How you can start losing weight or quit smoking immediately.

There’s spring cleaning happening at home, because of which once a while a a golden old memory in form a photograph await me, daddy and Ali when we return home from work. Have a look at the picture on the right. That was me 10 years ago, delivering a speech at a Toastmaster club (click here to see a complete picture). I was 76 Kgs+ in weight, with a 36 inch+ waist line and be it motu, fatso or fatty I’ve been labeled it all. The picture of the right is a much recent photo. Today I’m 67 Kgs, my 34 inch trouser falls off occasionally and now I get told again and again ?Gosh Arif, you’ve lost so much weight.? and you know what? I can’t get enough of it ?.

There?s magic in persistence. When the same mundane task of exercise, or learning or teaching is repeated over and over again, those are necessary ingredients of the potion of success being brewed by the gods in heaven.

Who’s a big shot? It’s just a little shot who keeps shooting. We’ve all heard of Edison’s tale of the 1453 times he failed to get the light-bulb to light up. Or you might have heard of Colonlel Sanders who offered his secret receipt to 343 restaraunts before it got accepted by one. Well, what’s your story? Do you have one? Which is the one boring, repetitive, traumatic task did you do over and over again till you were ready to puked; and then still did it once again. The moving of Tectonic Plates is slow. Really Slow. Painfully Slow. And so is the growth of tree, the development of a baby. But it’s truly before you even realise, time has gone by? and then you have a continent, a mighty oak, the smile of a beautiful child being returned to you.

Here are tools/tips/resources that have helped and are still helping me achieving many of my goals that involve same repetitive tasks. Each of this resource deserves a blog post of it’s own to do it justice. Some of them are so powerful that they’re would not just change your life but if implemented with the right goal they have the strength to change communities and generations for the better.

Power of Affirmations:
I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but just by repeating positive statements you actually do get to make HUGE habit changes in yourself. Yes it’s sound hokey-pokey silly, but blimey it’s effective. How do you make affirmations?

Step 1:
Well, just like an effective ad gets you for eg. picturing yourself driving that new car, in the same way, project a picture of yourself. Project a picture of youself after having made the habit change that you want and see how glorious it feels. Then write those feelings down. Eg.

– I feel Strong. I feel Mighty. Now that I am going to the Gym everyday in the morning.
– It feels wonderlful to be able to take full deep-breaths now that I my lungs are smoke and nicotine free.
– I’m the darn best salesman in the world. Just watch me make my next sale, baby. I rock!

Step 2:
Then keep it with you in a place, so that it is always with you or in the place where you are bound to read it everyday.

Step 3:
Attach reading of your affirmation to something that you do everyday without fail. For someone it would be their morning cup of chai, for others it would be waking up. Then just read through all your affirmations just once, picturing yourself in each affirmation. Do it day after day. That’s it.

Here’s the affirmation that got my teeth to sparkle more:
Wow, what a gleamingly clean feeling it is to have sparkly flossed teeth.

Since I’ve been repeating this, I’ve rarely missed a day of not having flossed my teeth for almost 6 months now.

Becoming a fitter me, having a fresher breath are just two of the many benefits I’ve experienced through affirmations. I was just as an unbeliever as you are now reading this. But try it out. Do it right now. Grab the closest pen and the closest piece of paper and right that affirmation that occurred to you when reading this and then stick that piece of paper in your wallet, so that it’s with you always. Go on, it’s alright to be a skeptic, as long as you are a healthy one. If it works good, great, super. If not, toss it out of the window and carry on with life. It requires no great length of time, no superman type effort, just a little discipline with tremendous results.

Ps. If you still don’t like making affirmations, make an affirmation that goes like, “I Love making affirmations and I love reading them every morning.” That’s the first one I made.

Tools to track your progress:
Once you’ve identified the activity that you need to do regularly, you would need a way to track how regular you are either to celebrate your progress or to get you motivated to buck-up if you’ve slipped. Here are 4 tools to help you stay on course. Any one of the below would be fine, see which fits your bill.

1. Online Web Solution:
In my opinoin this is the best tool I’ve come across to help keep track of habit changes. It’s a website that called Joe?s Goals. You can download a screencast here that explains how to use it. But it’s so gosh simple, just click here, open an account on the home page and start tracking your goals.

2. Offline Software to Track Tasks:
If you prefer an offline version to track your goals, and not in the mood to tinker around with Excel, then Sciral Consistency has a solution for you. Similar to Joes Goals, you put in your Goals in the left hand side coloumn and place a dot once you have done your deed for the day, everyday. That’s it. It has got some pretty good reviews too.

3. Tips on how to track Habits in Microsoft Outlook:
Michael has explained how he tracks his “Daily Disciplines” in this useful post. Quite handy for those who are on Microsoft-Outlook environments. Michael also explains how he automates the appearing of his “Daily Disciplines” into his Outlook tasks here. I use Microsoft Outlook to track habit changes and use the “Regenerate Task 1 day after completion”. That works for me well.
4. Paper based Solution
And if you would want nothing of this tech stuff, Productivity501.com have a prepared a sweet looking pdf that you can print and pin up on a softboard or slip below the glass sheet on your table-top. This pdf is available to those who subscribe to their RSS feed (which I have in my NetVibes account too), instructions on the best way to use this habit-tracker are available here. Here’s a small screen shot of the PDF:

Two really great books
The Dip. The War of Art. Enough said. Two of the best books (the best. No exaggeration) on overcoming your resistance and sticking to what you do & quiting what you don’t till you become the best.

These books are nothing short of being a hard kick where it’s deserve most (ie your backside) to drop all excuses and get down to business. For now I’m just giving a double-thumbs up recommendation for both. Looking forward to do a review of these in the coming weeks, stay tuned on this blog for it.

So, what is the one activity that you found too boring or painful to repeat yourself to do? Look back in your life. Was it exercise, learning a new art, some skill that you always admired in someone else, maybe it was to groom yourself to be able to speak well in public or maybe it was just to learn a language. Sure it’s boring, you bet it’s painful, but do realise that anything worthwhile achieving always is. Time flies. If you have been even half-motivated when reading this, don’t waste that boost. Get to making your affirmation immediately and make use of the first tool that your heart set upon. Good luck and see you tomorrow at the Gym.