Meet Me in the Middle

There’s a powerful technique that Olympic athletes use to get exponential results in their performance – and the outcomes are dramatic enough to help them beat superior opponents.

Even though you may not be an Olympic athlete (although if you’re a mom, you come pretty close), you can use this technique in your own life to get the same kind of results.

But first off, let’s establish one important fact: if you’ve been on a diet for years, you’ve dumbed down your results potential to the point that the results you’re shooting for aren’t even worth getting.

Therefore, your efforts to get such meaningless results – having toned arms, eliminating cellulite, fitting into a pair of size 6 jeans – are also pretty lame and uninspiring.

You count calories, you cut carbs, you slog through another miserable workout, you try not to eat. All just to lose weight.

Unfortunately, if you have such an uninspiring goal and you aren’t inspired in your efforts to achieve it, guess what? You never will.

What I’m saying is this: losing weight shouldn’t be your only goal.

However, if you work instead to become the most beautiful, enthusiastic, on-fire version of yourself, you’ll not only start to live to your fullest potential as a woman – you’ll get weight loss thrown in.

So what’s the technique these elite athletes use to become so powerful that they can shave off the milliseconds of time needed to beat another Olympian?

Visualization. And you can use it to achieve better (and way more inspiring) results in your own life.

I’ve written about this before, but today I want to share with you the specific visual I use that gets me so fired up for my day, I have no trouble doing what it takes to maintain a healthy weight.

But more importantly, it elevates me into the realm of big dreams with the matching mental state I need to believe I can actually achieve them.

At the end of every workout – lying down on my yoga mat with my eyes closed, listening to a kick-ass song – I visualize myself running a marathon and meeting my future self in the middle.

The starting line is where I am now, and the finish line is the ideal version I have of myself. I’m at the starting line, my ideal self is at the finish line, and when the gun goes off, we make our way toward each other – and the closer we get, the more I start to become her.

Once we collide in the middle, I have become her – and I effortlessly stride to the finish line, strong, confident, joyful, and capable of achieving true greatness.

In other words, someone who isn’t going to waste her life on a diet . . . because she no longer needs to.

Here’s exactly how to replicate this visual for yourself:

• Lie down with your eyes closed. (I do this after a workout, but you can do it anytime.)
• Picture yourself in your workout clothes (it is a marathon, after all), ready to run a long distance. This long-distance mindset is important because it trains you to enlarge your perspective.
• As you run the beginning of the race, picture yourself gradually becoming more clear and focused. Feel your body starting to become lighter and the heaviness that you usually feel start to melt away.
• Now see your future self heading for you from 26 miles away. Picture how the most fabulous version of yourself would look and feel. Your body is slim, toned, and strong. Your hair is shiny and flowing behind you. Your eyes are sparkling, and you feel full of energy and joy. You are totally confident and feel ready to take on the world.
• As you run toward each other, your current self starts to morph into your future self. Your old, drab exercise clothes start to fall away, revealing the fabulous workout gear underneath. (I like Lululemon yoga pants and a stylish sports bra.) See the weight dropping off you as you run.
• Your tired, worn-out thoughts start to evaporate. You start to feel hopeful and excited. You start to feel the possibility of what your life could be.
• The closer you get to your future self, the faster you both start to run. As you meet in the middle, you crash into one another . . . and you become her.
• The remainder of the race is downhill, and you stride effortlessly toward the finish line.
• You visualize your big goals already achieved: you’re a bestselling novelist, you’re fluent in Italian, you’re a successful business owner – you’ve brought to reality whatever cherished dream you have in your heart.
• The whole way down, people are cheering you on and celebrating your success.
• The last half of the race is you running toward the spectacular life that’s waiting for you at the end. A life where you’re setting and achieving really big goals, feeling more confident than ever, and living in a perfectly healthy body.

Every time I do this, I lose all track of time and space and have to shake myself back to reality, the vision is so specific and so vivid.

And the energy I generate after I do it stays with me throughout the day. It helps me stay on track with making healthy choices, because I see myself and carry myself differently.

It feels crazy the first time you do it, but if you make it a daily habit it will get easier and your vision will get more detailed and clear. Then the energy you generate will change how you feel, what you think, and what you do.

It only feels crazy because you’re used to living so small. But remember, you’re not just here on this earth to lose weight – you’re here to reach your potential as a human being. And that includes having a strong, lean, healthy body.

One that can carry you across the finish line of an exciting, truly fulfilled life.