Approach Must be Different

· Approach must be different; cannot do the same old stuff again.

· How can I be certain that I will not repeat the same mistakes again?

(i) I must understand my physical, psychological, and emotional makeup.
(ii) I must examine past patterns of behavior and pin-point the triggers to failure.
(iii) I must take what I learn and construct a plan or pattern of behaviors that will take these lessons into consideration and prevent them from reoccurring.

· Goals must be met; failure is not an option.

- Reward and punishment.

(i) I must increase emotional investment in my goals the pleasures of achievement must savored; the pains of failure must be real. The "quitters mindset" must be vanquished; there must be consequences.

· Goals must be specific; I must know exactly what I want to achieve, when I want to achieve it, and how I plan to achieve it.

---

· Preventing the same mistakes.

- I realize that I hate exercise and love food; I am a sloth and a glutton.

- Changing these deeply-rooted behaviors will not be easy.

- Physically, I have the strength and agility of a man many times older than me.

- Psychologically, my self-esteem and self-confidence are so low as to be virtually non-existent.

- Past patterns of behavior show that a break in routine will trigger an avalanche of unwanted behaviors. The biggest culprit is the missed workout. Missed workouts trigger more missed workouts until, eventually, I stop training entirely. This then leads to junk-food binges.

- Setbacks in my diet are a secondary concern. They can potentially derail a fitness program, but so long as training remains in place, I remain in fitness mode.

- Continuous training also wears down motivation and willpower. I must include frequent breaks in training.

- Progress towards goals must be monitored. Weekly/Monthly goals must be set and reviewed at every week's end.