My LBPS Project :: One “Mechanism” for Sustained Success (= the opposite of instant gratification)

Like Scattered Linda, you might feel lost in how to approach the areas that continue to represent challenge. LivingBluPrints means to provide systems to enable better success with challenging areas – even if you are not so much ‘lost’ as maybe under-performing, or in need of a little navigation.  And a kinda cool by-product – > if/when you begin to intentionally shift one area of your life, it impacts others.  There is a ripple effect in a positive way.

Personal example –> my weight.  Many in my life openly said (when I was 15-20 pounds heavier) that I did not have a ‘weight problem.’  Of course, this was their (totally subjective) opinion.  What was true for me is that my weight ticked up a few pounds every year, even with continued efforts to reverse it, if not hold it steady.  I already knew a lot about good vs. bad food choices – I’d been surrounded by the “diet industry” from early childhood (have vivid memories of attending Diet Workshop meetings at the back of a Pioneer Chicken off Balboa in the San Fernando Valley!) – so I’ve been knowledgeable about food types and fat and calories and on and on.  I tried extreme exercise through bootcamp [which did work temporarily, but in the long run, was not sustainable – (more on that later)].  I also went to a nutritionist.  I kept a food journal.  And I would have success for a while, and like so many others, I would slowly gain it back.

I’d never considered Weight Watchers (WW) because I had concluded that “diets don’t work.”  Even the celebrity sponsors eventually gain it all back (and certainly most people I knew gained it back).  I believed that no such programs were sustainable.  On the other hand, I was fed up – everything I’d tried wasn’t working, I literally could *feel* my butt (in a whole new way) – it wasn’t cool.  I visited the WW website and figured I’d sign up for their 8 week program.  (I think the 8 week ‘offer’ is a clever marketing technique; I’m not sure anyone can actually sign up for it.  Rather, I think it’s a way to get tentative people to take one small bite.)  In any case, I was signed up and in for the haul.  I was totally comfortable in the meetings from the beginning (remember, I was weaned on such things) and the meeting was (and continues to be) core to my success with the program (and I know it is for many others as well).

What kept me there in the early days – what made me think WW had something special to offer me..??  It was one of the other members.  She was (and is) a Lifetime member (meaning she had REACHed her goal) and she came to meetings every week.  I didn’t even know there were people who kept going after they’d reached their goal.  Her success and her continued presence in that room represented a “mechanism” – a factor that contributed to sustained success.

The fact that I’d had all the experience of the diets and exercise before helped to me fully understand what made WW different.  See, for many, they come to WW and have success and once they are at their goal, they stop attending meetings, and slowly, they revert to their “old” ways, and the weight reappears.  Of course, all of this is very involved/complicated… there is a ton of psychology, and a massive host of probability (based on what the food industry pushes) suggesting we’ll revert to the old ways.

A key lesson to the WW example is that there has to be something beyond the goal. Goals are important to provide direction, but if the focus is solely on achievement (and not on what happens along the way – lessons learned, etc.) we’ll likely lose or miss the real benefit of the practice that allowed us to achieve the goal.

How many people I’ve know that sign up for a half marathon (or other big athletic event), work their tails off to achieve the feat, and then don’t run for several weeks (or stop running altogether).

Additionally, (more importantly?) if what it takes to achieve the goal is not sustainable, the success will be lost.  So if a diet plan is too extreme (and doesn’t allow one to eat in a normal restaurant with friends or to have a delicious dessert from time to time) – if you never learn skills to do things in moderation, or in a sustainable manner, the work to get there is a failure.

What’s tough about what I am suggesting is that there is no ‘instant’ reward/effect from our efforts.  If you only drink liquid for a week, or eliminate all ‘white foods’ for a week, you WILL see a result, and that will be exciting.  You will feel rewarded for your effort. Unfortunately, drastic measures (with drastic immediate results) are not sustainable.

Don’t stop dreaming when you meet the goal/deadline!  Sustain your success!

And this mean/awful fact of life goes WAY beyond weight management… I really believe we need to focus more on the practice… and on something bigger than the goal… the goals are more like guide posts along the journey, and not the reason for the journey.

What practices have you mastered?  You might be an ace in the kitchen, run a top-notch household, have instituted Best Practices at work, and/or compete regularly in athletic events! On the flip, have you ever experienced loss of focus after reaching specific goals?

This ‘story’ continues here…

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Linda Stacy, Productivity Speaker, Writer, and Coach, inspires her clients to achieve increased fulfillment, engagement, and success by way of energy management and the *brass tacks* of healthy, efficient productivity and time management.