For Weight Loss It's Want Power You Need Not Will Power

Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP
The problem isn't that you don't have enough will power toachieve what you want. You have will power, but it's not willpower you need, it's want power.You have to first wantYou must want to change your habits, want to lose some weight,want to give up your evening snacking before your will comes intoplay. Once you want a thing badly enough, you will do whatever ittakes.If you think you want something (to make a change in your eatinghabits perhaps), but then find it difficult to follow-throughwith your plans, most likely you simply want your current reality(your current habits and patterns) more than you want your goals(less weight, better health, etc.)I can hear you all the way over here, telling me I'm wrong: "No,that's not right! I want this more than anything, I just don'thave any willpower!" Round and round you go, but the truth is,you will get what you really want. Think back, has there everbeen a time when you really wanted something? A certain piece ofclothing, a certain house, car, job, spouse? Hum... Yes, we goafter what we want, if we really want to acquire or achieve it wedo. Nothings going to fall in your lap, you've got to go get whatyou want.What's Going on?Put another way, you may want to avoid the pain (breaking oldhabits, avoiding some favorite foods, simply not overeating...)more than you want to gain the pleasure (losing some weight,gaining new habits, eating favorite foods in moderation ...)Since losing weight takes time, from weeks to months to years,it's easy to fall off the path. It's always easier to get backinto our old habits of eating, eating, and more eating. There'salways more food. Unless you are too poor to purchase it, there'splenty food in America - in fact, too much food, and so itbecomes even more necessary to keep the longer-term goals inmind.How do you keep the longer-term goals in mind, when theshort-term food is staring you in the face? What about all thetreats offered, what about the commercials, the billboards, thesigns everywhere that say EAT?Wanting, in fact, is the "W", the first step in the W.H.A.C.Kapproach. See it in the free e-book, Changing Beliefs, Your FirstStep to Permanent Weight Loss.Think back to when you last really wanted something. Wanted itmore than anything, had to have it, would do just about anythingto get it. To want is a mighty powerful motivator, butsurprisingly we aren't all motivated by what we want. Some of usare motivated by avoiding what we don't want.What is your Motivation Strategy?Motivation comes in two (or more) flavors. You can be motivatedtowards something (what you'll gain) or you can be motivated awayfrom something (what you'll lose). This desiring to avoid can beconfusing. I'm saying you must want something, and you'rethinking, but I don't want to be fat. I can't think about myfuture, only what I don't want. Here is what's going on:Motivation: TowardIf you are motivated by what you'll gain you find it easy to lookahead and see your future shapely body, you'll see people aroundyou with admiring glances, you'll hear their compliments, you'llsmell the good food and feel good knowing you can eat enough tobe satisfied, and then say you're full. You've had enough, thankyou. You'll be in control of your life. You'll want what youvisualize more than anything, and you'll do whatever it takes toget it. If asked what movie to go see, they'll have a few ideas,and tell you why.Motivation: AwayIf you are motivated by what you'll lose you'll focus on what youwant to avoid. For example, you want to avoid dying, you want toavoid being too heavy to enjoy playing with the kids, you want toavoid gasping for breath when you climb a flight of stairs. Youwant to avoid the embarrassment, the humiliation of otherpeople's remarks and rude glances. You don't want any of thatanymore, and you don't want it to the extent that you'll dowhatever it takes to avoid these things. If you ask them whatthey want for dinner, they'll tell you they don't want Chinese,or pizza. It can be difficult to get someone motivated this wayto actually say what they do want!Knowing your motivation strategy makes it easier to find methodsthat support your preferred strategy. If you are motivatedtoward, you may enjoy cutting our pictures of people in greatshape with similar body types to yours. Find models wearingclothes that would look good on you, pictures of swimming pools,holiday places you'd enjoy; the types of things that go into adream board.If you motivated away, then make a list of what you want to avoidand elaborate on that list. Why don't you want these things? Themore detailed you are, the more likely you'll truly do what ittakes to avoid them.Hopefully these ideas will get you thinking, and much aboutmaking changes in our lives comes down to thinking it through.Realizing what we really want can get us past the hurdles of whatwe already have. To affect change isn't necessarily comfortable,until you've worked at it for awhile, and then suddenly yourchanged behavior has become your new behavior and the effort isover.
About the Author
Kathryn Martyn, Master NLP Practitioner, author of the free e-book: Changing Beliefs, Your First Step to Permanent WeightLoss, and owner of http://www.OneMoreBite-Weightloss.comGet The Daily Bites: Inspirational Mini Lessons Using EFT andNLP for Ending the Struggle with Weight Loss. http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com/getnews.html