Let’s talk about effort.

People really want to believe effort is a myth, at least if we consider what we consume in the media:

* politicians and beauty queens who get by on a smile and a wink

* lottery winners who turn a lifetime of lousy jobs into one big payday

* sports stars who are born with skills we could never hope to acquire

* hollywood celebrities with the talent of being in the right place at the right time

* failed CEOs with $40 million buyouts

* models with amazing bodies that don’t do a thing to look that way

It really seems (at least if we read popular media) that who we know and whether we get ‘picked’ are the two keys to success, in other words — LUCK.

The thing about luck is this: we’re already lucky.

We’re insanely lucky that we weren’t born during the black plague or in a country with no freedom. We’re lucky that we’ve got access to highly-leveraged tools and terrific opportunities. If we set that luck aside, though, something interesting shows up.

Delete the outliers — the people who are hit by a bus or win the lottery, the people with bad genetics, the people who luck out in a big way — and we’re left with everyone else.

And for everyone else, effort is directly related to success.

Not all the time, but as much as you would expect. Smarter, harder working, better informed and better liked people do better than other people, most of the time in everything they tackle.

Effort takes many forms.

Showing up, certainly. Knowing stuff (being smart might be luck of the draw, but knowing stuff is the result of effort).

Being kind when it’s more fun not to. Paying it forward when there’s no hope of tangible reward.

Doing the right thing.

We’ve heard these things a hundred times before, of course, but I guess for so many it’s easier to bet on luck.

What are you going to do, bet on luck or effort?

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The challenge is that consistent effort is VERY hard to maintain because our short term, irrational mind is constantly trying to sabotage us. It’s constantly trying to get us to bet on luck – because it’s easier, and there’s less discomfort required.

It’s like what Zig Ziglar said, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.”

That’s we provide daily and personal accountability, daily and weekly phone calls, relentless support, coaching, and motivation, plus a proven program and system that works. And that’s why we’ve been able to help 100’s and 100’s of people throughout the US and world get the body they want.

So, what are you going to bet on?

Why not make a 100% sure bet that you’ll get the body you’ve always dreamed of – OR, get your money back? (Yes, a risk free bet!)

Are you scared of losing hope?

Hear me out.

I know talking politics can be very dangerous but I’m going to take a risk here. Call me a crazy #%#%#$%^$^ risk taker, if you’d like.

I will preface this with: All politics aside…I think…

…President Obama won the election because his platform was based on hope. People wanted a change, and his story was perfectly crafted for those who did.

And people had hope that he was the right man to lead the change.

People needed hope.

Hope is everything.

Hope keeps us alive. It gets us through tough times. It gets us out of bed. It gives us things to look forward to. It keeps us sane. Hope is fun. Hope is filled with potential.

Hope is so powerful.

Here’s a question for you: have you ever feared that you’d lose hope?

Let me ‘xplain.

If we try our hardest, and work our smartest and failed at something, we’d probably be pretty bummed, right?

Let’s take high school, for example.

How many times did you try your hardest? Putting forth 100% effort in order to achieve a high grade?

If so, how many times did you fail? Did you not achieve a high grade?

I can’t imagine it being many times, if at all.

But sometimes we fear that if we put forth 100% effort and don’t succeed…then we’re really losers! Then we really can’t accomplish anything.

Then we’ll really lose hope.

And without hope what is there?

It’s way easier to think, “Yeah, I can do that if only I do xyz…”

It’s nice to keep that in our back pocket so to speak. It’s nice to believe that IF we turn up the effort dial, anything is obtainable. “But for now, I’m content. There’s no reason to turn up the effort dial. But I know I could do xyz, IF I really tried.”

Here’s my challenge to you:

If something is holding you back from becoming the person you want to be, or, from having the body you really want, or, from having the confidence you really want, or, from having the energy you really want…

Ask yourself WHY.

Are you scared of losing hope?

Are you scared of failing?

If we put forth 100% effort into whatever it is we really want, failure is not an option. It won’t happen.

It CAN’T happen.

It’s just that our short term, irrational mind is relentless. It won’t let up. Every time you find yourself focusing on the fear of failure or the discomfort try to focus on the possibilities instead.

“Hell would be seeing what you could have accomplished if only you tried your hardest.”

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And because our short term, irrational mind is so relentless, it makes change without any support, accountability, or inspiration VERY hard to create. We wind up taking 2 steps forward and 3 steps back. If you’re ready to finally end this cycle consider joining the 100% money back guaranteed program and system that has helped 100’s and 100’s get the body they want.

Summer is coming. Will you be ready?

Just like bodies in motion stay in motion, when we get into a rut, it becomes easier to stay in a rut.

When we fall into the habit of overeating or eating junk when we’re stressed, it gets easier to repeat that behavior.

One episode of late night emotional eating can lead to a whole week of late night emotional eating.

When our brain is under stress there is a vicious cycle that gets created. In a study of chronically stressed rats the brains atrophied in the areas of decision making, while becoming overly developed in the area of habit formation.

Scientists note that behaviors can stick more quickly in stressed animals than in the controls, and worse, the stressed animals can’t shift back to long term thinking, rational behaviors when that would be the better approach, of course. <--- A.K.A. a vicious cycle.

This might explain why when we're under stress we abandon all that we know - and all that we consciously want to do, and fall back into old habits. Or, maybe we can't break the bad habits to begin with.

Scientists note that we're lousy at recognizing when our normal coping mechanisms aren't working.

Our response is usually to do it five times more, instead of thinking, maybe it's time to try something new. <--- A.K.A. the definition of insanity --> Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.

So, even though eating junk doesn’t really help us feel better, we can’t stop ourselves from continuing to do it because we’re used to doing that when we’re stressed. It’s simply how our brains are wired to act when we’re under stress.

Although stress is a huge killer and leads to many diseases it’s also necessary for us to survive.

Fortunately, we no longer stress about what our ancestors did.

Our bodies have the most complex systems on Earth. What’s the benefit of our brain being prone to habit formation anyway?

Perhaps to help shift as many behaviors as possible over to automatic pilot so we can better focus on the crisis at hand.

And even if the crisis at hand is our boss yelling at us or our kids being disrespectful – if we feel stressed, we’re stressed. Perception IS reality!

What do we do??

Besides, taking a vacation and changing up our routine for a bit which can rewire our brain there is also a big opportunity for us to change…

If we can plan ahead what we’ll do before we’re stressed.

If we do that, it’ll increase the likelihood that we’ll actually start doing it when we’re stressed. Lucky for us our new behaviors will become a habit more quickly as well.

Our biggest opportunities for growth are always when we’re most uncomfortable.

Here are 5 ideas for you to use next time you’re stressed:

1. Listen to music.

2. Gather a few favorite emails or youtube videos that make you smile and read and watch the videos when you’re stressed. Be sure to save them all in one place so they’re easy to get to.

3. Get up. Take a big deep breath and go for a 10 minute walk.

4. Read a juicy gossip blog that might make you feel otherwise guilty for doing so. (We’ll feel way less guilty reading than eating!)

5. Call your favorite person.

Pick one and try it next time you feel stressed.

Though it might be feel uncomfortable at first (doing anything different, especially when we’re stressed will feel uncomfortable), if we do it the next time we’re stressed, it’ll be a tad easier to do it again and again.

If we look at each stressful situation as an opportunity to create new habits (and it is), it makes it less daunting.

And if you don’t like the ideas above (totally fine by me) it’s worth thinking of other ways you can calm yourself down. The key, of course, is to think about what we’re going to do…before we get stressed.

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I’m so sure of our program, I even offer a 100% money back gaurantee. That’s how confident I am!

So what are you waiting for? Join MBT today! (Got a question about MBT? Ask away here, and we’ll get back to you right away.)

There’s a story about a guy who attends a weight loss seminar, and complains to the keynote speaker that, despite trying everything, he can’t lose weight.

“You’ve tried everything?” asks the speaker.

“Everything,” the guy replies.

“What were the last hundred things you tried?” asks the speaker.

“Well,” the guy admits, “I haven’t actually tried a hundred things.”

“Then what were the last twenty-five things you did?” asks the speaker.

“I haven’t tried twenty-five things, really, either,” the guy responds.

“So how many things have you actually tried?” asks the speaker.

“Well,” says the guy, sheepishly, “maybe five or six.”

When “Seven” (we’ll use that as the fake name) first signed up, he told me he had tried everything and nothing worked. Naturally that excited me. It’s always fun to see if MBT is as effective as I think/know it is.

What happened?

After a week of working with him he wanted to quit! And remember before Seven started – he had told me that no matter what he’s done in the past, he couldn’t lose weight.

I was astonished.

You know why?

In our first week together, we lost 3 pounds!

This is truly fascinating to me…

But this is all part of human behavior. This is what keeps me so interested in this game.

I love exploring the psychological reasons behind our actions. After all, it’s all psychological.

Let’s talk about cognitive dissonance. This happens when we have two conflicting desires. For example, smoking. It is well known that smoking cigarettes can cause lung cancer yet every person I’ve ever met wants to live a long, healthy and fit life.

The uncomfortable tension caused by these two opposing ideas is known as dissonance. As humans, we look to get rid of this uncomfortable feeling. This is known as dissonance reduction.

The only way to get rid of this uncomfortable feeling is by a) quitting smoking b) denying that people actually get sick from smoking or c) justifying and rationalizing.

For example, a smoker could rationalize their behavior by believing that few people get sick from smoking, it only happens to people who smoke more than they do, if smoking doesn’t kill them something else will, they’ll quit next year or they only live once and they deserve to smoke.

In essence, they either need to take action (quit smoking and get whatever help they need <---- this is very hard!) or they need to make themselves feel better by rationalizing their smoking – which is what most people do (<---this is much easier and that's why most people do it).

Knowing this, let's talk about why Seven who has "tried everything" to lose weight, and finally did with MBT, wants to quit the program.

I'll tell you why:

F.E.A.R.

It comes down to either fear of change, fear of failure or fear of success.

Everything he says boils down to fear.

There's an old saying that I love:

"The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed."

In this case because Seven actually succeeded, he realized he was going to have to change for the long term. And unfortunately, real change is uncomfortable.

He got scared.

Because deep down, Seven wasn't ready to really change. He didn't think MBT would actually work. So he wasn't prepared to let go of emotional eating.

In his mind, he needs to emotionally eat and he can't imagine life without doing so.

His success made him fear the change.

So now, Seven's coming up with all sorts of excuses because he really doesn't want to change. His main excuse is that it takes too much effort to submit a feedback every night. Interesting.

Because he wants to change - but sorta doesn't want to change - that's causing a lot of dissonance or tension or discomfort (whatever you want to call it).

He has to get rid of that discomfort somehow...so he'll find anything and latch on to it so he can ease the tension.

(Ahhh yes...submitting a feedback is a pain in the butt and it takes effort. Yes!!! Whew. Now I can rationalize my excuse - and not feel as bad and quit the program so I don't have to change...because I'm really scared to change.)

The real problem ISN'T that it takes effort to submit a feedback. We make time for what's important to us.

The real problem is that he doesn't want to actually change. He rather just talk about changing. (We’ll work on this.)

Next time, we’ll talk about change.

Instead of criticizing or shaming him like so many people out there would do (because it’s the obvious and easy thing to do), it’s far more effective to help him understand his own behavior. (Shaming or criticizing never leads to long lasting change.)

Fighting human nature is silly.

Instead, when we understand what’s going on around us, it makes it a lot easier to call it what it is and move on.

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If you haven’t been able to get the body you want something is holding you back. And it’s probably not what you think it is. We’re incredibly talented at sabotaging ourselves. That’s why daily support, accountability and motivation is so important. MBT will help you understand your own psychology so you can finally end the sabotage and get the results you want – or, your money back.