How can what happened in the past affect your future success or failure? Every thought and habit we have was shaped somewhere in our past. Every moment of every day up until this moment makes us who we are. Every experience, good bad and ugly. Sometimes we don’t even know why we are doing things. Have you ever just thought, what the heck am I doing? It happens all the time. We see it in children when they get in trouble, and we ask them “Why did you do that?!” They simply shrug their shoulders and say they don’t know. It seems ridiculous but it is absolutely the truth! They really don’t know, they don’t even realize why they are doing what they did. Its a behavior they developed without even realizing it.

I am going to share a personal struggle I have had for most of my adult life. It seems to be the topic of discussion amongst a lot of people in the salon…It is something so many people struggle with. We know all the right things to do, all the right things to eat and yet we cant seem to lose weight and keep it off. I have lost mine more than a few times, but it always finds it way back to me… until this year. In my journey of personal development, I have come to realize a few things… actually a lot of things. One a-ha moment I had was this past year. I have been dieting most of my adult life, I consider myself a professional dieter lol. I realized that every time I went on a diet it made me resentful and angry, frustrated and just plain pissed me off. The rebellious side of me would deal with this for a little while and one day just say to heck with this and break out of “diet jail” and move into vacation eating mode. I realized that I felt as if a diet was a punishment, and in turn I used food as a reward. I had to dig deep and figure out what triggered those emotions every single time I tried to lose weight.  I finally realized it had a lot to do with my childhood and when I finally realized where my behavior came from I could finally change it. You see, I thought I could just be put into diet jail and be ok. But every time I would break out, I never dealt with the emotions that went along with it. I really didn’t think it was important at all to deal with it, I was so wrong! When I finally acknowledged exactly what I was doing, I started making new positive emotions connected with the new lifestyle changes and for the first time ever I don’t feel angry, resentful or frustrated. I feel positive, encouraged, and I am finding myself again. Here are some steps you can take to help you let go and move forward in any aspect of your life that is holding you back.

1- Realize what shaped your current behavior. This is a tough one, because you have to dig deep. You really have to understand where those feelings come from in order to change them. Making new emotional connections with your behavior is key to keeping the change.

2- Don’t be a victim of your life. Holding on to resentments and anger from our past just keeps us where we are. We have to let go of anything that happened in the past, ( I am not saying to forget it- impossible) but just let it go. The past is the past and it cant be undone. The future is yours, so take charge of it and build it on your own terms, not the ones chaining you to things that happened to you before. Forgiveness is a powerful tool. It can free you from what is tethering you to your past and keeping you from the future you deserve.

3- Make positive thoughts a daily routine. Negative thinking and negative self talk can trap you. Thinking in a positive way and encouraging yourself will inch you closer and closer to your goals. Believe it and you can achieve it, we have all heard that one before!

4- Write down your goals. This is a really important one, and seems so simple. By simply writing your goals (on paper- not in your phone) It connects to your brain in a way that your phone cant. You need to be super specific about these goals and put some action steps in place here. Consider this your rough draft of your road map. Dream big here, and know that no dream is too big.

5- Visualize your goals happening. This is something that I used to do all the time without even realizing it. A lot of those dreams and goals have come true! Your mind is a very powerful tool, the sub conscience doesn’t know the difference between a dream and reality. You need to see yourself where you want to be a year from now, or five years from now. You need to imagine it in great detail and make your mind believe it too. It is amazing what happens when the right people and opportunities arise just from doing this every day.

Every day is a new opportunity to begin again. Why not start fresh and start building the future of your dreams? What does that mean for you? I hope this helps you and starts you on the road to a new and more successful future! Please share if you got value from this and think more people need to hear this.