One of the primary principles in a challenge is to visualize the kind of body you want, the type of life you desire, and to then set specific goals that will take you to or at least nearer to that ideal. There seems to be a very strong correlation between what a person visualizes and works toward, and the outcome of the transformation. Remember Hank Johnson from the Success Stories video? He was the guy who visualized himself with Frank Zane’s body. And he looks like a slightly leaner and darker Frank Zane in the end! So, developing that art of visualization, and using the mind-body connection for all it is worth, will truly help you obtain the results you need. So long as you have faith; so long as you don’t continuously doubt. Lack of faith is like a bridge that is out on the road between where you are and where you want to be. Or maybe more like a crimp in the air hose that supplies the oxygen you live on. However you view it, lack of faith–doubting–is a real stumbling block to many challenges. Though it seems like it just came up spontaneously, such as when you looked at the before and after photos, and wondered if they really could be real, the truth is that lack of faith and doubting is a mindset you’ve had for a long time. People get into one of two habits, positive thinking coupled with positive actions, or negative thinking (doubt) coupled with negative or no actions at all.  Listen to the speech patterns of someone around you who is always failing at things. You’ll hear “Isn’t that just my luck?” Or, “well, wouldn’t you know it?” A person without faith  learned probably back in his  childhood that he didn’t deserve much and really shouldn’t expect much from others. Faithless people were taught by other faithless people that  those who are cuter, smarter or richer than them are the ones that get everything–not them! The heartbreak of all this is twofold: 1.Faithlessness becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. People who expect to lose usually lose. They do so not because it was in the cards for them, but because their subconscious behavior aligned with their expectation that they would lose. They played down to their expectations, and sure enough, they lost. 2. Faithlessness and doubting is taught to family and others around these people.  So, it perpetuates itself. There’s no better time and place than a transformation challenge to break this cycle. All you need do is read the book, do the exercises in the power mindset section, set some powerful but achievable goals–in writing–and come up with a cohesive plan of action. Then, execute it daily to the best of your ability to do so. Done exactly right, a transformation becomes the true antidote and the ultimate cure for faithlessness. This is why I have always DISCOURAGED people from doing “informal” transformations, because it plays right back into the faithlessness that so many have in their mindset. A challenge done carefully, faithfully and officially will drive out the faithlessness and instill discipline and optimism in its place. It just might get youa big win along the way, too!

“Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin, impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of paradise, and because of impatience we cannot return.” W.H. Auden. This is the sixth in a series of mindsets or attitudes that are real transformation killers.

How many times have you seen someone new to the transformation challenge ask a question like this: “What do you recommend to jumpstart this program—fat burners, extra cardio, cutting out carbs?” The curtain has not even opened yet, and our transformer is already wanting to hurry up and get through Act one! Impatience is a problematic mindset that unfortunately is often seen by the impatient one as an asset. Impatient people usually portray themselves as “energetic,  productive and resourceful.” But, the truth is, for most of them, they frustrate themselves and others, and seldom can be relied on in the clutch. Most impatient people also possess the seemingly opposite trait of procrastination.  Impatience and lack of vision forces them to do several tiny and easy things first, putting off the more complex and lengthy tasks for another time—which never seems to arrive.

Applying those traits to a transformation challenge, you can quickly predict what will happen. A challenge will take off like a rocket, with frenetic activity, a great flourish of  preparation, and then suddenly die out like a roman candle heading back to earth.  Our impatient one simply finds himself unable to wait even a few weeks for muscles to form, fat to burn away, and a new life to emerge. Instead, he stands in front of the Microwave oven screaming, “hurry up!” Nothing can arrive too soon for him, so you will find him next trying something like Atkins or the Hollywood diet or one of the ten thousand other quick results guaranteed diets that simply lead to the next crash and burn event!

Impatience never wins and never satisfies. So what is the cure for it?  Perhaps the best adjustments that can be immediately made are to discontinue all stimulants such as white sugar and caffeine in the diet. These things are like the fuse on the dynamite stick of impatience.  Counting to ten before engaging mouth or typing a message to someone often works. Solitude is an excellent beginning for an impatient person. Just go somewhere to a pleasant but completely undisturbed surrounding, and sit and think. Don’t write a thing; don’t take your phone, your I Pod, or anything else that can vie for your attention, and just kick your mind out of gear. Lie on your back and watch the clouds. How long has it been since you did something like that?  Patience can be learned by practice. Protect your schedule, and never over commit yourself. The pressure created by excessive commitments nearly always produces impatience and chaos.

Will patience get you back into paradise? I can’t guarantee you that, but I can guarantee that it will add time and richness to your life. Patient people live longer and have fewer diseases than impatient ones. The one quality that most people truly appreciate and envy in others is patience, and the ability to hold one’s tongue when others don’t. 

Please, you have 12 beautiful weeks ahead of you—don’t let impatience make it feel like 12 years!.