Alex Shalman.comPractical Personal Development

My friend, and future Doctor, Sofiya, shared an inspirational story with me the other day about an acquaintance of hers. We’ll call this acquaintance Margie (not real name).

Margie is a classic example of a girl with no discipline, who let herself go, and was basically shunned by boys because of being overweight, having a low self-esteem, and being a social misfit of sorts.

Margie would complain that guys always treated her badly, and that at 21 years of age she was still not able to forge an intimate connection with a member of the opposite sex. She knew that she had to change, but her chief complaint was always “I can’t.”

I think we can all relate, whether by being there ourselves or knowing someone who wears the “I can’t” attitude around with them, that this is one of the worst mental states to be in. While Margie said she couldn’t lose weight, or didn’t know how, people like Sofiya and other people in Margie’s life would always think to themselves “Of course you can, plenty of other people have, and so can you.” I’m just not sure if enough people were straight up with Margie, or kind enough to zap her into consciousness and get her to take action.

“If you’re one of those people who goes around saying ‘I don’t know what to do,’ please believe me when I tell you that no one around you actually believes your story. You’re more transparent than you realize. To other people it just sounds like pointless whining.”
~Steve Pavlina in Your Wealthy Avatar

If we take a good hard look at some of our excuses, chances are that we’ll be able to laugh and see how ridiculous they are. I mean, come on, people with far less than you and I have accomplished far more.

Discipline: From Rock Bottom

This story might have a happy ending, maybe. I don’t know where Margie will be by the end of her life, but a part of her story stood out in my mind that I wanted to share it with everyone here… with the world.

One day Margie woke up from a night of sleep, I’m guessing it was on a day that she just couldn’t take it anymore and hit something like rock bottom, and decided that from this day forward she would no longer bite her nails. If you’re thinking what does nail biting have to do with weight loss, and how is this going to help her get into a relationship with someone that will be nice to her, then let me explain.

As a side story, I remember listening to an Anthony Robbins audio program, where he described a huge business transaction that he was doing with a very beautiful and powerful woman. The deal was all locked, they were just about to sign on the dotted line and go for dinner, when the woman noticed Anthony’s nails as he was going to sign the contract. His nails were bitten. The woman declared that because Anthony did not have the self-discipline to not bite his nails, then she did not want to do business with him, and the whole deal was off right then and there. Lesson learned.

Margie declaring that she would not bite her nails from this day forward, and as far as I know she hasn’t, was like doing a small workout for her discipline muscle. When we’ve let ourselves go, our discipline muscle has become flabby and atrophied. In order to build it up, we have to work it out by starting small, and then working our way up to bigger and better goals.

Jim Rohn would relate this type of behavior to doing pushups. Do 1 pushups if you can, and rest, then do another. Keep doing this until you’re strong enough to do 2. Rest in between, but don’t rest too long, because if you don’t keep at it, the muscles are going to get weak again.

On a random day after conquering her nail biting habit, Margie woke up, and declared that she would lose 10 lbs of fat from her obese and neglected body. With the confidence of her nail biting conquest to motivate her, and remind her that she can do something she puts her mind to, Margie went on to lose those 10 lbs without a problem. A few declarations later, and Margie has lost a whopping 50 lbs of fat.

From what I hear, Margie looks significantly better and healthier at this point, but still has a lot of work to do. I’m sure that her new found discipline is affecting all areas of her life. I wish Margie the best of luck in succeeding to conquer all her goals in life, and I’m sure that she will meet that special guy, when she’s made herself attractive enough inside and out.

The moral of the story is, stop complaining, stop making excuses, and make a declaration that you will not stand for being less than you can be. Start small, take action, and keep building up to bigger and better goals to create the very best version of yourself that you can dream up.

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