Personal Development Quick-Start Guide - For Teens!

CHAPTER SIX - Responsibility and Commitment

So now you have your SMART goals ironed out and it'stime to GO, GO, GO!

However, as soon as you make a commitment to startmaking a change for the better in your life, you will find thatproblems will rise up unexpectedly and this will test you and makefollowing your dreams more difficult.

This is the point where many Personal Developmentexperts will push you forward with motivating comments like,"Discipline is choosing what you want in the end over what you wantnow" or "Everything is difficult before it is easy" or "Keeppushing towards your goals!" or some other statement designed tohelp you overcome this. I agree with all of this but that's notenough.

I feel that you need to be serious about what ittakes to achieve your dreams. Let's go back to the example of losingfat that I used in the "SMART Goals" section of this book. Evenif you achieve these goals, keeping them for the long-term will meanintroducing some dramatic lifestyle changes.

Have you seen those hardbody fitness trainer girlson Instagram, the ones with the amazing bodies, tight butts andamazing legs? She seems to spend all day in the gym, eats the rightfood, has her six meals a day all prepared in advance and is super-organized. How about you? Doyou live like that yet? I think right now that you are presuming thatyou can achieve what she has achieved by perhaps going to the gymthree times a week and downing a few protein shakes in addition toyour usual three meals a day and expect that will be enough to obtainthe body of your dreams. Maybe you hold down a 40-hour a week job,plus have responsibilities at home such as taking care of the kids.You need to face up to the fact that the way you live your life rightnow is NOT going to allow you to achieve the same body as thatfitness trainer.

However, there's no need to get downhearted. Take aproactive approach and do what you can now. Start off with whatevertime commitment you can afford and begin following your dreams. Asyou start making progress, some small gains and successes will comeyour way. Once you experience these modest achievements, yourappetite for making greater changes to achieve more will strengthen.You may find that after 12 weeks of muscle building and going to thegym for a couple of hours three times a week and eating one extrameal a day, plus a couple of protein shakes, you manage to put on amodest one and a half kilos of muscle. So then you look in the mirrorand think, "Right, so that's how much I can achieve doing what I'mdoing now. Should I continue at this speed or are there changes Icould make to achieve more in less time?" So you could do another 3months to get another one and a half kilos or perhaps add protein andcut carbs in your diet to bulk more "clean" or perhaps change toa more difficult workout, rather than increase the number of hours atthe gym. So you will slowly make the changes necessary to reach yourgoals. That's how the fitness girl did it and so can you. Ultimately,you need to realize that your dream life is obviously going to becompletely different to the life you lead now. You can't live yourdream and carry on with your life normally. It is absolutelyguaranteed to change as you achieve goals. So accept this reality nowand be prepared to accept changes in the way you live your life asyou progress.