The month of December is a very busy month for many of us.

Lots of meetings to meet at, parties to party at, gifts to give, people to see, meals to share, work to get done, dinners to dine, things to take care of and the list goes on.

You know how in the movies the volume gets louder and louder as the actor is thinking through her list of what needs to get done faster and faster, until finally, the persons head explodes because they’re so overwhelmed?

Well, it seems as though many of us feel like that because we just have so many things to do.

And we’ll wind up doing a majority, if not all, of the things we commit to do. Why? Well, because we’re very good at keeping our promises to other people.

But when it comes to ourselves? Forget about it.

We all have great hopes for the day. For the week. And for the coming month. We start each day with promises that we intend on following through with.

Yet, statistically many of us aren’t going to.

So what can we do?

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz in their book, The Power of Full Engagement, describe a study in which a group of women agreed to do a breast self-exam for a period of 30 days.

100% (yes, 100%!) who said when and where they were going to do it completed the 30 day exam. Only 53% of the others did.

In another study, drug addicts in withdrawal (can you find a more stressed out population? I also think many of us are food addicts so we can relate) agreed to write an essay before 5PM on a certain day.

80% of those who said when and where they’d write the essay completed it! In this case, NONE of the others did.

That’s pretty amazing.

If we want to get something done, decide when and where we’re going to do it. Otherwise, don’t expect to do it.

Tip: On your Daily Feedback tell us what time you intend on exercising and where. In fact, for any task that makes the outcome list write when and where.

Let’s go! (Right now, wherever you are)

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Before we know it, January will be here!

If you’re thinking about making 2011 the year of getting the body you want – make sure you have some sort of systems and methods to maintain ongoing accountability. Because without it, it’s extremely hard to stay consistent. And we all know consistency is the key to our success!

MBT has been proven over and over again with our unique system and methods. And just to make sure it’s risk free for you to try, we offer a 100% money back guarantee! If you have any questions about our program, or would like to chat about your personal goals, click here to contact me right now. I read and reply to every email.

But when we make time to exercise, as opposed to finding time, it’s impossible to miss a workout. Because we made time.

I don’t care as to when you exercise. I care as to if you exercise.

However, some of us are apparently busier than the busiest people in the world because somehow we can’t – even though they make time to exercise each day.

So this inspiration is dedicated to those who need more time. Since we can’t create more time, we need to get more done with less time.

Sounds good right?

Did you ever hear of the zone or flow? The zone is often said when athletes are on fire. For example, it felt like Michael Jordan was often in the zone. He wouldn’t miss a shot for a span of 10 minutes.

When we’re not thinking about anything else in the moment but the task at hand we’re in the zone.

Chances are:

-You have a lot of goals/tasks/to-do’s floating around your head that need to get done
-You never know if you performed (i.e., you won or lost)
-You have the tomorrow disease. “If I don’t do it today, I can always do it tomorrow!”

Performing at our peak takes getting into the zone or flow — with one distinct, clear goal that lets us know if we succeeded.

Here’s how we know if we succeeded or not —>

-If I accomplish X in Y minutes/hours, I win!

-If I don’t accomplish X in Y minutes/hours, I lose!

Psychologically giving our selves a win/lose scenario gets us going and performing!

The losses also give us feedback on what we can do to win in future scenarios. (i.e., not check email every 5 seconds, stop visiting Facebook, not reading xyz blog until we finish the task at hand, etc.)

So the question is how do we get into the zone in our every day life?

-Choose something you want to get done or start getting done in the next 5 minutes. (It can be as simple as cleaning the kitchen floor.)

-Set a timer

-GO!

You = in the zone!

Use the above model to tackle all sorts of stuff/goals/tasks/projects

We all love games! Make it a game. Keep track of your win/loss record.

And you’ll be performing ridiculously more.

Or, you can just perform the same amount you currently do, and have a lot more time…

time for…exercise!

Of course, a lot of our stress comes from the gazillion things we need/want to get done. If we can get more done, we’ll be less stressed and be less likely to emotionally eat.

Try it.

On your marks.

Get set…

Go!

Whether it’s year end preparations or gift giving, it’s hard not to get overwhelmed.

Most people resort to eating. It’s a quick way to feel better.

The problem though, is that it’s temporary. It’s like a 2 minute band-aid. Who wants that? It’s much more effective to get to the root of the problem.

The most common feeling people want to get rid of is the feeling of being overwhelmed.

Let’s noodle on how we can do that:

1. Let’s all agree that eating isn’t going to make your to-do list get any shorter.

2. What does help is planning ahead, getting organized, asking for help, and as much as possible, being in the moment. (Read: Toothbrush meditation)

3. Honesty is everything. If you know the times, as well as the activities that overwhelm you the most, why can’t you ask for help or plan for them even more than you usually do?

How to do that you wonder?

We all have good intentions that don’t ever get fulfilled. We all have to do-lists that are multiplying faster than ever before.

I just said the answer.

Write it down somewhere!

You’d be amazed at what gets done when you make a to-do list and keep a schedule. It gives us great satisfaction when we can tick things off our to do lists. And schedules make us feel safe!

So many people are amazed at how well they do when they plan their week and weekends out in advance.

One of the reasons why I love doing it so much and why I stress it so much on the Daily Feedback under outcomes is because tasks like the ones I’m talking about take up space in our head.

If we keep having to remember them that’s using up valuable mind power. And it makes us stressed!

Instead – just write everything down! This way you don’t have to think about it again. You can let your mind take a rest so it doesn’t have millions of ‘to- do’s’ floating around.

The ideal way to do this is to plan your week out in advance and then plan your day out in advance the night before. You’d be amazed at how much more relaxed and in control you’d feel if every night when you were doing your feedback you were working off your master list (that you should always keep with you).

You’d also be amazed at much less stress you felt because you wouldn’t feel as overwhelmed.

The more you can work on becoming less stressed – the easier eating healthfully is because your emotions will be a lot more in check!

Simple yes. Insanely effective? Check!

When in doubt: Just write it!

1. Go directly to the gym on the way home from work, if possible. Bring a gym bag with you. Going home and then changing and then re-bundling up is going to make it that much harder for you. So just go directly there!

2. Workout before you shower. Since time is limited (when is it not though?) – instead of having to shower 2x per day, just plan your workouts before you shower.

3. If you’re going to a holiday party – make it a rule that you must workout that day. Whether it’s in the morning, afternoon…get it done. It’ll help you feel fantastic and you won’t want to throw in the towel on your diet.

4. Never go to a holiday party hungry. But we know this. This is by far the most important rule.

5. Instead of just cooking one healthy meal at a time like chicken, etc., why not cook a large batch one time? Put the extra in the fridge and viola – you have healthy meals ready to go and for when you come home (maybe a little tipsy from a party) and want something nutritious.

6. Work out!

Exercise – if you push yourself enough – will make you feel fantastic. It will also make you realize that you work very hard in the gym and you won’t want to negate all that hard work outside of the gym.

I find I enjoy eating healthfully more when I’m consistently exercising because I want my body to recover as good as it can by feeding it what it really wants – which feels really good.

What a great tip you say. Workout! Duh.

But I mean, even if you do 20 push ups or jumping jacks before you go to a party, it’ll help a lot.

7. Piggy back it! The more you plan ahead, the better. Go to the gym after you do errands, etc., is obvious but not really (or else we’d all do it). Doing this has made it almost impossible to skip workouts! Piggy back it. Do it after something. On your way home! On your way somewhere.

8. Don’t leave things until the last minute. When you’re stressed your mind doesn’t or can’t grasp anything and in turn you won’t do anything. Buy your gifts now if you haven’t. Do your work that might be due by year-end. The more you plan ahead, the less stressed you’ll be!

Think about what you can do the next few weeks to make it as easy as possible for you to feel as good as possible!

In other words, set yourself up!

So, you find a local gym or pool club. Maybe there’s even a public pool that you weren’t aware of.

Then, you look online to find a swim instructor. After plenty of wrong numbers, you find someone who’s really passionate about helping people learn how to swim.

Next, you need to get the gear! You look online and find a bathing suit. Ohh, there’s one you like. Eh, you don’t really like it, after all. You go to another website.

You find the bathing suit. Ugh, it’s not in stock! After spending 3 hours searching you finally find the one.

What about goggles? Can’t swim without goggles!

The big day comes. It’s the day of your first lesson.

You realize that you don’t have any shoes to wear by the pool! Whoops! You can’t swim without shoes to wear around the pool!

So you cancel and reschedule.

You’ve done everything you could possibly do BUT swim.

Sometimes, no matter what, we just gotta jump in the pool.

It’s like the monster I always talk about. Once you see it, it’s not so bad.