Born To Win, But Taught To Lose!
By Dr. Frank B. Smoot, DD, MA GHF's
Success & Personal Growth Coach
One of the great tragedies of human life is that so many
of us have no idea who we really are, or how powerful we are capable
of being, or that having healthier bodies is much more within our reach
than we had imagined.
We are literally brainwashed as children and young adults
to believe disempowering things about ourselves and about life in general
that simply aren't true. These megadoses of misinformation we're exposed
to can result in low self-esteem, a bad self-image, and feelings of
powerlessness to be, do, or have what we want in life. As a consequence,
we live lives that are far below our potential, and much less satisfying
than we deserve.
The truth of this is easy to see by observing young children,
or perhaps by recalling our own lives before this destructive cultural
brainwashing had taken its toll. Children are full of optimism, excitement,
playfulness, and a willingness to dream big. But as life moves forward,
the prevailing cultural notions begin to slowly but steadily chip away
at their childlike wonder. They eventually become cynical, negative,
depressed, or even suicidal.
Think about it for a moment. Look around and see how many
people you can spot who are clearly suffering from chronic low expectations--who
are always expecting the worst in life, and usually end up getting it.
But even those of us whose afflictions are not so obvious can still
suffer greatly because of the untruths we've been taught.
Cultural Time Bombs
Not every limiting thing we were told as children had its
impact right away. Some of the verbal toxins took years, or even decades,
to kick in. They were "cultural time bombs," planted in childhood,
but timed to explode at point in our adult lives when they could do
the most damage.
How many of us were told that, "You'll never amount
to anything," or "You're not smart enough / pretty enough
/ strong enough to have what you want." Or maybe you were told
that you were too short, too tall, too skinny, or too fat to succeed.
Such statements generally came, not from the culture at large, but from
people we knew well, and often from our own parents.
While the impact of these messages may have been minimal
at the time of delivery, they were seldom heard only once. Instead,
they were typically repeated many times over many years. Since we saw
our parents and teachers as the primary sources of wisdom in our lives,
we had little choice but to give at least a certain amount of credence
to whatever they told us.
The overall effect was that these toxic, self-sabotaging
beliefs slowly but surely wormed their way into our belief system. Over
time, they made the transition from being other people's opinions to
being the undisputed truth. So, even if they didn't cause us significant
harm in childhood, they would have many more opportunities to do so
in our adult lives.
The Real Recipe For Becoming Overweight And Out
Of Shape
There is a popular notion in this culture that being overweight and
out of shape is something that "just happens" as we get older.
We often say justify it on the basis that it's an inherited problem;
We're overweight because our parents were. This simply isn't so. Genetic
obesity accounts for the tiniest fraction of overweight adults. We can
see the truth of this by thinking about the fat cats and dogs we know.
When you look at a fat cat sprawled out on the sofa, do you think, "Poor
kitty. It's the victim of genetic obesity." Of course not. You
know exactly why the cat is fat. It just eats too much!
Let's give ourselves the courtesy of applying the same
clear logic to our own lives. We're overweight because we eat too much!
We can look around and see that many people remain trim and in shape
because they don't eat too much. What is the biggest difference between
the two groups? It's those negative and untrue beliefs about who we
are, what we can do, and what we're entitled to have in our lives.
Your Past Does NOT Have To Determine Your Future
As adults, each of us needs to understand how we may have
been impacted by the culture we grew up in and, more importantly, by
the words of the influential people closest to us. If we are finding
it consistently difficult to lose weight or get in shape, it's a safe
bet that we've bought into some very disempowering notions along the
way that have now become beliefs.
Please understand, the fact that we bought into these self-sabotaging
beliefs as children is nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to be in
denial about. Quite the contrary, we need to see that all of us suffer
from this cultural brainwashing to one degree or another.
What we do need to avoid is keeping our heads buried in
the sand. If you have a history of struggling with fitness and weight
loss, you need to understand that the root cause of your problem is
in your own beliefs, and nothing of a physical nature. But you also
need to know that, until your self-sabotaging beliefs are identified
and replaced with self-supportive ones, no amount of messing around
with diets, exercise machines, drugs, metabolizer pills, or anything
else physical is going to bring you the safe and lasting results you
desire and deserve.
In all likelihood, you have decades more life ahead of
you. I'm sure you're aware of that. What you may not be aware of is
that you have a tremendous amount of power to determine how your future
life will be lived--including your level of self-esteem you get to enjoy
and the shape of your body you get to occupy. If you are seriously interested
in making your future better than your past, I urge you to take to heart
the message of this article.
If your current condition is not to your liking, there
is still time to do something about it. If you would like to know more
about how you can identify and replace any beliefs that are right now
lowering your quality of life, please click
here.
This article was provided by
Dr. Frank B. Smoot, DD, MA GHF's
Success & Personal Growth Coach. Click
here to visit their site for customized exercise and nutrition programs,
hundreds of exercise instructions and video demo's, a free fitness analysis,
and much more. Members now receive FREE fitness tracking software and
unlimited fitness consulting from 34 fitness, medical, and nutrition
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