You and I wish for a life that is purposeful, meaningful and complete. What lies ahead is a conversation with which you might like to engage in privacy, to know what I did whilst failing.

If we aspire to look and feel good that will need us to look and feel fit from within, and that demands discipline that will need a turnaround and disruption of what your default day looked like. Now you will have to make time, eat better, workout or play sports, BUT the past experiences and the story that we told ourselves every time we failed will talk us out of it.

This is what worked for me: A repeated commitment that one makes daily to try “One More Time”. This is simply reinforcing and very effective.

The Process: Consider how you would feel as a person if you did achieve the goal; consider downsizing the effort to the minimum (even if it means just walking to the gym and back); consider evaluating options on your gym wear; consider the possibility of meeting new people; consider a convenient time that you will not skip; consider a date and time to get started; consider writing all of these down in as detailed a fashion as one possibly can; since what is written becomes an intent, and when read a few times, enforces a commitment upon which one will act. A day before you start the journey, put your gym wear in place, set an alarm, wake up to its first tone, and get to the gym (even if you hate it); this simple act is not just a step but a leap as it reaffirms your commitment to the journey on which you decided to embark. Coming back home, relive the experience of having done things exactly the way you had planned, and give yourself credit whilst at it. Journal your journey, for it then gets engraved, and commit to repeating the action ONE MORE TIME. This is a process that one could inculcate in every act… Repeat a set ONE MORE TIME, skip the junk meal ONE MORE TIME… With each effort, be it ever so subtle, one would alter the course and the destination. It’s never been about the goal, but always about becoming the person worthy of it, that gets one to the goal.

This is a universal formula that one can apply to every aspect of life, even to breaking in or out of a habit, belief system or behavior pattern. The one illustrated above is about making a habit, but one could use the same technique to break one; for instance if one is challenged by an eating disorder or food craving, they could consider delaying the urge ONE MORE TIME; maybe still consume what they obsessed about after a while. BUT the very act of being able to mindfully delay the urge empowers one to know the power they have over the craving. In time one can even do without giving into it after the delay.

Choose what serves you well and act on it even if you do not want it or enjoy it; be reassured that when one persists one has no option but to manifest, and that which will manifest is of your own making and not by accident. Take pride in the new you that’s in the making.

Closing the communique with a quote by Zig Ziglar:

“Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.”

You have an obligation to be and to discover being the best version of yourself, and here is an easy hack that you might want to consider: “ONE MORE TIME”!

Ajith Anirudhan
“THE LISTENER”
Life Empowerment Coach|TEDx Speaker| Public
ACC™ | CCA – International Coaching Federation (USA)