Act As If

Here is something we don’t often consider. Ready? Ok, so we all want to make changes for the better, don’t we? New year, new you is something so many people often live each year by or swear that is what will happen over time. “I’m going to do _____ this year.” But here is where we fail folks. To make real change to accomplish a new goal, like losing weight, we can’t simply start changing who we are after or as it happens. If you have a goal set, if you have intention to accomplish something, it takes and needs immediate action from within. We must manifest change. Real change in our mind that changes who we are inside will give it a chance to become a reality in the physical world.

I’ve coached athletes for years now and I have been one since I was boy. The staple that is obvious to me is that those who are most successful at change are those who change who they are inside well before physical change starts to happen. This works even outside of athletics and bleeds into family life, professional life, and every aspect of life. My entire life I wanted to be an NFL football player, so guess what I did, I lived like one, I thought like one, I trained like one. Even when I was 15 years old, not yet eligible to play in the NFL or even NCAA, I took class seriously and I trained and slept like I was getting paid to do it. I did this because I knew that it was the kind of lifestyle it would take if I made it, so I acted “as if” I had already made it. Now this isn’t easy, but somehow it came natural to me, when I wanted something I somehow knew that I needed to act and live as if I already had it. Do you have this perspective? If you don’t…consider its value. 

The reason this is powerful is because your mind is where you must truly CHANGE to ever create new habits that will stick. Let’s go back to the athlete that wants to lose weight. To get where they currently are they’ve eaten thousands of meals, lived thousands of days and gone through routine after routine. Not all of their habits are bad, but their internal thoughts of themselves, the food they consume, where they get the food, their internal confidence, the friends they go out to eat with, what they eat with family, how the sleep or how they value sleep, all these things need WORK! So when they make the decision to lose weight, they can’t just say that they will make certain food choices and set rules for themselves to be successful, because at some point…their internal history will win, they will show who they are and who they view themselves as. WE MUST CHANGE OUR MIND AND THOUGHTS ABOUT WHO WE ARE. 

What does this look like? Interestingly enough it takes a creative and powerful imagination. We must start to emit self love, change the things we say about ourselves, and how we see ourselves internally not just in the mirror. This can start by getting a hair cut in a new style or buying new workout gear to train in, because purposeful physical change is one sure way to give immediate internal confidence and new perspective. Ultimately you can’t only see yourself achieving the task you must live like you already have. This starts to take the change from a series of choices and sacrifices to make a goal happen to us just living out our preferred lifestyle! It doesn’t come easy, but I just wanted to spur along some deeper thought in goal setting and following through. In order to do well at anything and reach your goal, you have to live “as if” you are already there. This makes it a change in lifestyle and who you are and not just a “new you” annual goal you are trying to aimlessly chase. Don’t just go get it, go take it…we do this by “acting as if” we already have.