Hindsight is 20/20

This weeks topic got me to thinking about some of the people who made a distinct difference in our lives, one of those people is Thomas Edison.  We can learn so very much from him. 

So often, we get ourselves wrapped up in our mistakes, we fail to remember our successes.  What worked for us in the past? What did we change when we saw ourselves slipping up, how do we right ourselves before we start beating ourselves up?  We can learn so very much about our weight loss journey by looking at the lessons of Thomas Edison.

Lessons from Thomas Edison 

1. Put Your "Heads Together"
He realized the wisdom in the old saying, "two heads are better than one". He brought together teams of people having different areas of expertise, and got them working together on problems and visionary projects.
What might this mean to us? Have you ever tried to go it alone? What did you learn from that?

2. Set Yourself Quotas
Edison's own personal idea quota involved coming up with one minor invention every 10 days and a major invention every six months. Isn't that astonishing! In our weight loss journey we don't have quotas, what might we have? Goals.  Edison  had small and large goals….we need them also.  Do you have a goal? What have you learned from NOT having goals?  When you give yourself deadlines, your brain gets serious.

3. Muleish Persistence and Dogged Determination
Success takes effort and passion. Above all, it takes perseverance. What happens if we are not determined?

4. Fail Your Way To Success! Why Failure Is So Wonderful!
"Failures are pivotal moments that force you to take a different path - a path to a better place." So love them!
Have you ever had a slip up? What was it? What did you learn? 

5. Why the pen is mightier!
What might this mean? (Tracking, journaling)
It's estimated that only about 1% of the population ever bother to write down their thoughts and feelings in order to reflect on their lives and express their ideas. Interestingly enough, all geniuses tend to fall into that 1% who do keep journals, record books and diaries. Aha! You don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to recognise this key to developing your own success!  In 1979 historians wanted to compile all of Edison’s written works. They discovered he had written over 3500 notebook and over 4 millions papers…That’s a lot of writing!
What might have Edison learned from journaling? (what worked , what didn’t work….)  What have you learned from NOT tracking? What can we learn from tracking? Why might journaling be helpful?

6. Commitment
Thomas Edison didn't fluff around, mincing between ideas. When he decided that he wanted to invent the electric light, he totally committed his energy, staff and resources to that end. There was never any doubt about whether he would continue despite all those thousands of "failed" attempts.
Have you ever started a weight loss effort without really being committed? How did that turn out?

7.Humor, playfulness and the joy of the task!
This ability to have fun with a task is so essential success. Intensity is essential but needs to be counter-balanced at times with fun and playing around. 

We have a lot of life left. WW is a lifestyle. We have to be able to enjoy our life.
Have you ever been bored with what you’re eating? What did you learn from that? How can you change it?

Closing: "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

While I would love to say that all of this is from my own mind, I do have to give credit to all of the great Weight Watcher leaders out there who started formulating this idea.  It is with their help and collaboration that I could pull all of this together this week.

Until Thursday

Carol