During my workout, the idea to do a fitness bootcamp for people who want to exercise, but have issues with obesity. Many times, just like it was with me, these folks start off doing something, then fall right off for a lack of support. I believe that this is a part of something I am supposed to be doing. It’s all about giving back.

Even though I have not reached my goals, I have come a long way. I still consult with a group of extremely fit people so that I can continue to challenge myself and stay on top of things. My goal is to start this project on October 1, 2009. Now that I have put it out there, let’s see what happens when I take a leap of faith on this vision of mine.

Dreams mean work,

Lou Riley

It’s incredible to consider how powerful perception can be. We can convince ourselves of anything if we think hard and long enough about it. Sadly though, most of us allow the negative to enter our minds and become our prevailing thought. As the Law of Attraction teaches, we can make heaven or hell out of most things. So many of us have become used to disappointment. Bad things happen in our lives and it comes as no surprise. Some of us would admit to expecting things to go wrong. It’s almost as if we have built in mechanism designed to protect us from disappointment by never allowing us to have hope. This is why many of us never bother to thing big.

It’s even worse once we are in the midst of our depression. We already kick ourselves for the things we either have become or have not become. We drown ourselves in the problem and fail to give any thought to a solution. Things then begin to compound. We feel like we are holding on by the thinnest of threads with no solution in sight. Then, to pour water on your drowning spirit, you have people around you who fall right into misery’s trap. They offer no real words of encouragement. Only cliches and shallow quotes.

Such is the case with weight loss. Many have convinced themselves that being overweight is who and what they are. “That’s how God made me!” Some will explain. They have tried everything and nothing seems to work. To that, the voice in my head wonders if they have ever thought to try commitment. I don’t say this to sound rude or cold, however it has been my own personal experience that whenever I would commit to losing weight, things would work out in my favor. Sure, I could be biased, however, I have only my own story from which to relate. I would fail at losing weight whenever I would allow myself to stop believing. I had to learn the hard way. I got that covered, so now you can learn from my shortcomings.

This is why, in our moments of clarity, we must arm ourselves with positive people and positive talk and positive vibrations. These are the things that get us through the lean times. Those positive voices can be the very thing to move you forward to your next challenge. This is why I love self improvement/development books. I see so much of myself in them. They help me to better relation to people, places and things. It also helps to listen to the perspective of others who have been where you are and have made it through. I don’t focus on weight loss stories at all. Instead, I find books on how people go from nothing to something to be extremely fascinating. If you read and pay close enough attention, you will find certain secrets buried inside the pages. Those my friends are our solutions. Stop bathing in the problem. Knowledge is all around us. We only need to reach out and bring it into our lives.

Until the next time….remember:

Dreams mean work!

Of course this can slow us down a bit. It can break your spirit and kill our momentum if we let it. Let’s dissect this for a second. You find yourself becoming passionate about something you can see yourself doing. You really believe that you can make it happen. That thing has begun to wake you up early and it keeps you up late at night. You really think that you have finally found where you fit. You excitedly run to the people who you believe in most, be it family or friends. When you share with them your great revelation they laugh, shake their head and look at you as if once again you have lost your mind!

You will have to find a way to excuse them. You see, these are the people who have known the most intimate sides of you. These are the people who have seen you in your most embarrassing situations. Sometimes it’s difficult for them to picture you as being serious or committed to something because they had a front row seat to all of the times you were not. In their eyes, this is just another chapter in your book. It’s another phase you are going through and they wish you would just wake up and do like everybody else. Play it safe. Color inside the lines. Good enough is okay. I guarantee that the day you settle for what others expect from you when your own expectations are far greater, a part of you will die a little each passing day. You my friend have just given up on dreaming.

Author, James Allen wrote in his classic “As A Man Thinketh,” this excerpt in relation to dreams:

“The greatest achievement was at first a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg. And in the highest vision of a soul, a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.”

If that thing that has you so very excited is truly worth your time, do your homework. Pay your due diligence. Rip it apart and truly ask yourself if this is something you want to invest yourself into. Prayer and meditation are always recommended! Once you have made the decision for move forward, jump in with both feet, burn the bridge and don’t ever look back! Even in the midst of what some may define as failure lies a blueprint for the type of prosperity on a select few will ever know. Sadly, most of us will never do this. It’s just a statistical fact. Actually,only 3-5% of the population will find the freedom they see in their dreams. Maybe that’s why they control about 90% of the world’s money. That’s a completely different subject though….

Right now, I just want you to begin focusing on your dreams. If you don’t have any, get some fast. Your dreams are the only things that will sustain you when everyone else fails you. I recently watched a video where Tony Robbins explains that the only path to having the things you desire is to first experience them in your mind. If you cannot see yourself being successful, you will never become successful. That my friend is the dividing line between living your dreams and having no dreams to live for.

Until the next post….remember….

Dreams mean work!

2 Corinthians 4:16-17 verse

Blog Post #31

It takes more than me to be able to maintain my pace. This journey to losing weight has morphed into the journey to achieve success across multiple areas in my life. Although my videos and blogs have been from a “me first” perspective, trust when I tell you that I have a lot of others who have contributed to my effort. My good friend, who initially challenged me to get back on track was at the gym when I finished today’s Big Run. I told him I just ran 3.8 miles. He asked, “how do you feel?” “Pretty good,” I said. Then he says, “well hey, come work out with us!” I realized I had no excuse that would fly in on this occasion, so after running almost 4 miles in over an hour, I then underwent another hour of weight lifting and resistance training.

I remember just looking at the weights at some point during the workout because there was nothing in me that was saying I could do it. There he was in the background saying “Come on Louis Riley,” and in my sarcastic undertone I said, “yeah, yeah, yeah….” You see, its moments like this when you learn to appreciate how the mind controls the body. I had so many thoughts of I can’t running through my head, until it was slowing me down. I kept looking for a reason to accept the “I can’t” as my truth, but nothing would stick. I knew from a place deep inside that at least, it was possible…and if it is possible, then why not try. I pushed through fatigue and soreness and I completed the workout. I must admit, I would not have pushed myself as much if I were exercising alone. ‘

In every effort of success, we need to be certain we keep certain people around us who can see our lighter side and not settle for our darkeness. We all need someone in our circle who pushes us to become great. We need that someone who believes in us even when we may not believe in ourselves. I have a few people in my life who fit this description. I would supposed I am fortunate to have them. However, it sometimes takes a lot of swallowing my ego. As I state in the video associated with this entry, I have a rather high opinion of myself. When you tell me I can’t, I automatically think I can. When you doubt me, I want to prove you wrong. So when I hear criticism, like many, my first reaction is to push it aside because I feel like I am being attacked. However, I am built for success. I know that these people come from a sincere place. I listen to their opinions and I then allow it to run through my mental process so that I can pull the lessons I was supposed to learn.

Sometimes when we drop our ego, we will learn the it was standing in the way of what we really need in our lives….

Dreams Mean Work!

Lately though, I have been noticing a change in not only how I feel, but in my physical appearance. This happens a lot when I am lifting weights and looking in the mirror. It’s almost as if I can see what lives underneath the weigth I’ve put on. That’s a great thing because it gives me hope that I will one day get there.

One of the biggest changes I have make to my diet was to reduce the amount of sugars I take in. The best way for me was to drink more water. Juices and other beverages have been my biggest source of sugars. By removing them, I notice how the cravings I once had for certain foods. Without going into the science of this occurrence, I know that I have been able to restore a sense of balance in my body. Cravings , in many occasioins, are a sign of inbalance Restore your balance and reduce your cravings!

Dreams mean work!