Forest or Trees? Where Is Your Focus?
I went in for my annual physical not that long ago, where I got some not too good of news. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great.
Maybe you also have had this happen to you. My cholesterol was creeping up, my glucose was on the rise, my weight was on the rise, etc. I knew at this moment that I had a choice…I could choose to be ok with how things were going or I could choose to make changes to my lifestyle that would help me with getting those things under control.
I realized that I had become complacent when it came to my health and I took that for granted. So, I chose to make changes to my lifestyle to help with my overall well-being.
I joined a gym and made some changes to my diet to help with this goal. I, not only, wanted to lose weight but more than anything I wanted to feel better.
Now fast forward about 3 months…where I was feeling very frustrated because I hadn’t lost much weight. I had lost some but not as much as I apparently wanted to. Let’s just say, at this point, I was extremely frustrated at the “not so much” weight loss and wondered why the heck I was even going to all this trouble if I wasn’t losing the weight like I wanted.
It took about a week of me chastising myself for “not being better at this weight loss thing”, when it dawned on me…my real goal wasn’t just the weight loss but my overall goal was to feel better. Losing weight was only a small part of my goal but one that I was too focused on to see that, overall, I did feel much better. I was so focused on the trees (weight loss) and couldn’t see the forest (feeling better).
Immediately, that changed my whole perspective. I began focusing on how much better I truly felt, how my clothes felt looser, etc., instead of lamenting on how much weight I hadn’t lost. It made the world of difference for me and I wasn’t so discouraged when I was exercising.
MY CHALLENGE TO YOU: As this new year begins, you may have made some resolutions that haven’t quite turned out the way that you “wanted” or “expected, so I want you to take a step back and look at the whole resolution/goal. Are you just focused on one aspect of it or are you looking at the entire picture? Just because one aspect of your resolution hasn’t turned out quite like you want it to, doesn’t mean that you are a failure or that you should just give up.
Focus on what IS working for you. Doing this can change your whole perspective and can help with your overall goal. Focus on the positive instead of the negative!