“Fail to plan and you can plan to fail.”

Think of your plan as a road map and your goal as your destination. Without a plan and a specific goal, you are left without focus and can easily get lost or side-tracked. This happens all the time to people who, without much thought, join a gym or start running. They end up just doing whatever — no activity plan and no nutritional plan. Soon, they wonder why they are not making progress.

Having a plan lets you take specific action each day. There is no wondering or guessing — you just do it. A proper plan can provide the necessary structure that not only keeps you moving forward, it also helps develop good habits for activity and nutrition that will benefit you long after you have reached your goal.

“Believe you can or believe you can’t. Choose one and you’ll be exactly right.”

Once you have started on your plan, you need to believe wholeheartedly in what you are doing. It is important to stay focused and avoid overly-critical people. If you have to, don’t discuss your plan with people who say things like “you can’t do that” or “you’re wasting time and money”. Basically, do not let anyone negatively influence your success. When you have reached your goals, those same people will likely be asking for your advice.