The question again is, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer again is, “One bite at a time.”
How many times have you been stuck when you tried to get something accomplished? You may know what to do, but you just don’t do it. You may have picked such a grand undertaking that you think it is beyond your capability even though it’s something you think you should do. In any case, you may find yourself simply unable to get started. What elephant dining suggests is to tackle your goal with small steps. If you cannot find a step that you can easily do, then find a smaller step. If you can’t do that smaller step, find an even smaller step. Keep reducing the size of your step until you can find a step that you can do easily. When you are able to do at least one step, then you will be able to feel more confidence in yourself and this will create the momentum to keep you moving on to the next.
Let’s pick a favorite goal that seems to elude people – dieting. People start out thinking that they will never be able to succeed in their diet, but they are going to try anyway. They usually start out good, but something often gets in the way. Some upset sidetracks them or they couldn’t pass up a great party or they just had enough of that low calorie stuff. Sooner or later they give up in frustration; they accept their plight and another great try is down the drain. They were right, they really couldn’t succeed!
How can you lose weight anyhow by eating an elephant? By eating an elephant, of course, I really mean you do a little at a time and eventually the little things together help to make a difference.
As a first step, find an area of your diet that you have confidence that you can control. What could you cut down on now easily? Pick something from the following list: beef, chicken, dairy products, sugary foods, sodas, fried foods. Just do this for a while and see its singular impact on your diet for one to three months. It may make a difference and it might not, but don’t be discouraged because remember you are eating your elephant one bite at a time.
A next step might be to find the food you could easily increase. Choose from this list: grains such as brown rice or oatmeal, raw vegetables, cooked vegetables, fruits. In making this decision on what to increase, go for the foods that you generally don’t eat a lot of. For example, if you don’t eat a lot of fruit and you are overweight, then eating more fruit will more likely help you to lose your excess weight. This exemplifies the Natural Success principle of Balance. All foods have some value, but need to be kept in good proportion.
In taking stabs at your weight or any goal, the key is persistence. Don’t worry that you are taking a small step; if you do it for a long time, then it becomes a big step. Let’s say, you presently drink three sodas a day. If stopping sodas altogether is too difficult for you, cut them down to two a day and you are making progress especially if you do this for a long time. What you are developing is a healthy lifestyle and not just quick weight loss. You know that quick weight loss often is followed by quick weight gain. Why not try a slow loss with a slow gain or no gain at all?
All the other Natural Success principles can give us opportunities as bites. The first Natural Success principle, “I AM”, would ask, what is it about you that you can control that makes you more likely to be overweight? What could you change about your personality that would lead to weight loss?
The second Natural Success principle of the Truth asks, what is the truth about losing weight? Is it really true that you will fail or never lose weight? What attitudes prevent your weight loss?
The various areas of life give you more possible bites towards your goal. What emotions do you suppress when you overeat? What are you escaping from by eating too much? Why don’t you love and care for yourself more? How much do you use exercise in your weight reduction program? What about relationships and their impact on your weight reduction? Are you using people enough to help you lose weight? Why not get love instead of food? Align with someone to stop your eating. How does your work enter into your eating too much? Can you reduce all work stress that leads to indiscriminate eating? Do you really have a good enough job that you won’t even think about eating?
So you see there are many bites to your elephant. Just take one at a time, chew that bite well, and then move on to the next. If you keep at it and apply the Natural Success principle of Creation, you will reach your goal – Nat…..