Creating a weight loss goal is a fabulous step toward achieving the body you have always wanted, but your weight loss goals shouldn’t negatively impact your life more than they improve it. To receive the absolute most benefit from your upcoming goal-driven life changes, you have to want to go through the process of change. That is to say, you should aim for achieving your weight loss goals with a positive, determined mindset.

Don’t Let Your Weight Loss Goals Consume You

Losing weight does not have to be about suffering, and shouldn’t be. Once you have made the firm decision to lose weight, follow through with that decision with a sense of knowingness that you will achieve your goal, and enjoy the activities needed to reach your goals. With this mindset, the actions you do to achieve your weight loss goals will be enjoyable, and the best part is that you know there will be a great reward.

It is true that the way you think really is the cornerstone of reaching your health and weight loss goals. The mind is a powerful tool, where science has even begun to recognize that your thoughts are powerful determining factors in your overall health, and that your mindset can ultimately create — or delay — self-healing. Similarly, the way you think during your weight loss journey has everything to do with your happiness levels, whether you’ll achieve your goal, and whether you will sustain your achieved goal. Creating and pursuing weight loss goals isn’t only about achieving a better body; hopefully during this journey a change in thinking and lifestyle will also occur, and ultimately your overall health will boost.

While losing weight could be extremely helpful for enhancing your health and transforming appearance, the process won’t have a complete positive effect if implemented along with extremely high stress levels. Attaining a great body and great health is not about trading one thing for another; stress is not a necessary ingredient in reaching your weight loss goals. If you’re experiencing a great deal of mental stress while making the necessary lifestyle changes, view the stress as an indication that thinking needs to change.

Don’t let your weight loss goals consume you. Here’s 3 essential keys for success for any life goal.

They say the subconscious is more powerful than the conscious. Usually, people are more influenced by their innate subconscious desires or intent than a rational and planned decision. This aspect of human nature is heavily influenced by your daily activity.

How Corporations Influence Your Subconscious

In western society, the subconscious mind of the individual is often subject to a number of heavy influences, through entertainment mediums especially. Television, movies, and music create a profound subconscious effect on the human mind that influences and dictates the choices that they will make to at least some degree.

If you see a certain car advertisement, whether or not you rationally decide your stance on it, you are being pre-programmed to at least accept or acknowledge any claims made by the advertisement itself.

Likewise, the choice of television shows and dramatic elements appearing on TV have a psychological influence on those who watch them. According to statistics, by age 18 the average American youth will have seen over 200,000 simulated acts of violence. The glorification of drug and alcohol use predisposes an individual to rationally accept and sometimes consent to these actions.

The human self image is psychologically manipulated. When you compare yourself to a famous individual or a person who is depicted as ‘successful’, you may be setting yourself up to subconsciously feel less valuable from the comparison. This subconscious act creates people who are wildly insecure about their physical and mental image.

Romance and sex is also psychologically implanted through advertisements and drama. The use of sex appeal to sell products is obvious. Similarly, dramatic scenes of love and romantic feelings often prey on the human desire to feel loved, and will program an individual to act or react to those situations in certain ways. Displays of sexual suggestiveness and simulated depictions of sexual relations in media all contribute to influencing increased sexual activity in young people. Not only that, but they also lead to unhealthy obsession with sex into later years, generally resulting in pornography usage.

Its not just television and movies either. With internet advertising, viral videos depicting most of these things in horrific detail, and video games, a horde of negative media pervades over society. This power of subconscious influence guides and decides the goals, desires, and opinions of each individual.

A blurring of reality with fiction occurs in this scenario, where the individual is influenced to orient themselves in alignment with these false goals and aspirations that are implanted into them through these mediums. In extreme cases, their ability to distinguish reality from fiction is impaired, and culminates in some explosive form. If you add drugs to the entire equation (legal or illegal), you may end up with self destruction.

Unplug Yourself from Subconscious Influence

If you are  aware of the psychological programming, you can intellectually dissent to it, despite the fact that its continued appearance will dull your senses to how serious the programming actually is. People who are exposed to simulated violence, sex, substance abuse, and drama often become upset, whereas the average person may simply accept these things as easily as they have incrementally conditioned to lose perspective.

It’s highly important to be aware of the psychological programming that occurs on a daily basis. People are taught to live in a simulated reality, with pre determined goals, aspirations, and false expectations. Unplug yourself and others from this form of subconscious influence, thereby unlocking your full potential- rather than being unconsciously controlled by a vague ideal or false images.

In reality, a New Years resolution isn’t much different than any other resolution made on any other day. But still nearly everyone takes this time to set a new goal. Actually, the goal set is often the same as the previous year since people seldom follow through with their New Years resolution. Interestingly, not achieving that specific goal each year is making the following achievement that much more difficult due to so many subconscious past ‘failures’. For this reason it is very important to follow through with your goal setting, and here are a few extremely beneficial tips on how to do so.

Always Think About Your Goal

Thinking about what you want is the first step to achievement — after identifying what you want of course. You can put up memory triggers around the house such as post-it notes, computer backgrounds, pictures, books, or anything that will make you think of the goal you want. You could even place an object on the floor and give it a hidden meaning related to the goal you desire. Each time you walk past this object, you will notice it and therefore think about what you want. Do not think about what you don’t want, think about what you do want. For example, think ‘I want to be thin’ instead of ‘I don’t want to be fat’.

Avoid Anything that Says “You can’t do it”

While the subconscious negative thoughts stemming from all the past ‘failures’ are making things more difficult, you certainly don’t need to surround yourself with other things or people that amplify that feeling of failure. It is all too often that we set our own goal only for our closest friends and family members to knock us down. It is unfortunate that this happens, but it is very much a reality. While you can’t always completely avoid these people, and probably often don’t want to, you can avoid getting into conversations that lead to the put down of your goals. This negative influence around us is a huge factor in why so many people discontinue their resolution so early, and while it often seems difficult to solve, you can do it if you have true determination.

Set a Goal You Know You Can Achieve

Another very common mistake in goal setting is setting the bar too high. We’ve been conditioned more or less to aim high and shoot for the stars, and while that kind of thinking can be fantastic, it usually leads to too far-future, difficult goal setting. A resolution of losing 50 pounds may sound better than a resolution of losing 10 pounds, but what if you don’t achieve the goal? You have just made a subconscious negative ‘you can’t do it’ in your head, and that will work against your next goal. If you do achieve the loss of 10 pounds, however, it has just been proven that a you can really achieve what you set out to do. Once you achieve that goal, you will feel so good that you’ll set a goal to lose another 10 pounds, and you know you can do it. It is better to aim for 10 and lose 12 than aim for 30 and lose 25.

Unfortunately, these are very real reasons goals are not achieved. People all too often read these kinds of messages and then experience a surge of inspiration and motivations, but before the next day arrives that feeling vanishes. Constantly think about your goal and consistently know you can do it, because you can.

Millions of people each year commit themselves to their New Years resolution. The percentage who actually stick to their resolution is shockingly low, with 75% of people failing to complete their desired goals. Setting goals is an efficient way to increase both productivity and motivation, but you must be setting the right goals. You need to set goals that last – a lifetime goal.

The majority of people who commit themselves to a New Years resolution end up dropping it after the second week. Some even turn apathetic after only one day. Their lack of self control is not the determining factor when it comes to sticking with their goals. When someone makes a New Years resolution, they are setting themselves up for a short-term goal. Sure, some people are able to go through with their resolution rather easily, but obviously these people are not the majority.

Health = Wealth

If you told your friends that tomorrow you’re going to be a millionaire, they’d think you were crazy. If you told them that you’re going to take the necessary steps to open up your own business and make money through selling a useful product, then they’d probably think quite differently. Your health is the same way. Getting in the best shape of your life takes a commitment. This commitment must be made with the understanding that it does indeed take time for your body to change the way you want it.

Whether you want to lose weight, gain muscle, improve digestion, or feel better all around, it will still take time for your body to adapt to your new healthy ifestyle. Of course with this comes the change you desire. The reason for making a lifetime commitment over a New Years resolution or a “spurr of the moment” decision is that it will truly stick. Plan out your goals, and decide how you will ease into them.

Adapt to your new schedule

With News Years resolutions comes hasty decisions. Don’t jump into the extreme end of your goal the day you set it. Your body needs to be able to adjust to your new food intake and/or exercise routine. You can’t expect to throw around 500 pounds weights your first day at the gym, and you can’t expect your body to take on the physique of Hercules due to your recent change to a salad-based diet.

In order to meet the end result of your lifetime resolution, you must first know what exactly you want to obtain. Start by brainstorming (and eventually writing down) answers to these key questions.

Why am I unhappy with my current state of health?
Where do I want to be in 6 months?
A year?
Where do I want this goal to ultimately bring me?
How will I accomplish it?
How will I make it coincide with my daily activities?

Planning is key. Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. You do not want to make a change in your lifestyle that will eventually cause you to be so stressed out that it actually ends up negatively affecting your life. When you sit down and consider all of the options and implications, it’s rather simple to place things in the correct order.

Be sure to start the right way and end the right way

The last thing that anyone wants is to find out that they’ve been eating the wrong way or training the wrong way for the past 6 months. Please be sure to check out these vitally informative articles, as they will ensure you start and end the right way. While it’s a good idea to focus on one that is closely related to your goals, it’s a good idea to read them all to make sure that you develop your health in every way possible. Balance is the key to health, whether you are seeking artery health or six pack abs.

Nutrition: Where to begin?
Cut Your Cardio Time in Half and Get Double the Results
Have you been training the wrong way? (Part 1)
Stretch Like a Pro: Guide to Stretching
Vitamin D Tied to Weight Loss

Making a lifetime commitment is extremely rewarding and fulfilling. Don’t wait until the new year to create your goals. Change your life, not the first two weeks of January.