When your goals turn into that can of spinach.

Do you set high expectations for yourself?

I do.

When you want to lose weight do you pop up out of your dorito crusted love seat and hit Whole Foods? Do you spend $300 on all-natural, gluten-free, reduced fat, sugar-free foods? Then maybe you ordered something with Shaun T on the front of it?

Do you later find those foods behind the Cinnamon Toast Crunch and it’s expired by two years? That’s ok, cereal is for grown-ups to….right?

I know I’ve asked you a lot of questions, many of them specific, but can you maybe relate?

Listen, we all want to lose weight, change the world, save the children, cure diseases, eliminate world hunger, and be the best we can be. But it’s how we go about doing so that is stopping us.

The reason I bring this up is because I always set a goal, getting really excited about it, create all these amazing ways I’m going to accomplish it, and then less than 8 hours later…I’m right where I started….feeling lazy as…

Do not misinterpret this as you are a loser.

This is what a loser looks like………..

Just think of yourself as 95% of the population. We all want to better ourselves, we all have that imaginitive experience that grows hope and inspiration… but what we may lack is the continuous drive…

Don’t worry, I’m not judging you….

I’m just like you and want to change. How can we keep focused on our goals? How can we break the cycle of being so comfortable in our uncomfortable state? How can we stop soaking steadily in a metaphorical hot tub of our own tears?

The first thing we should set out to do is make a REALISTIC goal(s) for ourselves. Don’t set the bar too high, haven’t you learned from past experience? Once you reach your realistic goal, then shoot for the moon! But please take baby steps my friend, or you will continue to set goals you cannot reach and you will continue to feel like a worthless piece of crap…. baby steps my friends….baby steps…

Then, and only then, can we can turn those baby steps into running strides over time…

….It’s great to have dreams, goals, and distinct pictures of what you want your life to look like. Please do not take this the wrong way….the dream is what drives us. Ya know that fired up feeling you get when you get really excited about something? When your envisioning what you want and how happy you will be when you get there?

Keep that! When you feel like your drowning in failure, when you’re making mistakes, when it seem as though nothing is going right on your path…keep envisioning that moment when you reach your goal! Thats a quick way to stop the Debbie Downer in you from gaining control and bringing you back to thinking you will never be able to do it!

I know from experience, if you know what I mean..

But really I do. My journey going back to school was no picnic. I had lots of bumps along the way and it took me longer than normal to get my degree, but I did. What helped me you ask? Envisioning my daughter witness this great accomplishment and our embrace at the end. Whenever I felt like giving up, I pictured her hugging me while I was wearing my cap and gown…

(insert serious moment here)

The point is simple. Make realistic goals and stop the negative thoughts in their tracks by envisioning your proudest moment.

Where does the can of spinach come in to play you ask? Well, this was one of the items I purchased in my attempt to make a drastic change to be the healthiest person on the planet. Just the other day I was searching through my cabinet and noticed that very can, unopened, in the back, looking as pathetic as my attempt to be healthy at the time.

This made me reflect on why my goal remained unsuccessful. I expected myself to do a complete 180 in 24 hours and when I didn’t accomplish that I gave up…

So don’t give up, keep envisioning that moment, and don’t buy a can of spinach, it’s a waste of your time and money 🙂

I’m a failure, you’re a failure, we’re all failures.

  The letter F constitutes a lot of meaning for a lot of people….

 

 Yet it  begins some of the most beautiful words; friendship, forever, fabulous…..even FANCY!

OH YOU FANCY HUH?

 

….yet we STILL associate it with being a FAILURE. And why is failure such a bad thing? You’re probably responding, “Because you failed ASSHOLE! You didn’t win…you lost! You’re a loser! An L7 weenie! .” While I agree you make a comeplling argument, we can’t all be winners all the time Charlie Sheen….

 

Sometimes in life you lose…..

And sometimes when you lose…you learn….and sometimes when you learn……you grow…..and sometimes when you grow….you become a better person. Hm, funny how that works 🙂 I’m not suggesting we stop striving for success, but what I do suggest is less self pity, heart ache, and feelings of extreme discouragment when we do fail at something. Sometimes we let these feelings of failure overwhelm us and stop us from continuing on to success.

Remember when you learned to walk? Probably not. But I’m sure as shit you fell on your ass multiple times before you were running marathons! Point being, failing=learning. Haven’t you read Dr.Seuss?

Thanks for the reality check Dr.Seuss. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose and THAT’S O.K! Stop telling little Johnny if he misses the winning shot he failed you…stop telling Sally if she strikes out she didn’t try hard enough…and stop telling little Joey if he gets caught on the fence he’s never going to amount to anything..

.

It’s human nature to feel hurt when we don’t succeed.If you are really passionate about something and it does’t pan out the way you thought it would its going to hurt, as it should. That hurt means we care, we are passionate, we most likely worked hard, and that alone is something to be proud of and hold dear.

Thanks Einstein…..

When we fail we are left with another opportunity, which we can tackle head on, and perhaps this time more intelligentlly than before. Lots of successful people failed a bunch of times before creating some of the worlds most useful shit!

Here is the part of the blog where I’m supposed to insert all the pictures and quotes of those who failed a bunch of times and are now millionaires or pro athletes.

While they are a great example of never giving up I’m sure you may feel you can’t relate. “Oh, thats so great that Michael Jordan missed 700 shots in basketball games and still managed to be one of the greatest players in the NBA! WE HAVE SO MUCH IN COMMON!” You may not be going out for the Chicago Bulls, attempting to write a successful children’s book, wanting to make it as a stand up comic, or working on topping the charts Beyonce….but what you must focus on is where your failures are leading to!

Don’t compare yourself to others your whole life! Create your own identity, thats where the best success stems from!

I know failure can crush your confidence. Nothing hurts more than trying your best and it not going as planned. Whats worse? When your confident as all hell going in ….and then your let down.

But instead of throwing a fit…

crying a river….

or calling it quits….

make yourself get the fuck up and what was that Aaliyah???

What its really all about is how you react to things. Keep the passion alive and you can suprise the hell out of yourself!

And PLEASE do not let what others think of your “failure” make you feel any lower than you already do.

Keep telling yourself….

And always ask yourself…”Is this the end of the world?” Because it most likely isn’t you drama queen

Well that was a poor example but you get the point!

Do not let failure at something allow you to lose your passion or stop you from achieving your goals no matter what they are…

Don’t fret, just listen to Joe Dirt and everything will be alright…