As a personal trainer, and now as a Life/Wellness coach, there is one thing I can tell you with out a doubt.

The people who have achieved lasting success are those who can keep a completely positive attitude and stay focused on their specific goals.

When it gets challenging, even the best laid nutrition and fitness plans won’t help if you self-sabotage them with negative thoughts.

Thinking negatively about your ability to change will only attract more negative results into your life.

You may have the best intentions but still, you can’t seem to make it to the gym, or blow your diet. In fact, not only do you find yourself eating an irresistible bowl of creamy pasta, but you eat the chocolate cake too!

This is when you are likely to beat yourself up with negative thoughts, like “Why do I even bother? or I’ll never be able to lose this weight, I am my own worst enemy!”

How can you think positive and not self-sabotage with negative thoughts when the going gets tough?

Equally, how can positive thinking make you become leaner, healthier and more muscular?

Here is how it works… Your mind has two parts, the conscious and the subconscious.

The conscious part of the mind is for thinking, reasoning, and analyzing. The subconscious mind does not “think”.

It simply takes the information, accepts it unconditionally, unquestionably… even if it is not true, it carries out the programming you have given it.

Your subconscious mind is constantly being fed externally everything you read, hear, or see, or it is being fed internally with all your conscious thoughts.

The subconscious mind is the part that stores information to memory and creates automatic behaviors (habits) as well as automatic functions of the body.

What we do automatically (without seemingly thinking about it) are habits. Habits are just patterns… patterns can be changed.

Good habits can make our lives run smoothly and effortlessly. Bad habits can keep you locked in self-destructive patterns. This limits your success.

What your conscious mind is telling your subconscious mind may well be controlling your behavior. If for example, you tell yourself over and over, I can never lose weight, you probably will… never lose the weight!

This is because your subconscious mind will continue to lead you to negative behaviors or habits that support this belief, like missing a workout or sabotaging your diet, so you never lose the weight.

Obviously no amount of positive thinking will work without the action of healthy eating and effective exercising. The important message is that negative thoughts will program your subconscious mind and that will control your behavior, be it good or bad.

Positive goals that are continually reaffirmed in the subconscious mind will ultimately change patterns and create automatic habits towards realizing your goals.

When you make a very focused effort to continually think about a goal, you are reprogramming your brain, which in turn creates new behaviors (habits) that move you physically to what ever you have been thinking and focusing about.

You become successful as positive thinking is followed by positive action. When you do not pay attention to both, it can be very hard to be successful. So try changing from the inside first (the positive thought), and next everything else will begin to follow (the positive action).

It is important to focus your thoughts on what you want to achieve, rather than what you are trying to avoid. Energy follows thought. Taking control of what you say to yourself can re-program your mind with positive goals.

Negative thinking won’t go away just by denying it. Figure out where it is coming from, and change it to be more positive. You are in charge of what you think about, and whatever you think about expands… so by all means, think positively!

It takes practice to drop the bad habits and develop new ones that are in line with the new life you desire. What are the habits you have that are keeping you from your goals? What will life be like when you turn those unwanted habits into productive habits?

Take this action step. Become consciously aware of your self-talk. Really focus on it. Catch yourself when ever you say, “I’ll try, I should, I can’t”, and replace it with “I will, I must, I can”.

Catch yourself when you think negatively about your ability to change your body, then think of how to rephrase it in the positive. Write the positive thought down and practice saying it.

Listen to how other people talk. Do you know someone you really admire because they always achieve the goals they set? What do you think they are saying to themselves?

Never underestimate the power you have of focusing on what it is you want. You control your thoughts, and you can choose what you want to give attention to. No one else can decide that for you.

Having a mindset that is focused for achieving success can help you find personal growth in all aspects of your life. Learn to stay focused and have the best body you’ve ever had.
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Lauren Miller is a Professional Life Coach and Certified Personal trainer who specializes in coaching for weight-loss. Her company is Your Partner For Change.Visit her website at BestBodyMakeover.com.

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-What are some ways you stay positive in your outlook on staying fit and healthy, as well as in life in general?