One of the push-pulls that I’m feeling in my life right now is surrendering and allowing the power of All-That-Is to work its magic in my life, and setting specific and measurable goals and diligently moving towards those. I have coaches in both camps.
What if both are true—at least for me? This feels like one of those dichotomies in life, such Yin-Yang, Dark-Light, and Good-Evil. This is Surrender-Focus.
To paraphrase Abraham, the perfect mindset in life is simultaneously being content and eager for more.
Where I feel this most is on the topic of my body and optimal wellness. I love and appreciate my body just as it is, and marvel at how hard it’s working to stay in balance and manage everything I do and put into it. While I am strong, and relatively fit and healthy, at the same time, I want to be stronger, fitter, and healthier, and I believe that I’ll look and feel better if I’m leaner.
I fully believe the more I focus on what is right with my body, the more I consciously tap into the Foundation Principle that “Energy Attracts Like Energy,” otherwise known as the Law of Attraction, and create more strength, fitness, and wellness.
While there are some people who can fully utilize this principle to intuitively eat and move their bodies to create their version of optimal wellness, I also have long-held contradictory beliefs about the value of planning, nutrition, and exercise. Past experiences where I both used focus to improve my body, and also relaxed my focus on diet and exercise and gained weight also plays a role in how successful I would be at totally surrendering to create optimal wellness.
Since I—along with many people—have these existing beliefs, it seems wise to tap into the power of both surrender and focus. But how do you do that?
Accept where you are—letting go of judging where we are physically as good or bad is challenging, but incredibly powerful. There truly is only where you are and where you want to be. Practicing that mindset releases destructive catabolic energy that will actually hamper your progress towards your idea of optimal wellness.
Act out of love—Loving yourself enough to feed your body high-energy foods and move regularly is a powerful motivator. Also loving Source (God, the Universe, All-That-Is, Higher-Coach—whatever works for you) and recognizing that your body is a gift to be taken care of can help you both surrender and focus.
Set goals that feel good—pay attention to the emotion that the goals you are setting generate. Is it positive or negative? If it’s positive (i.e. excited, inspired, eager), think of that as a green light to move forward. If it’s negative (i.e. fear, pessimism, dread), recognize that’s a signal to rethink why you want to achieve optimal wellness.
Make it fun—what’s the best exercise for losing weight? The one that you will do consistently and actually enjoy. What can you do to make eating healthy and moving your body fun?
Count your successes—document and praise yourself for what you are doing well and let go of where you are falling short.
Know that when you ask it is given—this is a foundation of so many spiritual and religious practices. The key is to stop asking and being fearful that you can’t achieve your goals and instead find a way to tap into your faith that the Universe is on your side and is supporting you in achieving your goals.
Appreciate where you are in the journey—so often we believe our life will be better once we meet our goals. But in truth, it is not the achieving of a goal that improves your life, it is allowing yourself to feel better and enjoy life right now.
As you surrender and focus on success you build positive momentum that will be like a tidal wave moving you towards your goals.
Together we can do it!
Photo from iStockphoto.com
Goss Coaching 
Thank you. I needed this today. I’m stressed out over a lot of things and that always comes out as worry about my weight, even when there’s nothing to worry about.
Glad it was helpful!
This is so very true. People hold onto weight because they aren’t at all content with the way their bodies are. They will only love their bodies when they’ve reached their goal weight. Without changing their mind first, they will either never reach their goal weight or if they do, they will still hate their bodies!
Well said! Thanks for commenting!
I love your perspective. I was reading another blog a few moments ago where the blogger had declared victory over the elliptical machine. She became a conquerer. (I had mental pictures of don Quixote and had to giggle.)
I loved that and I love the idea of making sure that you are having fun and rewarding yourself for your progress. It is so important to stay focused on your as-is wonderfulness that you are merely tweaking (shining up your Rolls Royce) rather than beating yourself into weight loss.
I wish you continued success.
Conquering the elliptical is fun, too! Intensity doesn’t mean it’s not fun! What you have to be mindful of is that intensity doesn’t bring in conflict that can ultimately discourage people and cause them to quit. If you can do that then using a challenge to inspire yourself is great fun! In fact, that’s what I’m doing. Love your analogy of shining up the Rolls Royce!
I’m still learning from you, while I’m trying to achieve my goals. I definitely love reading everything that is posted on your site.Keep the aarticles coming. I enjoyed it!
Thank you! I appreciate the comments!