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I have two jobs.

You know me as VP of Anger Management for the Plan Z Diet.

And at the same time, I’m also a professional speaker and author. My book, The Accidental Salesperson: How to Take Control of Your Sales Career and Earn the Respect and Income You Deserve, is a business bestseller. Over the years, I have conducted more than 2200 seminars on three continents.

I was working on a project for my “other job” and ran across an article I want to share with you:

How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To is by Heidi Grant Halvorson. It was posted on the Harvard Business Review website.

Halvorson describes how this applies to the commitments we make to ourselves at work. As you read the next two paragraphs, just think about your commitment to weight loss instead of work.

“In his excellent book The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, Oliver Burkeman points out that much of the time, when we say things like “I just can’t get out of bed early in the morning, “ or “I just can’t get myself to exercise,” what we really mean is that we can’t get ourselves to feel like doing these things.  After all, no one is tying you to your bed every morning.  Intimidating bouncers aren’t blocking the entrance to your gym.  Physically, nothing is stopping you – you just don’t feel like it.  But as Burkeman asks, “Who says you need to wait until you ‘feel like’ doing something in order to start doing it?’”

“Think about that for a minute, because it’s really important.  Somewhere along the way, we’ve all bought into the idea – without consciously realizing it – that to be motivated and effective we need to feel like we want to take action.  We need to be eager to do so.  I really don’t know why we believe this, because it is 100% nonsense. Yes, on some level you need to be committed to what you are doing – you need to want to see the project finished, or get healthier, or get an earlier start to your day.  But you don’t need to feel like doing it.”

“In fact, as Burkeman points out, many of the most prolific artists, writers, and innovators have become so in part because of their reliance on work routines that forced them to put in a certain number of hours a day, no matter how uninspired (or, in many instances, hung over) they might have felt.  Burkeman reminds us of renowned artist Chuck Close’s observation that “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.”

So if you are sitting there, putting something off because you don’t feel like it, remember that you don’t actually need to feel like it. There is nothing stopping you.” (End of excerpt)

See what I mean? This is a powerful concept.

You don’t feel like eating the burger without the bun? You don’t feel like skipping the bagel a coworker left in the break room? You don’t feel like doing the Plan Z Diet and losing those last 30 pounds?

That’s okay. Feeling like doing something has nothing to do with whether or not you do it.

There is nothing stopping you.

I started with a new exercise routine a couple of years ago. I had a cancer scare and decided my routine needed to change.

I never “feel” like doing it. I do not enjoy it. It is not fun. It is very hard work. I do it anyway because I want to maintain muscle mass and bone density into my old age. (I’ll be 80 in 6 years.) I don’t have to like it or feel like doing it. All I have to do is show up and get the work in.

Who wants to be up by 5:30 AM and out the door to get in 10,000 steps? Nobody. I just do it. I do 2500 steps before I allow myself to go home and drink a cup of coffee. I don’t have 10,000 steps yet, but I have a good start on my commitment and my day. Later in the day I walk to work and back. Then if I still don’t have 10,000 steps I go back out and do more until my pedometer says I can stop.

A few days a week I also lift weights using bands at home.

I don’t have to feel like it or enjoy it to do it and benefit from it.

What a liberating idea!

Think about the implications and the power of this idea in taking charge of your own weight and health.

You don’t have to wait until you feel like taking control to take control – of anything.

Stay Angry My Friend,

VP Anger Management

Plan Z Diet