Graham W Price's Blog

I previously posted under this title my article published in Corporate Eye called Willpower and Corporate Communications  . If you missed that one and are still interested, a similar article called How to Boost Your Willpower has now been published in Growth Business.

Recent publicity on obesity highlights a study published in the British Medical Journal saying that the number of people undergoing surgery for obesity has increased ten fold over a seven year period. A worrying trend if it continues. Surgery is invasive and carries risks. The success rate is limited, the study itself only suggests surgery ‘can’ be helpful to ‘some’ obese patients. Even ’success’ results in only partial weight-loss and still depends on following a healthy diet and fitness programme.  And even where it’s successful, it’s only available on the NHS for the morbidly obese (BMI over 40; click here to calculate your BMI).  For everyone else, private surgery costs around £7,000 to £12,000. There has to be a better way.

Everyone agrees surgery should only be considered as a last resort after everything else has failed. The ‘everything else’  should include an effective weight-loss programme wherever this can be afforded. Whether dealing with obesity or just a desire to lose weight, such a programme needs to cover the psychology of weight loss, not just guidance on nutrition and exercise.  Most people who want to lose weight will at some point try a slimming programme such as Weight Watchers or Slimmers World, if they can afford it. These programmes are generally strong on nutrition but weak on psychology. Even when they succeed, participants usually regain the lost weight when the programme finishes. It’s easy to see there are benefits to the provider that this is so.

For information on the psychology of weight loss, see my previous blog. The question I want to raise here is this. Why would anyone resort to surgery or an expensive weight-loss programme, neither of which provide any guarantee, when there’s a relatively low cost programme, that’s strong on psychology, has always succeeded and provides a full money-back guarantee, both for achieving the initial goal and sustaining it for a year? Click here for details.

Perhaps the NHS should consider a requirement that, prior to expensive and risky surgery, patients must engage in a psychologically-based weight-loss programme, paid for by the NHS. Selecting a programme that offers a full money-back guarantee would mean no expense to the NHS unless the goal succeeds and is sustained. Perhaps everyone else who wants to lose weight, and can afford some minor up-front investment, would be wise to follow the same course.

Click here to preview the book that’s changing lives by teaching the psychology of resilience and achievement, for weight-loss or any other goal.

You’ve heard about the seven habits of highly successful people. Here are seven tools to take control of the future:

• Positive Acceptance: Notice whenever you’re wishing something were already different from the way it is or was (easy enough to notice as this is what we’re always doing whenever we’re dissatisfied about anything), recognise this is irrational as nothing can ever be already different, drop the thought (easier than one may think following the first two steps) and refocus on what we can and want to do, if anything, to change or improve the future. Wait until feelings have subsided before attempting. Start small and build up to bigger issues.
• Accept the feeling, choose the action: Accept any uncomfortable feelings we may experience … no exception … they’re just feelings and won’t harm us. Uncomfortable feelings nearly always subside when we accept them. And if we want to resolve a recurring uncomfortable feeling, repeatedly do the opposite of whatever the feeling is telling us to do. Accept anxiety and repeatedly do whatever is making us anxious; accept feeling low and fully re-engage with life; accept feeling angry and withhold the angry response; accept desires or cravings and choose not to indulge them.
• Stop playing the when-then game: “When I’m confident, then I’ll start speaking to groups”; “when everything is fully prepared, then I’ll take action”. When-then games are just an excuse to procrastinate. Stop playing them.
• Commit: When a goal is challenging, make a commitment to do whatever it takes to achieve it
• Focus on contribution: When we’re stuck on a goal, restate it in terms of what it will do for others. This takes our focus off our own perceived limitations and can free us up to move forward
• Act as if: If there’s someone we know or have heard of who’s achieve or could achieve our goal, ask what they would be doing in our situation, then do it. Or ask what we’d be doing if we had a more positive belief, then do it. If that’s fearful, ‘accept the feeling, choose the action’.
• Take bold action: If our usual one-step-at-a-time approach isn’t working, do something bold to move forward.

These tools are not universal. Some when-then games are sensible. Taking bold action may sometimes be unduly risky. But used sensibly, these tools can enable anyone to take control of their lives and achieve the future they desire.  See www.abicord.com/what-is-is