How to Make Your Fitness Goals a Reality

 

Many of us would like to be thinner, more toned or more physically fit. Almost all of us feel that we could look better if we fitted into our clothes a little better and many feel that this would also give them a boost in confidence and general self-esteem.

The problem is making that happen. Because if you’re like the vast majority of people, then you’ve probably tried different diet programs and training regimes in the past without much success. What can you do to ensure that this is a different story? That this time things go to plan? Here are some pointers that can help you craft the body you’re looking for…

• Slow and Steady

The longest journey starts with a single step and the biggest biceps start with a single curl. The big issue that a lot of people have when it comes to setting their fitness goals, is that they make them far too ambitious. If you’re starting a diet that involves eating absolutely no carbs, or if you’re starting a training regime that involves working out for an hour and a half 5 times per week, then you’re going to struggle to adapt your lifestyle. Instead, use the ‘MED’ or ‘Minimum Effective Dose’ and then make sure that you don’t work harder than necessary in the gym.

• Set Yourself Up for Success

So that means taking up one of those easier workouts right? The ones that cram a short HIIT workout in after your work hours for example?

Maybe you’re tempted by the various different diet programs that claim they include meals that only take 10 minutes to prepare.

Be wary! While many of these programs sound quick, what they fail to mention is:

• The time it takes to get to the gym
• The extra washing that you have to do after training at home
• The time it takes to shower after the workout
• The time it takes to get back home
• How tired you’ll be following your workouts and how this is going to impact your subsequent productivity

Likewise, those diet plans forget:

• The time/money involves in acquiring all those exotic ingredients
• The prep time: chopping those onions, pre-heating the oven etc.
• The time it takes to wash up afterwards
• The fact that sometimes ingredients won’t be available, or you’ll have guests round

The point is: even the easiest routine is going to include hidden elements that end up taking up more time and stress. So your job is to try and edit the guidelines to fit your lifestyle and your routine specifically.

That might mean, for example, that you’re going to work out from home instead of at the gym. That way you can train in your underwear, meaning no more washing and meaning you’ll get less sweaty. It means you don’t have to travel too.

Likewise, think about recipes that will be genuinely easy to make and the tools and appliances that can help make them even easier still. Smoothies are more work than they sound because of the washing up – so try a NutriBullet!

Written by Yola Bastos
yolabastos@womenflix.org
https://linktr.ee/LifeCoachWomenFlix  
Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success!  
Women Flix Limited, a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ). 

The Inspiring Story of How Sylvester Stallone Went After His Dreams and What We All Can Learn From It

We all have goals and dreams that seem a little far fetched. Sometimes we hardly even admit them to ourselves, but then when we lie awake at night and we dream about the thing we always wanted to be. And we assume it can never happen…

Well, I am of the belief that you really can make anything happen as long as you have the determination and as long as you never give up. Sometimes it means working incredibly hard and sometimes it means taking the less obvious route to get what you want.

And to demonstrate, consider the case of Sylvester Stallone…

• How Stallone Landed His star-making Role, Despite Everything

If you’ve ever looked at someone highly successful and wished you could swap place with them, consider that they weren’t born that way – and that maybe they once thought the very same thing.

At the ripe age of 30, Sylvester Stallone had only $106 to his name and had been forced to sell his dog, Butkus. Those are some hard times.

Sly always wanted to be a film star but whenever he applied for roles, he would be turned down on the basis of his slurring voice and his heavy stature. He was considered only for roles like ‘thug 1’, never starring roles.

So Stallone stopped trying the same thing and instead turned to something else he was good at writing. Sly wrote the script for Rocky allegedly in a single night (though he returned to edit the draft many times) and submitted it to a producer after an audition that didn’t go that well.

The studios loved the story of the spunky underdog who came good and they offered him $300,000 to make the movie – roughly the equivalent of $1 million today! Remember: Sly has $106 in his accounts right now. But he turned them down and said he would only let them make the movie if he could star.

The studio was reluctant and offered more and more money. Eventually, they agreed to his terms but only on the proviso that he would take minimal pay and would have a tiny budget to work with on the movie. The rest, as they say, is history.

• What We Can Learn

The first thing we can learn from this is that it’s never too late to be what you always wanted to be. You might be jealous of other people right now but you’re probably on the right course – just stick with it!

The other lesson to take here is to stick to your guns – to know what you want and accept nothing less. Had Sly taken the $300,000, none of us would know his name today.

And finally, don’t always take the most obvious route to the top. If you’re not having any luck going the obvious way, then come up with a new strategy and get creative! There is more than one way to every destination. 

Written by Yola Bastos
yolabastos@womenflix.org
https://linktr.ee/LifeCoachWomenFlix  
Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success!  
Women Flix Limited, a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ). 

The Most Important Question to Always Ask: Does it Help Me Achieve My Goals?

Why do so many people not get what they want out of life?

Why do so many people find themselves falling into jobs they don’t really want? Or living places that don’t make them happy? Or with lifestyles that they find stressful?

How does someone go from dreaming of being a rock star to being locked in an office to enter data onto a spreadsheet?

Well, there are many factors. But it usually starts by not clearly defining your goals or what you want. Because until you know exactly what it is you actually want, how can you possibly expect to get it?

That means it isn’t good enough to decide you want to be ‘rich’, you need to know what you want to do to become rich. What kind of work you enjoy, how many hours you’re willing to work etc.

Likewise, if you hope to become a rock star, then you might want to think about how you actually intend to make that happen. What does being a ‘rock star’ entail for you and how are you going to make it happen? What would you settle for?

And when you make all these decisions, you need to ensure that this is truly what you’re passionate about – that your intended goal is something that you enjoy thinking about, enjoy working on and can’t wait to make a reality.

• The Simple Way to Make Decisions

The reason this is all so important is that it will then allow you to make all your future decisions that much more easily. This is going to act like your barometer and your road map, to help you to get to the end destination that you want. 

Now, whenever you find yourself making a decision, the question to ask is: does it help you achieve your goals?

So for instance, if you’re umming and having over buying an expensive piece of equipment, then the simplest way to decide if it is a good idea or not is to ask if it will help you to accomplish your goals. Likewise, if you’re unsure about where to live, or whether you should take a particular job opportunity, ask whether the decision is going to take you nearer or further from your goals.

The problem with many people who aren’t quite sure what they want is that their objectives end up on a kind of back burner and that other things seem to start getting in the way.

But if you really want to achieve something amazing – if you have a dream business idea that you really want to make happen – then you need to make this your priority and you need to change the way you think about everything else.

And it shouldn’t feel like a sacrifice either. Because if you really love what you’re working toward then it will mean fully embracing the thing you really want to be doing anyway. You just need to find what that passion is…

Written by Yola Bastos
yolabastos@womenflix.org
https://linktr.ee/LifeCoachWomenFlix  
Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success!  
Women Flix Limited, a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ). 

Yes! You Really Can Launch That Dream Start-Up Business

 

They say that all of us have a book in us but it’s also true that all of us have an idea in us. Nearly everyone will have at some point had an idea for a business, for a product, for an app, or for a service. We all have ideas that we think could make money, maybe even have a positive impact on the world.

The problem is that we don’t have the know-how to make it happen or the time. Or money.

So, the question then, is how you take that chance and how you build a business even if you don’t just so happen to have a ton of experience, financial backing and all the right contacts. Let’s take a look at what you need to do…

• Start Now!

The first thing to do is to start your business right now. Too many of us mistakenly make the assumption that we need to quit our current jobs and then put all of our resources, time and effort into our businesses. It’s ‘all or nothing’ and there’s no way you can start a business half-heartedly…

Except that’s not true. In fact, there’s no reason that you can’t start your business in the evenings and weekends. Even if you just start a ‘shell’ of your business, it’s better to test that the idea has legs before you invest a lot of time and money into it. 

Start a website in the evenings, start buying and selling shirts in small quantities with a small budget. Just start now and only once you know you can earn a full-time salary do you need to consider quitting your current job.

• Bootstrap

Another reason a lot of people hold themselves back from starting a dream business is that they don’t have the funds that they believe they need. If you’re planning on selling a product you invented for example, then you will probably make the assumption that you need to invest in a large order (called the MOQ – Minimum Order Quantity) to start.

In fact, though, you can once again get by without doing that. One way around the problem is to start your business with two revenue streams, or maybe three. Find a way to start raising capital through your other services or products and then only once you’re making more money do you invest in R&D or large bulk orders.

For instance, you might sell a hand-made product and use that money to invest in manufacturing!

Otherwise, you can also get funding in a range of other ways. How about Kickstarter? This way you can generate funds from the web and not even need to give away any of your equity! Or how about a PayPal loan that won’t impact your credit score?

• Fail Fast

Another tip is to create an MVP – or Minimal Viable Product – and to start trying to make money from it as soon as possible. This is simply a way to test your business model before you invest too much in it. Don’t make the mistake of investing in an idea that you have no proof will work and don’t put off getting your business up and running. You can refine it once you’re live!

Written by Yola Bastos
yolabastos@womenflix.org
https://linktr.ee/yolatvbastos
Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success!  
Women Flix Limited, a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ). 

How To Stop Holding Grudges And Start Forgiving People

Figuring out how to pardon someone who really wronged you is not an easy thing. Most time we imagine that we are over it and have forgiven them but in most cases, we usually hold a grudge against them. However, holding resentment only hurts you more. You only end up stressing yourself over it which cannot only cause psychological problems but also more serious health problems. It is therefore essential to learn the act of forgiveness and to avoid grudges.

Acknowledge the cause of the grudge.

To start with, try to find out the root cause of your grudge. You can only try to find a solution after you are aware of the problem. At times you may come to realize that you were just overreacting and holding a grudge over such a petty thing. Once you have seen the main problem you can then settle on a decision to push ahead from that point. 

Consider the positive side. 

Everything in life has its positive and negative side. Instead of getting angry other the whole issue, try and take it as an invaluable lesson to you. Take in an important lesson or leave with a superior understanding that can assist you to let go of the issue and not despise the one who wronged you.

Put yourself into their shoes. 

At times we may be quick at judging people when they do something bad to us but try fitting yourself into their shoes and you may get a better understanding of why they had to do what they did. This doesn't legitimize their actions; however, it will assist you to comprehend it. The better you understand their intentions, the easier you will find it to forgive them.

Share your thoughts with the other party.. 

A grudge could be as a result of just a small misunderstanding or by confronting the issue the wrong way. Without being biased clarify your feelings on the issue. At that point, choose if this is something you will chip away at in your own heart or by reaching the other individual to come up with a solution. Wait until you have calmed down and then confront the other party in a calm and non-judgmental way. You may choose to solve it among yourselves or try involving a third party. But regardless of the approach, this will help you to get rid of the tension built up in you allowing you to feel more relaxed.

Finally, forgive them.

Obviously, forgiveness does not imply that you will forget the whole incidence. It only means that you have accepted your disparities and acknowledged that we are all human who is prone to error. Forgiveness isn’t easy but it is worth it. It allows you to get rid of that burden off your heart, therefore, giving you peace.

Written by Yola Bastos

yolabastos@womenflix.org
https://linktr.ee/yolatvbastos  
Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success!  
Women Flix Limited, a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ). 

How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

Almost all of us have this one common destructive daily habit, that is, to compare ourselves to others. We compare houses, jobs, phones, cars, relationships, money, and social position and so on. What this habit does is creates negativity within us and this may also reflect in our behaviour. So what should we do? How can we get rid of this habit of comparing? If this is what you are now thinking, then the three tips given below will surely prove to be of help.

1. Understand that you never will win if you do not stop comparing

Even if you keep repeating this in your mind, and realize this consciously, it will help. Despite whatever you do, how much efforts you put in, how hard you strive, there always has to be someone who is better than you or has more than you.

Of course, you may feel nice if you buy a new smartphone which is better than the one your colleague has. But pretty soon you will find someone who has a phone better than yours. So, understand that comparing is futile.

2. If at all, compare yourself only to yourself

Rather than comparing yourself with others, it will be better if you develop the habit of comparing yourself to your own self. Sit back and think how much you have progressed, how much you have grown, and how close you have reached towards your aims.

This habit will help develop kindness, appreciation, and gratitude towards yourself as you notice how much you have done, and all the hurdles you have crossed. So you will be feeling good about yourself without feeling less of others.

It will be a good idea to make this a habit, say by spending a few minutes every weekend to write down how much you have achieved, how closer you now are to your life goals, what you have learned, etc.

3. Learn to be kind

Perhaps you never might have even imagined so, but the way you behave with others also has an impact on how you think about yourself. If you have this habit of always criticizing and judging others, chances are bright you will also criticize and judge yourself often, even if unconsciously. So, try to help others and be kinder to them and you automatically will learn to be kinder to yourself.

Just try to focus on the positive things in life, the positives in others, and the positives within yourself. The more you start seeing just the good things in others and in yourself, you gradually will stop comparing, and lead a happier and more satisfying life.

Written by Yola Bastos
yolabastos@womenflix.org
https://linktr.ee/LifeCoachWomenFlix  

Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success!  

Women Flix Limited, a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ). 

How To Find Your Calling In Life

Many people go around perplexed about their calling in life. Some might wonder what their calling in life has to do with anything. There is a good reason for people to think about their life calling. The reason is that most people need to feel a higher cause for their lives and existence. Most people have a spiritual side. They need to feel that they aren't born to just live through a series of experiences, just to die.

They need to feel that there are reasons why they experience the things that they do. They need to feel that they, or we can use the various experiences that we go through in life for a higher calling or good.

So, with all of this said, just how does one go about finding their calling in life? There are many ways to go about this task. For one thing, a person can set aside some time for contemplation and meditation. As a matter of fact, deep contemplation and meditation are necessary for this accomplishment. So find a nice quiet place that allows you to open up your mind. Think about the things that you have experienced so far in your life. Joyful or painful, those experiences have taught you something about people, and about yourself. Think about how you handled those situations. Did you learn how to handle the situation in a healthy way? Did you handle things in an unhealthy way? Do you know the difference? All of these questions and more can be clues to finding your calling in life.

Particularly for those who have lived lives full of pain and suffering, using those experiences to find your life purpose can be healing. If people thought that they were simply suffering in vain, then this could make a person feel that they have no worth, or that their lives don't matter. If they can share their sufferings, and how they overcame those sufferings, then they now have a life purpose. Their purpose could be uplifting others who have suffered the same fate. You could become a light of hope and aspiration to those who might feel that nobody understands what they are going through.

Another way to find your calling in life is to meditate and contemplate the things that make you happy, and that makes you feel joy. Wouldn't it be great to be able to use your energy, especially professionally doing the things that bring happiness and joy to others? Of course, it would! So take the time to calculate out how you can use your positive energy and light as the purpose of your life.

Finding your life purpose can take years, and sometimes it takes all of your life to look back, and realize what your purpose in life was. However, once you find it, you will find such a sense of fulfilment and peace that others who don't realize their life purpose will never have.

Written by Yola Bastos

yolabastos@womenflix.org

https://linktr.ee/LifeCoachWomenFlix  

Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success!  

Women Flix Limited, a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ). 

How Kindness Can Get Your Further In Life

 

There are two things I know for sure about kindness. 

1. Kindness is not weak.

2. Often, kindness not easy.

Kindness is often characterised as an individual who is missing his backbone. Someone who apologizes for something that's neither his responsibility nor doing nor who is standing in the background being trampled on and taken advantage of because he has no boundaries.

True kindness, however, is neither weak nor easy. It takes strength, patience, and wisdom to be kind. The "kind" acts that we do to be "nice" to avoid conflict, confrontation or seem to mean aren't kind at all. Unfortunately, by being "nice" we neglect the potential negative impact of our actions. 

Everyone has heard of people doing random acts of kindness and paying kind acts forward without expecting anything in return for themselves. The payout or payoff as many self-help people would say is that they get a good feeling and make their own lives happier just by doing kind acts for others. If you are kind to yourself, kind to others, and kind and gentle to the earth, as Michael J. Chase has said in speaking engagements, your life will be better. Also, your relationships are sweeter and your health is much improved.

Chase is a unique person. He did not experience much kindness in his early life; rather, he endured hard times that caused him to do much soul searching. Eventually, he had a startling and profound realization that completely turned his life around. Rather than keep this new knowledge for himself along, he decided to share it with others and teach them what he had learned. The main way he did this was to write a book about the philosophy of kindness, which explains how spreading good feelings helps everyone in the world.

He'll be the first to tell you that kindness is about much more than just being 'nice'. Paying for the coffee for the car behind you at the drive-thru is being kind, and taking brownies in for your coworkers is kind. As he asks in "Am I Being Kind" it's far more than just being nice, and once you discover these things deep inside yourself, you'll truly understand its full potential for enhancing your own life.

It's so easy to be kind if you just think about it as you go about your day. It won't take anything from your wallet, but it certainly pays in at least a moment or two of happiness for everyone involved. When you do something kind, hopefully, it encourages that person to do the same; and it continues from one person to the next and the next and the next. The result? A better outlook, a renewed sense of the good in others, a desire to be kind and experience the positive feelings for you and others. Don't just read about it here though, try it for yourself and see how your attitude and mood changes; it's hard to be negative or depressed after a simple act of kindness.

Even if you're depressed and feel like you have nothing to give to others, you should realize that this is not true. The next time you have that negative attitude, turn it around by doing something kind for someone else. Share positive feelings, and in turn, you will feel more positive about yourself and your life, and so will those around you. Everyone benefits when people are kind.

Written by Yola Bastos

Co-Founder

Women Flix

yolabastos@womenflix.org

https://linktr.ee/LifeCoachWomenFlix  

Women Flix, Supporting Women all the way to Success!  

Women Flix Limited, a company limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales (company no. 13047578 ). 

Embrace and Just Be Yourself

Fears, doubts and insecurities are all around us, outside and inside of us. Sometimes it may even seem easier to "just want to be someone else" as we wrap ourselves up in these negative feelings. The grass may appear much greener on the other side based on our perceptions and ideas. Which may or may not be slanted in the right direction, based on the past or current experiences we have had. The reality is often the exact opposite and others are more afraid than we are.

What if the person you think has everything going for them looks in the mirror and hates the way they smile, or how large they think their eyes are? What if everyone else in their family has brown eyes and they are made to feel out of place for having blue ones? If the messages they have heard from family, friends or loved ones has always been negative regarding a certain characteristic or feature, their self-esteem will have taken solid hits from that.

It's comical how others are envied for superficial beauty, wealth or relationships that people would fight to trade places with them because many of them are looking at us and thinking the same thing. You appear as the smartest person around and they wish they had the same people or conversation skills that you do. That feeling of quiet desperation to "be someone else" results in the lack of confidence, low self-esteem and any hope that we can ever improve our situations in life.

This is a perception and not your reality. Rather than spend your life wringing your hands about who you can't be, or what you don't have in it, concentrate on finding out how to make things better for yourself. Ask questions and find solutions to how to be a better person and to accept yourself for who you are. You can always learn new skills, ask trusted friends or advisers for areas they think you could improve in and how.

Just because that's the way "you have always been" doesn't mean that's the way you must always remain. Taking steps to self-improvement can open up new doors of experiences and opportunities for you. Then you can, in turn, inspire and motivate others.

Get rid of the regrets in your conversations with yourself and focus on being a first-class citizen in your own mind. Accept yourself for who you are, improve what and where you can and stop constantly comparing yourself to others. All of us will always be insecure at times but that doesn't have to be a life sentence for being unhappy. Loving ourselves no matter what begins with the act of self-acceptance. Once we achieve that, contentment will follow. 

How To Use The Law of Attraction To Reduce Stress

As much as stress is witnessed in a large portion of our lives, is it important that we practice and appreciate some of the best possible ways to help us calm down the nerves? 

Stress can manifest itself in many ways causing physical, emotional, or even mental issues. It is therefore very critical for stress victims to recognize the source of anxiety and find the optimal approach to either minimize or end it.

The law of attraction together with stress management can help you achieve the much-needed balance. And although most stress reduction techniques are subjective; meaning that what may work for you may not work for another, the law of attraction can work for almost anyone. The law basically uses the power of the mind to achieve a specific outcome where the conscious and subconscious thoughts are put into focus – It is simply using our thoughts to attract what we want.  

There are four steps to be followed when using the law of attraction to reduce or end stress:

1. Focus on what you want

This is achieved by focusing on your life and find out the main cause of stress. Is it your partner? Is it school? Is it work? Would you do a different job to have a piece of mind? – You should focus on what you really want and have a rough sketch of how you are going to achieve that.

2. Ask what you want

Once your focus is on whatever it is that you want, it is now the time to put the power of your mind to work. Let the universe and the energy of your thoughts work together; Choose a different partner, apply for a better pay job, ask for a raise, or you can explore your talent. Let people feel and know your desire.

3. Visualize whatever you want

To visualize whatever you want is to feel, behave, and act as if you already have what you desire. Positive thinking is critical in the law of attraction; negativity and fear should not be within you. Your general outlook should be optimistic then relaxation will follow. Pessimism and doubt should be avoided to have the law work according to plan.

4. Let go of your preconceptions

You never know; there may be another way to reduce your stress level that you’ve never thought of. It is for this reason that you should always remain open to other outcomes to improve your life. This can mean extra cash from working overtime, getting another job, or even getting your superior’s job.

The law of attraction is often used together with other stress relief options to effectively gain the desired outcome. The power of positive thinking is indeed a very powerful option. 

Written by Yola Bastos

Women Flix, Supporting women all the way to success.

https://linktr.ee/LifeCoachWomenFlix