Leaning Into It 🙂
I just took a big leap and am starting my first real monthly newsletter! For those that joined, expect the November edition next week! Before hitting the “Send” button I had butterflies in my stomach because I knew I would be reaching out to friends, family, colleagues and clients that I may have not talked to in months or years! I kept thinking, “What will they think? Will they reject my newsletter? Should I do it?” Then I clicked “Send” and felt 10,000 times better. First, some background on how I came to this point and secondly what does that mean for those of you thinking about making a healthy change in your life and have put it off…until now.
FIRST:
For about the past 18 months I’ve been meaning to start my own wellness newsletter. But every time I really thought about it I always came up with an excuse like, “I’m not an RD yet” or “I’m too busy with other things” or “What if I can’t think of anything interesting to write?” or “What if no one joins?”. Excuses are easy to make because they help you rationalize the status quo. I didn’t have a newsletter before, and I didn’t have one after. But eventually (thanks to a handy book that I read, see below) I realized that all along my desire to start the newsletter has always been the same:
I really want to reconnect and stay in touch with everyone that I’ve met in my life
I want to do all I can to help those that stay in touch with me to have a better, happier, healthier life!
When I really thought about it, all that held me back was my fear of failure. And I rationalized it for the past 18 months. That all changed about 2 weeks ago when I was inspired by a book by Jack Canfield, “The Success Principles” to really just “lean into it”. At that point I not only got my mind, but also my heart into my desire for a monthly newsletter. And over the past 10 days I got everything ready and sent it out! It’s only been an hour but I’m already getting lots of responses and hearing from people I haven’t talked to in ages. It really feels amazing! And now I need to make a newsletter, but I’m not worried about content because I’ll be writing my best. I’ll be writing my best because I’m writing for the people that I care about the most…the people I’ve wanted to stay in touch with through the years!
SECOND:
When making a healthy change (eating better, moving more), it’s easy to rationalize putting off the change. “It’s the holidays.” “There’s a birthday dinner this weekend.” “I’ve had a long day at work.” “There’s no food in the house.” “It takes too much time to workout.” I could go on. But what’s really speaking? Is it you or is it your fear? What happens if you chose to eat better during the holidays? What happens if you chose to go to the gym after a long day at work? How would you feel? You would probably feel better! You would probably say, “I’m glad I decided to do that”. The hard part is deciding to. And the decision is based on your desire to.
Why do you want to go to the gym, or choose to eat more healthfully? When you know the “why” behind the decisions you make, the decisions don’t seem so hard anymore. My “why” was I wanted to stay in touch and be of service those that I have connected with throughout my life. With a “why” like that, I can’t believe I didn’t get the newsletter started sooner!
Choose a healthy change you want to make in your life today, right now, this second. Ask yourself why you want to make the change? Then ask why is that “why” important to you? Your “why” has to have some emotion attached to it, not just be a rational thought. Wanted to eat better to lose weight is fine, but why do you want to lose weight? For you? For your kids? For regaining control of your life? You’ll know when you hit the right “why” because all of the excuses will go away, you will motivated to make the change, and you will “lean into it”, one bite and/or one step at a time!
TELL ME: What healthy change will you lean into today???
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