A few of us in our church and several hundred on an on-line health and fitness site just completed a 14 week Summer Challenge. The goal was not just to lose weight, but to change your body composition. Therefore, weight lifting was incorporated as well as cardio and a huge part of the program is about nutrition. Now that the official challenge is over, the goals need to be re-set so the fat doesn’t come back on. I’ve been involved in 6 of these challenges over the past 3 years. Over and over again I see some who had worked so hard put the weight right back on because they go right back to their old ways of doing things. This has happened to me too. So what can be done to change that this time? How can we hold onto the gains we’ve made, or should I say the losses we’ve accomplished?

The secret is in the goal setting. A huge part of this program is the mental game. When we continue to set life changing goals and continue to work toward those goals, we can continue to see improvement from ‘challenge’ to challenge. Life long self-improvement and personal development. Isn’t that what we all want? Not just physically, but spiritually, emotionally, educationally and in every other area of our lives? A vision or mission has no end date. Get a big one. Seek God, asking Him what His purpose for your life is. Don’t put limitations on what God wants for you. Then go about setting small, mid range and long term goals to get you there. That’s the secret of any success in this life. And don’t forget to stay surrendered to God. Keep your dreams and desires fully surrendered to Him and He will give you the desires of your heart, since it’s Him who puts them there in the first place.