4137: You Can Smash Your Goals with These 10 Principles by Lea Genders Fitness on Achieving Your Goals

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_02] Back to School starts now. Get long-lasting battery life on the Dell XPS laptop powered by Series 3 Intel Core so you can work from anywhere. Now starting at $699 with exclusive student pricing starting at $599. Complete your setup with savings on select monitors and must-have electronics and accessories. Limited time deals and free shipping on PCs and more await you at dell.com slash deals. That's dell.com slash deals.

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_00] Late night bites with friends? Already hard to beat. That first too hot bite of fries you couldn't wait for followed by ice cold Pepsi. Now that hits different. Suddenly the energy kicks back in, the night goes longer and the laughs don't stop because Pepsi brings out more flavor, more fun and more of the moment. Food deserves Pepsi. Grab a Pepsi Zero Sugar today.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_02] This is Optimal Living Daily. You can smash your goals with these 10 principles by Leah Genders of LeahGendersFitness.com and I'm Justin Malik. This is the podcast where I read to you every day, kind of like an audio book. But on Sundays I share an episode from a different podcast where we read to you. And today's comes from my brother's show, Optimal Health Daily. If you'd like more about fitness, nutrition, diet, and anything health-related,

[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_02] you can find Optimal Health Daily. You can find Optimal Health Daily wherever you get your podcasts. And you can even submit your own questions and have them answered on Friday editions of the show. If you do that, you'll get a copy of our Optimal Living Daily workbook for free. You can send a health-related question to health at oldpodcast.com and then listen in to that show on Fridays. Again, that's Optimal Health Daily.

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_02] But with that, let's get right to the bonus episode as we optimize your life.

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_01] You can smash your goals with these 10 principles by Leah Genders of LeahGendersFitness.com. When we have big goals, whether they are weight loss goals, business goals, performance goals, or career goals, I notice that there's a pattern that applies to achieve them all. It's no secret that I struggled with my weight for years. And years. Up and down, and down and up. It was a real conflict in my life until I cracked the code of a balanced and sustainable healthy lifestyle.

[00:02:36] [SPEAKER_01] Once it clicked for me, I was able to sustain my weight loss easily. I realized that when we aren't achieving our goals, there's either a gap in knowledge or a gap in behavior. There's something you don't know yet, or something you're not doing, or both. I was listening to a podcast about succeeding in the fitness business because, right now, a successful coaching and personal training business is my goal. I noticed a parallel line between achieving business goals and fitness goals,

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_01] and realized these principles that were discussed in the context of business apply to most anything we try to accomplish, including weight loss and fitness performance goals. Some people have been successful in business and can apply these same concepts to their health and fitness goals. I've been successful in fitness and realize I can take the same principles that worked for me in the past and apply them in my business. 10 Truths of Goal Achievement

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_01] 1. Progress won't be linear. There will be ups and downs along the way. Expect them. Be ready for them. Some people get devastated by dips in progress or a plateau in weight loss and quit before they see results when it's all part of the process. Know that it's coming, and you won't be surprised by it. Keep moving forward. 2. There is no shortcut to success. It seems everyone is selling the magic pill.

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_01] It's a moneymaker because we all want it, the shortcut to success. 3. It will be hard. 3. It wouldn't be meaningful. Nothing worth achieving comes easy.

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_01] It's the struggle that makes it much more meaningful once accomplished. If you expect it to be easy or without failures, you'll be disappointed or overwhelmed. Use the tough experiences to build mental strength and resiliency. Overcoming the hardship is part of the process. 4. Trust your ability to figure things out along the way. We can never know everything. 5. It's advisable to do your research and be prepared, but you will never truly learn until you start to take action.

[00:04:57] [SPEAKER_01] We sometimes are paralyzed by information. Read another blog post. Take another course. Buy another book. Listen to another podcast. You can never consume all the information available. Sometimes a better strategy begins with the first small action to see where that leads you. Trust in your ability to figure things out along the way. You are a smart, capable human who can do hard things. Look at the hard things you've figured out in your life so far. 5. Seek support of your community.

[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_01] Pay attention to who claps when you win. Surround yourself with people who can support you in your goals, whether it's for advice, help, or moral support. Pay attention to who claps when you win, and more importantly, who doesn't. It's easier than ever to find people on the same path as you. Look for people ahead of you for guidance, people in the same place as you for support, and people behind you that you can help. No struggle is unique. Together we can achieve anything.

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_01] If you need assistance, ask. A mentor, support group, or coach can help. 6. Celebrate small wins. When we have big goals, the finish line is far away. And spoiler alert, there is no finish line. So, we need to remember to celebrate the small wins along the way. Set small, attainable goals on your journey to success. We can't control the outcome of most situations, but we can control our actions and the process we follow.

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_01] Did you work out four days this week and eat protein at every meal? That's a win. 7. Think and act like the person you want to become. When faced with a choice, try to think and act like the person you want to become. In a weight loss scenario, one might pass on the dessert, or not skip a workout because that's what their inner buff self would do. In business, it might be to pick up the phone to make a connection with a local business owner.

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_01] Think bigger than your current state. Ask, what would future me do? 8. Your environment matters. Set yourself up for success by setting up your environment for success. Make it easy to make the right choice and inconvenient to make bad decisions. Surround yourself with the people, places, and activities that bring out your best self on your way to achieving your goals. 9. Get comfortable with sucking and being uncomfortable.

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_01] We aren't born perfect. Not even me. Shocking, I know. When we make changes in our lives, try new experiences, meet new people, learn new skills, sometimes, usually, we suck at it. It's normal. Everyone sucks in the beginning. Keep going when it's uncomfortable. That's a good sign that you're on the right track. 10. Habits matter more than motivation. Start to build habits around the behaviors you want to model.

[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_01] Motivation wanes, inspiration fades, and willpower is fleeting. Habits are ingrained. It takes time to develop the habits, but it's time well invested. Habits are the secret weapon to goal achievement. When you don't have motivation, inspiration, or willpower, habits take over. If you are intentional about your habits, success comes naturally. What daily actions do you need to take to reach your big goals?

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_01] You just listened to the post titled, You Can Smash Your Goals With These 10 Principles, by Leah Genders of leahgendersfitness.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_02] Support for today's episode comes from Square, the business platform that helps sellers become neighborhood favorites. Payments, point of sale, online orders, inventory, staff, all in one place, so you can focus on your customers instead of your to-do list. One thing about my favorite gelato place, besides the flavors, is that I'm always done paying in seconds. Tap to pay, receipt in my inbox, and the person behind the counter is actually talking to me instead of messing with a machine.

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER_02] That's Square. When the tools aren't the focus, the human part of the business gets to come forward. Square helps you run your business more smoothly, bringing payments, operations, and insights together in one place so you're ready for whatever's next. Right now, listeners can get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com slash go slash old.

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_02] That's S-Q-U-A-R-E dot com slash go slash O-L-D. Get started with Square and build a setup that works the way you do.

[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_00] The perfect lunch combo. That first bite of your favorite sub, followed by ice cold Pepsi. Add a couple of friends, and now that's next level. Suddenly, the laughs get louder, the stories keep flowing, and the food tastes better. Because Pepsi brings out more flavor, more fun, and more of the moment. Food deserves Pepsi. Grab a Pepsi Zero Sugar today.

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_01] Dr. Neil here for my commentary. I want to go back to Leah's eighth principle. Your environment matters. I'm a big fan of this principle. It often takes very little time or effort up front, but can make a big difference when it comes to our behavior. That's why I'm such a fan. For example, I've talked about how, if we want to consume less processed foods, simply move them out of sight. Then, in their place, swap the more nutritious foods that you want to eat more often.

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_01] And this isn't just my opinion. Multiple research studies have found that this trick works. In fact, I'll share with you results of a fascinating study that was conducted at a Southern California school. Researchers wanted to encourage elementary school students' consumption of white milk, as opposed to chocolate milk, for example. To do that, they made simple changes within the cafeteria. They increased the number of cartons of plain milk on display,

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_01] and then moved those plain milk cartons near the front of the cafeteria line. Just by doing those two simple things, white milk selection increased from 14% to 30% of total milk selected. Fascinating, but we could argue that, well, kids generally like milk, so it probably wouldn't take much for them to buy more of it. Would these small changes work for something that's usually a tougher sell, like veggies?

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_01] Well, sure enough, they found that, when they placed salad in a clear container, as opposed to a more opaque container, they took it. The researchers also added more fruits and vegetables at the cash station, or the impulse buy station. That's what we would call it in grocery stores. And again, these small changes increased how often vegetables were purchased by these students. Okay, now we could argue that the students may have bought these vegetables, but they probably didn't eat them, because that's a whole different behavior.

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_01] Well, the researchers looked at that too, and they found that not only did the students buy more vegetables when they were placed in clear containers and placed near the cash station, but they actually ate them too. The researchers found that the students' consumption of vegetables increased, are you ready? by 76%. So, all of this to say, that small changes to the environment may change behavior. All right, that'll do it for today.

[00:12:23] [SPEAKER_01] I hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you so much for tuning in, and be sure to come back for more OHD tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits. for today's tastes.

[00:12:33] For now,