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This article is by Kat Eden.

You’ve heard of the law of attraction, right? You know – that concept whereby all you have to do is close your eyes, spin around 3 times fast (clockwise, of course) and ….and you’ll get whatever you want? At least I think that’s how it goes? I mean surely there wouldn’t be anything more to do it like oh, action? Hmmm. Let’s come back to that.

Personally, I’ve long been an avid fan of the law of attraction. I truly do believe that you can create your own reality and I think each of is responsible for our current state, whether it’s your fitness or the way you look, or your finances, or the house you live in, the holidays you take – everything. I don’t know how far I really can take this concept – are people responsible for bad things that happen to them? I don’t think so. Some purists of the law of attraction might say so, and I get the idea of why should you be able to say you’re responsible for everything except the scary stuff?

Anyway. Let’s back up. As you know, my job for the past 11 years as a personal trainer has been to teach people how to take control of the way they look, function and feel. Over that time I’ve seen many people reach their goals – some seemingly easily, but most due to gritty determination coupled with more than a couple of oft-steep learning curves. When it comes to fat loss in particular, there’s often a little trial and error as we figure out not just what works best for the individual, but what they’re actually willing to commit to and follow through on. I’m sure you can relate to this from your own experiences.

The other side of things is not so pretty. As you can imagine, I’ve not only watched many people happily meet their goals but have seen countless people fail in their quest to achieve their quest for a healthier or ‘better’ body.

This is not because these people are less educated on what it takes, or not prepared to put the time in or ‘do what it takes’. In many cases they’re the people who put the most time in. It’s almost a bit of a theme – but not the only one. The other commonality I notice time and again amongst people who just don’t change is that they tend to have low – or at least shaky – self-belief. In some cases this is simply because they might be scared to fail, or perhaps because they really want it (fitness/fat loss/tone) so badly that they dare not believe they’ll actually get it.

And in some cases they truly just don’t believe they’ll ever get results. They talk about bad genes, or a demanding career, or sleep problems, or family problems, or – oh, any myriad of things that might prevent them from consistently following through on a goal and achieving success. Any myriad of things, in fact, that people who are in the greatest shape you’ll ever see also have to face and yet for some reason don’t consider a hindrance.

It took me the better part of a decade, but I’ve learned to refuse to even work with someone who comes in and announces flat out that they’ve ‘tried everything and nothing works’.

Have you really tried everything? Really?

Here’s my point. I truly and deeply believe that you can create the body of your dreams. In some form or another. If you want something bad enough, you will consistently do what it takes to get it. However many times you have to fail first. And if you don’t know what to do to get there, you’ll seek and seek and seek until you find out how or enlist the support you need. You will not give up, because you will so adamantly believe that reaching your goal is possible. When it comes to sculpting your body, I am so gee-darn passionate about this it’s not funny. I mean let’s be honest. Can you honestly say you’ve tried everything?

A great quote I read recently said the following:

Have you ever committed to one specific goal, which you are clear about how to achieve (you either know how to do it or know what education you need to learn how to do it), and then stuck with it for a long time, adjusting as you need to?Have you ever really done all the tasks that are supposed to lead to the result?

I can honestly say that when it comes to training, I do. I do what it takes. And when it’s not working, I read and I research, and I ask people, and I try something new, and I keep my mind focused on end outcomes rather than day to day frustrations. I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by peers who positively influence me, but a lot of it is just hard work. Especially losing the 17kg I gained during pregnancy this past year! So I sacrifice other things, probably too much so on occasion, and I just, well – make it happen. Because I utterly believe that I am destined to be in great shape.

Because I spent the first half of my twenties not feeling good about my body and that was enough for me. And because I refuse to live like that again. And sometimes I really just don’t understand why people can’t put the consistent effort in to be in shape, why they don’t give up sleep, or social activities, or make their day crazy-super-busy, basically just do whatever they have to do to get to the gym and eat good food. Don’t they really want it? Isn’t it important to them?

But this morning I realised something. I am a super-huge-hypocrite.

For the last few weeks (and this is a recurrent pattern with me) I’ve been moaning to all and sundry about how busy I am. How I don’t have time to relax and enjoy just being me, or a mother, or just being spontaneous. How I (not that I’ve actually said this, but it’s seems kind of implied) am clearly so important and busy that no-one else can possibly understand the stresses of my life.

And in just a couple of short weeks after returning from holiday I’ve quite literally run myself into the ground. I’m exhausted, my eyes are puffy, I woke up shaky this morning, and I just really really need to spend a day chilling out and having a couple of naps.

But I can’t. Don’t you realise how much I have to do? Don’t you realise how demanding my life is?

Bullshit.

At the start of this year I decided that 2010 would be my year. That I’d free up my time to enjoy my life more (don’t we say every year will be ‘the year’?!) Well I haven’t done it yet and there’s really no point trying to pretend that it will just automatically happen come 2011. It’s time for me to man up and admit that my life is this way because I choose it to be. Because I created it. And sure, I work for myself so I really did create it but even letting someone else tell you what to do all the time or demand unreasonably of your time is still something you choose.

There are always options. My options are to keep running from one project to the next so that I’m basically just moving sideways and round in circles but never getting ahead, to keep filling every spare minute to the point where my head is just jumping with all the things I should and could be doing even on the one hour a week when I might actually sit still and not try to multi-task to the max, to keep only half-engaging with my daughter, OR …. To say enough is enough and create the reality I dream about. To stop believing that it’s magically going to happen one day just because I think of it, and to actually Make. It. Happen.

How about you? What are your options? And what are you waiting for?

My challenge to you is to join me in making 2010 your year RIGHT NOW. It’s not too late.

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