Your ability to achieve your goals, of any kind, may depend on where you place yourself on your priority list.  Learn why.

Are YOU a Priority?
Your ability to achieve your goals, of any kind, may depend on where you place yourself on your priority list.  Before reading on, write down your top 5 priorities in order.  Don’t write down what you think your priority list should be.  Write down what your actual priorities are, the way they play out in your day-to-day life.

Why does this matter?

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, you can’t be loved until you love yourself; or some form of it that encompasses the same meaning.  This is because the way you think about yourself sends a message to others on how they should think about you, interact with you and treat you.

Successful people tend to share certain personality characteristics.  Mainly, they seem to exude confidence.  By acting confident, whether or not they are, they send the message to others they have the ability to achieve their goals.  Because of that, others trust their strategy or decisions and make it easier for that person to get support to achieve the project they are pitching.

If you don’t believe in what you’re doing, you will not inspire others to believe in it either.  I’m sure you can see the downward spiral this creates for the goal or project.  If no one believes in it, what’s the point of moving forward.

How does this translate into your chances of succeeding at your health goals, or any goals?

Your health is a product of how you care for yourself and how you treat yourself.  If you are drowning in stress but you don’t take steps to get out, you will continue to be buried.  This applies to everything around your health; be it physical activity, healthy eating, “me” time, relationships, career and anything else in your life that is keeping you from achieving happiness, finding your bliss and achieving the goals you set for yourself.

How does this play out? 

First, let’s look at where you are on your priority list; or if you are even on your priority list.  Let’s say you set a goal for exercise.  You want to get up every morning and go for a walk, or go to the gym, or pop in a DVD to follow along.  Or maybe it’s to eat healthier, progress in your career or become more financially secure.  However, something always gets in your way.  That something could be you or someone else.

When you let something get in your way you are sending the message that your needs are not important.  Think about that.  Yes, there are times you need to attend to something that IS more important; like an emergency. But what about the rest of the time? There are two levels to this phenomenon.  When you allow something to keep you from achieving your goals, you are telling yourself that it’s really not all that important to you.  We often call this self-sabotage; but we don’t realize how we are sabotaging our own goals.  I’m sure you’ve realized it at least once in your life, how you get in your own way, put obstacles in front of yourself or maybe even place the blame on someone else.  And when you place the blame on someone else, this may be where the second level comes in.

The second level happens when this messaging, your actions around your goals, transfer to others.  When your actions don’t match your words, guess which speaks louder?  So, when you tell someone “this is important to me,” but you don’t act accordingly, you are sending the message that it’s not important.  When you send this message, you will not get support in your goal.  You will get support in your action.  When you don’t realize this is going on, you will place the blame on others.

Where does this happen to you?

Your roadblocks can come by way of your own inability to get something done, or by your inability to get support from others for what you want to happen.  And when you are consistently putting yourself last, that plays out in numerous way.  Most significantly, and this is the key, others will put your needs last as well.  How you prioritize yourself is how others will prioritize you and your needs, wants and desires.  When you start making yourself a priority, others will too.  When you start acting on your goals, others will take you seriously.  The messaging can be very general, and may be why you are missing the signals.  If you are the one who is always dropping everything to attend to the needs of others, they will assume that’s what you want; or that it’s not a big deal.

How do you turn this around?

First, you don’t want to do a complete 180 and upset all of your relationships.  It took years of not prioritizing yourself to get where you are.  You cannot achieve the complete opposite overnight without hurting loved ones.  You do, however, want to start letting the people around you know that you have needs that are important too.  You can do this verbally and follow up with action; or just do it.  Meaning, pick one area that is important to you and schedule it in.  If it’s exercise, put it on a calendar everyone can see and stick to it.  Make a point of letting anyone who needs to know your schedule that you have put this on your calendar and you will (not intend to) be attending to that “thing.”  If it’s a morning walk, a session at the gym, or a closed-door workout; be sure to announce it and follow through.  The point is to start sending new messages in baby steps, and consistently following through.

Don’t know where to start?

If you’re ready to make changes but getting started is the hardest part, consider signing up for my 30-Day Introduction to Better Health.  By committing to a month of working on yourself, you will show others, and yourself, how serious you really are.  By the time the month is over, you will have sent a consistent message that will stick.

In the program, I will cover:

1)    ways to convert your current eating to a healthier version of itself to support natural weight loss or maintenance;

2)    ways to invoke your body’s own resources for detoxification to support your body in naturally cleansing itself of toxins that lead to headaches, allergies, inflammation and aches and pains;

3)    ways to clean up the bad actors in your environment that are keeping you from your goals and contributing to the toxins you are trying to get rid of in the first place; and

4)    what self-care looks like and how simple practices can make a difference in areas like sleep and stress management.

The program is a great way to start you on your path to better health without a huge commitment; financial or otherwise.  Click here to check it out and see what you can gain from committing to yourself.  You can even share this page on Facebook and invite others to join you.  Talk about messaging! Bring your own tribe along for support and show them what you’re made of.

I want to commit to myself today!

Yours in wellness,
Jackie