Chris Powell's Choose More, Lose More for Life Read Online Free PDF

secret—
believing in yourself
? Any glimmer of belief you had fades to black, and your possibility for transformation crumbles.
WHY DO WE BREAK OUR PROMISES TO OURSELVES?
    Right about now you’re probably wondering, “How can I possibly keep my promises to myself all the time?” Yeah, life is busy. Life happens. And life isn’t fair. You have to run the errands and pick the kids up from three different schools. Your spouse has to work late, so you’ve got to make sure the kids do their homework and their chores, and you’ve got your own chores to do. Before you know it, you’re exhausted and you’re ordering a pizza instead of prepping and steaming that batch of veggies. Oh yeah, and the thirty minutes of cardio you were going to do? Not going to happen today. Your promises to yourself have flown out the window.
    Let me tell you: There are promises, and then there are
promises
. There are promises that can be kept, and ones that can’t. And it’s not because you’re lazy or weak or insincere. Heidi and I have seen our clients break thousands of promises to themselves, and it’s always painful, but we’ve discovered that most of those broken promises
were just out of whack
!
    Some of the most out-of-whack promises our clients make are
inflated promises
. They make themselves a whole bunch of promises at once, or just one unnecessarily huge one. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard people promise to do thirty minutes of cardio every morning, or to eat five smaller meals every day, or to never eat pizza again. No way! A few of them might succeed, but the majority are destined to fail. These promises are way too big!
    Come to think of it, nearly every diet book and weight-loss program—including this one!—is a compilation of potentially inflated promises. At some point, you’ve probably made the mistake of jumping into a new diet and exercise plan full-bore, trying to make radical changes in your lifestyle right away. It almost
guarantees
you’ll give up! Moving too fast and expecting too much of yourself, you end up breaking your promises to yourself. You might try to make yourself feel better by saying, “That diet’s no good.”Maybe, maybe not. But that’s not why your promises broke: They popped because they were inflated!
    Do yourself—and your self-esteem, and your transformation—a huge favor and take it easy! Within these pages I offer a whole series of promises in the form of nutrition guidelines and exercise schedules that will
absolutely
give you the body you want. Each one is sound and levelheaded, but if you roll them all up into one giant promise, you’ve got quite a load to carry—and you’re bound to drop it.
    Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate your enthusiasm, vigor, and desire to take it all on! But making too many promises at once just doesn’t work. Believe me, you’ll reach your goals—if you keep your feet on the ground. Believe in yourself by making promises you can keep!
    Why do
you
break your promises to yourself? Do you sabotage yourself by making inflated promises? Think about it and write down the answers to these questions.
    What were my New Year’s resolutions last year? What other promises have I recently made to myself?

    Did I keep any of them? Why or why not?

    Did I make any progress on them? Why or why not?

    Did I abandon them? Why or why not?

    When I make a promise to myself, do I keep it? Why or why not?

    When I make a promise, do I write it down? Post reminders everywhere?

    Do I share my promises with anyone else? When I do, are they supportive, or do they doubt I’ll be able to keep them?

    What’s the biggest obstacle to keeping my promises to myself? Time? Money? Friends? Family? Anything else?

    How can I plan ahead and work around these obstacles?

    What will it take to make my promises to myself the number one priority in my life?

THE POWER OF KEEPING YOUR PROMISES
    As the old Chinese proverb goes, “Every journey begins with a single