing ones.

If you're not currently achieving the kind of results you know you want, you can be sure that faulty motivation is at the root of your problem. But take heart. Success may be closer than you think, and easier that you dared imagine!

Having The Right Motivation Automatically
Gives You The Winning Edge!

If your motivations were helping you instead of holding you back, how long do you think it would take you to see some real progress? Not very long!

You would automatically start to eat the right foods, in the right amounts, at the right times -- which is what successful people do. You'd automatically work the exercise you need into your schedule -- instead of having to drag yourself into it, kicking and screaming.

Would your food and exercise behaviors become perfect in every way? Nope. You don't need to be perfect, or even close. Successful people aren't perfect. They just do what works more than they do what doesn't. It's really just that simple.

To make the shift from struggle to success, all you need to do is to tilt the table a little bit in the right direction. You don't need to make "night and day" changes. You only need enough movement to shift the inner balance of power in the right direction.

In the real world, the difference in strength between your self-supportive motivations and a your self-sabotaging ones may be very small. Just a little bit of well-placed effort, applied for a short time, could make a life-changing difference.

The Good News: Your "Inner Self" Is VERY Teachable!

Contrary to popular opinion, it doesn't take years of therapy to get dramatic results. If you simply focus your attention on what matters, you can make significant changes in a very short time.

A huge safe can be unlocked with one little key. On the other hand, bashing that safe with a hammer would take a huge amount of energy and still wouldn't get you anywhere. Sadly, most people still think that diet and exercise are their keys to success. They are not! Until the real key has done its job, they are just hammers!

Making the small but crucial power shift in your motivations can be surprisingly easy. And it's infinitely easier than waging the diet/exercise battle for the rest of your life. Better still, you get permanent changes instead of temporary patches.

But the best part is that every pound you lose is gone for good!

Bottom Line: The Only Real Difference Between Those Who Succeed
And Those Who Fail Is In Their Own Internal Motivation

Remember, winning at fitness and fat-loss is not about intelligence. I'll bet that some of the most brilliant people you know are out of shape. And it's not about will power. Will power is really no power at all, because it relies on your ability to consciously override what you can't even see. Talk about wasted effort!

And it's not about genetics. People in the same family vary tremendously in their fitness levels. Why? Because getting in shape and staying there is all about our personal motivation.

Once you understand that your motivation is the real key to long-term fitness success, you're way ahead of all the people who are still looking for that perfect diet or exercise program.

Only after you have made the necessary changes in your motivations is it time to focus on diet and exercise. And then you'll discover that neither one of them is a struggle! In fact, doing what's best for you will actually become its own reward. More importantly, it will feel like a reward -- which is why you'll keep doing it!

And that is the real secret of lasting success.

If you already know that counting calories, sweating buckets at the gym, and denying yourself the foods you love is never going to get you where you want to go, then you're ready to put your attention where it will make a real difference: on your own motivations.

How To Become A Success Story