Fitness Expert, Rob Poulos wrote a great article which ties in perfectly with Thinking Like A Champion and adopting the lifestyle changes…I think you will like it….enjoy!

A Simple Change In Mindset Will Burn More Fat Fast

Most people that I talk to about health and fitness talk about “getting in shape”. But I don’t think they realize that their words are actually counterproductive to their aspirations of burning fat. You hear a lot of people lamenting about being out of shape and saying, “I need to get in shape and burn fat”, or, “I want to get in shape and burn fat.” What you don’t hear them saying is, “I want to get in shape, burn fat, and stay that way.”

They may want to stay in shape, but their mindset is focused on getting in shape. This makes you more susceptible to the fad diets and latest exercise gimmick on the market. You’re so focused on getting in shape that you’ll try almost anything regardless of how silly or difficult to follow it might seem, because you’re entirely focused on the short term goal.

A simple change in the “quick fix” mindset to one of long term success will steer you down the correct path. You’ll be less enticed by the late night TV hype, and more focused on doing the right things most of the time. Wouldn’t you agree that life long health and fitness is what’s most important?

Of course creating an environment in your body that allows you to burn fat fast is essential to this goal. A person who is in shape in their 50s and 60s is a lot more impressive to me than someone who is lean and fit in their 20s and 30s. That’s because the dedication to maintaining the proper exercise plan and a sensible nutrition strategy for the rest of your life is rare to find. It’s a rare mindset.

If you really want to transform your physique and your health for good, you must make it a lifestyle, a habit. And that starts in your mind. That’s what the people who are lean for life do. In fact, if I think about all of the people I personally know that are in great shape and have been for a while, I start to understand that they have their minds on staying in shape.

They think about it day and night, not obsessively, but with each thing they do…they subconsciously think, “Is this going to positively or negatively impact my long term health and fitness?”, “Am I doing everything I reasonable can to burn fat and live a healthy lifestyle?”.

The good news is that research shows you can develop simple habits like those involved in eating and exercising properly in under a month…sometimes even sooner. And with the type of exercise and diet tips I recommend to my students, you don’t need to give up your life’s pursuits so that you are working out every day, nor do you need to follow a wacky diet you can’t reasonably make a lifestyle out of.

And after a few months of practicing these methods, I’ve found that your body will start telling you it wants to keep exercising and eating right…you just won’t feel right with out it. Why? Because your body naturally wants to be healthy and lean.

So I urge you to forgo the “get in shape” mindset, and instead embrace the idea of staying in shape and creating that fat burning furnace that is so essential to life long health and fitness.

Imagine yourself in the body of your dreams, today, tomorrow, and 5, 10, 20 or more years from now. What will you be doing then, in your lean, strong, and healthy body? Chances are, you won’t be trying to “get in shape”. Instead, you’ll be burning fat 24/7, and enjoying life as you should…full of vitality and passion.

And remember: it is mind-over-matter
and if you don’t quit…you will make it!

Cheers Shelley Taylor-Smith

PS: Need help deciding how to change your mindset to STAY IN SHAPE in 2010 and beyond and realising that with so much to do and only 24hrs a day to do it? Call Champion Mindset office on 1300 78 41 70 and ask to Pick Shelley’s Brain for 10mins for FR.eE!

You CAN Always Get What You Want

As the temperature hit 39degrees Celcius last Saturday, it was hotting up even more at the Esther Foundation 2009 graduation. As I sat with Justin Langer and his family (Aussie Cricket legend and a Champion bloke) we were both amazed how the five young Australian women graduating had overcome insurmountable odds including alcoholism, domestic violence, drug addiction, depression, anger management, self mutilation, and eating disorders. And WOW now they’re standing VICTORIOUS!!! Justin and I were both exhilarated and shed many tears (of joy!).

So as I sat alongisde Justin Langer I remembered talking to a good friend of mine, who was a nationally known sportsman, reaching the pinnacle of his sport, then going on to other successes in other fields. He told me that when he was young, he always knew he was going to be a Wallaby. He had the talent, that’s for sure, but what he also had was the belief. Belief in himself, in his dream and in his goals.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time around eminently successful people and the one thing they all have in common is that same overwhelming sense of belief. They know what they want and they also know with unswerving belief that they can do it. Of course, this is not to say they don’t have setbacks. It’s not always smooth sailing, but their fundamental belief in the goal and themselves pulls them through the rough spots. Keeping their eye on the prize, sometimes to the exclusion of all else, is what ensures their success.

Naturally, we can’t all be Wallabies or Aussie Swim Team Dolphins, but we can all achieve our goals as long as certain conditions are met. They must be realistic, we must really want them, they must be beneficial and the most important condition of all, we must have a goal in the first place.

So many of us are vague about what we want and what we expect from our lives. We spend a lot of time wishing things were better, but not a lot of time actually making them so. We think we do, but often we’re really just coasting along not really expending any effort and sort of doing OK but there’s something slightly unfulfilling about just getting by.

Setting goals is one of the very best things we can do for ourselves. Deciding what we really want and working towards it has to be infinitely better than drifting aimlessly hoping to avert disaster.

Our minds have a remarkably powerful facility that many of us under-utilise. If we tell it where we want to go, it will map ways for us to get there. I call it your automatic GPS – Goal Projection Success Mindset machine. If we keep the object of our desire in the forefront of our mind, if we see an image of it every day, even subliminally, our GPS mindset machine does the hard work for us.

But we need to be careful with all that power, because it can work just as well in the negative as in the positive. If I keep thinking, “I’m working too hard. I need a break,” my mind will find a way to fulfil my goal. Unfortunately, that could mean I get sick or get injured or all the work that seems to just flow in suddenly dries up. If instead I think, “It’s time I was rewarded for all this hard work,” my outcome is far more likely to be positive, because my mind will be creating ways to reward me.

It’s not enough to set one goal and go for it. Your fitness goals should be full of some for tomorrow, some for next month and some for five years from now. Once we look like we’re going to reach one of our goals, re-evaluate and move the goal post if necessary. Why not shoot for the moon?

Earl Nightingale said, “We become what we think about most”. If we’re always thinking that life is tough, it will become so. If we think that we’re not quite good enough, guess what?! It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It’s just as easy to hold a positive thought as a negative one, so perhaps it’s time for you to get positive about where you are and where you’re going and set a few goals.

Naturally, if you need a little help figuring out how to plan for 2010, find a goals coach that will help you find the right direction.

Remember: if you don’t quit…you will make it!
Cheers Shelley Taylor-Smith

The Secret created a great deal of publicity for the DVD “The Secret” and more generally “The Law of Attraction” is all over the internet at the moment.

It seems people are waking up to the fact that, what you focus on, you tend to create in your life. Speaking to you as someone who understands the power of taking control of your life, I’d reinforce this message wholeheartedly.

You really have the power to create almost anything you truly want in your life and are creating your experience of life with your thoughts every moment of every day.

However, my experiences speaking to people since the hype over the last couple of years have led me to believe that many people are missing a crucial detail.

The pace of life is speeding up and we live in a world where people increasingly want to make things easier and quicker and that includes me. My coaching philosophy is about helping people make the changes in their life they’ve been procrastinating on for years, and I believe the easier we can make those changes the better.

However, in listening to “The Secret” etc. many people seem to have decided that all you have to do is “ask” and the universe will provide for you, “Your wish is my command” as they say in the film.

The truth is there really is more to it than that, you have a big part to play too, and by part to play I mean action to take. Many people seem to have missed this part in the film.

Taking charge of your thoughts and visualising what you want will transform what appears in your life and then you have to take action when the opportunities arise.

The first steps of the process help you clarify what you want, get you on the path to believing you can have it and then sensitises your unconscious filters to the opportunities that are all around you all of the time. Then it’s your turn, when an opportunity arises, you have to take action.

If you want to use the metaphor of the “universe providing” then you could see taking action as your part of the bargain. Taking action and being willing to learn from the feedback is a crucial element of personal empowerment.

Too many people these days are waiting for the time to be perfect, or for other people to act so they can act. By developing the habit of being proactive, taking action and learning from the result, people can break out of their old fears and realise much more of their Champion potential.

So maybe the next time you find yourself thinking, I’ll do that when…, or I wish they’d do … then I could… etc. Maybe you could just ask: “What can I do right now to move this forward?”

It could be as simple as making the phone call! But do it!
Whatever it is do it and begin to break those old reactive patterns today!

Accepting that in taking action you will get a result, and you can learn and develop from that result, be it the result you wanted or not.

As you begin to take more action, I’ll think you’ll find as many people throughout history have found before you, that life tends to reward action.

It’s no secret that action combined with reflection and learning from the result leads to every success in life, from a baby learning to walk, to the first steps on the moon. All success is built on this simple principle.

Think about these examples that will help you attract what you want …remembering we attract what we are in order to create what we want:

What’s really important to me today?
and what am I willing do about it?

Or maybe a better question is, What action will you take today?
Whatever it is, if you were to do it today, what could you learn?

And remember to have some fun today too.

Go for Gold!
Cheers Shelley