It’s an advantage in nearly every organized sport there is, individual or team. It’s call the home field or home court advantage. And what this means is that the athletes who play on their home field,court or pitch nearly always do better than if they played on somebody else’s home base.

This blog is about giving yourself that home court advantage. It’s about all the things you need to do to make sure you’re  going to always get the most of every day of your challenge, even if you’re not really AT HOME.

1. KEEP A JOURNAL EVERY DAY. This is truly the most important thing you can do. Your journal should have your meal plans, your workout plans, dates and times, and your goals. With a journal always with you, there will be far fewer missed or incomplete meals, and missed or half-baked workouts. this will make all the difference in the world in your final results. Most lapses in diet result from failure to prepare, and most failures to prepare come from indadquate planning.

2. KEEP AN INSPIRATION WALL! Kelly Adair, in the video Success Stories, shows Bill Phillips her wall  that was filled with inspirational photos of successful athletes and bodybuilders. She said she looked at them while she was working out, and that she imagined herself looking just like them some day. I think I also read that she also imagined that they were “cheering her on” in a sense.  This may sound like corny stuff, but these things work. Story boards, walls of inspiration, and things like that help you to VISUALIZE exactly what you’re doing and where you are going–strengthening and quickening that mind-body connection that has helped so many.

3. WATCH INSPIRATIONAL VIDEOS! I mentioned the Success Stories video, and there are two others. Kelly Adair watched continually the full length movie, Body of Work, that is about the first ever contest, and there is a Success Stories 2 video. These can be purchased and are available in a packet from Body for Life. If Body for Life doesn’t have them, you should be able to find them on Ebay or Amazon. I have watched every one of these videos more than 30 times each, and they never fail to make me more inspired than I was! They are fuel for the will and the spirit!

4. GO TO A COMMUNITY EVENT–OR SEVERAL! The key to staying power is having a really good reason to do this. And having lots of good friends to encourage you in your BFL journey helps tremendously. Having online friends is helpful, for sure. But, having real life friends, with whom you can laugh, cry, hug and all that other stuff is just plain precious. You can meet many of your online friends at events in Kansas City in June, Knoxville in October, and perhaps others as well. These are events sponsored by private associations wanting to help you succeed, and they are the thing that get me going more than anything else. I’m not the outgoing type, either, but I just love going to these events, and you will too. There are links to the events I mentioned on my website, www.mikeharris.org if you’d like more information on them. They are inexpensive, and indescribably inspirational!

Well, that’s it. With these home court tools, you might not win every battle, but you’ll sure finish and finish strong! I guarantee it!

I’ll bet some of you have ideas as well. I’d love to hear them.