“You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.” ~ Zig Ziglar
I’ve learned by traveling the world as a motivational speaker that you have to know where you’re going before you can get there. When I left for The Biggest Loser in 2009, I knew two things: God gave me this opportunity, and it was my responsibility to act on it.
180 pounds was my destination – quite a long road from 430 pounds! But if I never set the destination, how I would I ever get there? There are two things you must know to navigate to your destination: Where you are and where you are going. The first step is to acknowledge where you are. If you don’t know where you are, how can you know where you want to go? You cannot heal or change what you don’t acknowledge. The second step is defining where you want to be. These destinations could be health, finance, relationship, career, any number of things. Only when you know where you are and where you are going can you then “map” a road to success. In my case, once I knew where I was going, and I had less than 7 months to get there, so I had to devise a plan for success.
Plan For Success in Health
I learned that 3,500 calories equaled a pound. I made a goal of losing of 1½ pounds per day – a 5,250 calorie deficit. If I ate 2,000 calories, I would need to burn 7,250 calories per day to reach my goal. This gave me a mark to hit – a target! Some days I would fail, some days I would succeed, and other days I would exceed the mark. The show’s nutritionist Cheryl Forberg and Trainer Jillian Michaels taught me what to eat, and Bob Harper and Jillian taught me how to burn calories – SWEAT! Then I hit GO on my GPS.
Plan For Success in Finances
This principle has helped me in areas other than losing weight. Finances are also an important area in which to plan for success. When you are in debt it can seem overwhelming. The reason I know this is because at one time Darci and I owed $62,700 of unsecured debt. Darci and I paid off that debt in just a few years – WITH A PLAN! On my YouTube channel you can see the video of Darci and me seen on Joyce Meyer describing our journey. It took a plan and self discipline to get there.
In marriage, it is wise to counsel with your fiancé and learn each other’s goals BEFORE saying I do! Then you can know where you both presently are and where you both want to go – and you can agree on plan for success in your marriage.
In whatever area you are looking to change – health, finances, marriage, parenting, any area – you must devise a plan. I urge you to find wisdom from good people who can help you such as your pastor, a counselor, or a trusted friend or support group. Those who have gone through The Journey Training have buddies and small groups to help when they need encouragement or ideas. Then you can follow a plan to focus on the future you want, not the future you just might happen upon! As Benjamin Franklin said, “If you fail to plan you are planning to fail.”
Who doesn’t love accountability? Well, at first thought, probably no one! The thoughts that run through my head are “I have to tell someone my secrets” or “I don’t want to have to answer to anyone else!” You might even be thinking, “I’m successful, I don’t need to be accountable. I’m accountable to myself.” Well, if the concept of accountability isn’t your favorite thought, then let’s explore the idea further.
I was on an airplane traveling to a speaking engagement a while back. While on a plane, I like to relax or read my current book or periodical. I left my book in the overhead bin because I wanted to relax. For some reason, I opened the seatback pocket and pulled out a magazine. I read about a high school runner who eclipsed the 4-minute mark for his mile and won the race that day. For a world class runner, that is a big deal – but for a high school runner, that’s amazing! But when you look a little further, you see that the second place runner also broke the 4-minute barrier too! When the winner was asked how he did it, he said, “Well, I was being pushed every step of the race. When I thought about pacing, there he was – right behind me. I would have never achieved this had it not been for my competition.” When the 2nd place finisher was asked how it felt to lose the race but break that milestone, he said, “I never could have done it had I not been chasing my opponent with everything that I had. I wanted to slow the pace, but he kept me accountable and I just ran!”
Accountable means “being responsible for some action.” Being accountable means to take responsibility for your actions; or equally responsible for your inaction. And let’s face it; it’s usually your inaction that keeps you from your dreams and goals!
The second place finisher may not have gotten the gold medal but he got something even more incredible – the achievement that most runners never see – a sub 4-minute mile! Who cares if you win or lose if you are that successful? I can’t sit here and say that if I had 10-million dollars that I would regret not making eleven!
Another situation can be seen on The Biggest Loser during my season of Second Chances. I had accountability out the wah-zoo! When people ask me how I lost 239 pounds in 210 days, I always cite the accountability factor. First, there was Rudy. He lost 234 pounds and 52.94% of his body weight. I beat him by losing 239 pounds and 55.58% of my body weight. When asked how I did it, my quote on the finale show was, “I’ve spent most of my time trying to catch up to this guy <pointing to Rudy>!” In fact, it is touted as the greatest race in the history of The Biggest Loser. On any other season except season 7 and 8, Rudy would have won – just like that 2nd place finisher in the mile. However, we needed each other to keep us accountable in order to accomplish what we did.
You see, accountability is not a bad thing; it’s the thing that will get you what you want the most – success! You need someone pushing you or you’ll never go as far.
In the Journey Training, we help people set goals and visualize dreams. Then they meet people in their own class to help them achieve those dreams – but only if they’re willing to be accountable! Remember, accountability = responsibility. That means that not being accountable = victim mentality! As for me, I welcome accountability – will you?
Here are some interesting facts about time:
- We all get the same amount per day
- How we use our time is a choice
- Once time passes, we can’t get it back
If we each get exactly the same amount of time per day, why can some people do more with it than others? Why are some wildly successful in their careers, family life, and passions while others seem struggle to just get basic things done? I believe the answers can be found in the second fact – how we use the time we are given is a choice.
I sometimes hear people say, “Everything comes easy for him” or “I’d be successful, too, if I’d been given the chance.” I even said, “He got his college paid for and his career handed to him” about one of my friends. And I’ve had people tell me, “Of course you lost the weight. If I had The Biggest Loser, I’d lose the weight, too!” Unfortunately this is all too common. We tend to make excuses of why we don’t have what we really want when it’s really more about how we use the time we are given.
Every person I have talked to who is successful in a business, their family, or their skill tells me the same thing – they’ve put the time in. They were handed a choice of what to do with their time – whether to watch TV or spend some time with their kids. Maybe to play golf on Saturday or to work on that client’s file they’ve wanted to land. Each choice is not right or wrong – but they do have a price & benefit. The price might be your golf game might suffer, but the benefit might be that you land those clients that make your business successful. The price might be that don’t get to find out who was voted off the island but the benefit is a closer relationship with your children.
Remember, the choices aren’t right or wrong, they are just different. What we can’t afford to do is walk around blaming where we are on outside circumstances instead of our choices. When we do this, we fall into a victim mentality – a mentality that we do not control our own destiny, but the things that happen to us do. We need to practice a responsible mentality – that we are where we are because of the choices that we have made. When we practice a responsible mentality, we can do the most important thing: change our choices to change our results! But when we blame our failures on outside circumstance and practice a victim mentality, we give away the very power we have to change our life – our right to choose.
I urge you to stop making up stories about why others are successful in an area and you are not. Ask them how they built their business, built their family dynamic, or became an awesome guitar player – I’ll bet they’ll tell you they chose to work their tails off and put in the effort to get what they really want.
Remember that friend of mine I thought got his college paid for and his business handed to him? Actually, his father made him pay for his own schooling, and he worked long, hard hours for the first 5 years of his business to build it to where it is now – a multi-million dollar company. So when I see him playing golf on Saturday, I know the truth about his success. He earned it – by choosing to spend his time getting what he really wants. And I lost the weight on The Biggest Loser by choosing to work hard – 7 to 8 hours per day – and no one handed me that. I worked for it!
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