Last week we learned that, just like a championship football team, we must create PLAYs that we can practice for each predictable challenge we will face, whether we struggle to develop a healthy relationship with food, or build cohesive teams.
 
The four steps to creating an effecting PLAY include:
 
P - Prepare
L - Identify the lies
A – Action
Y - Yardstick
 
Today, let’s look at the first step to creating our PLAYS, which is Prepare.
 
Because of my husband’s profession, I often find myself at dinners where I don’t know many people, if anyone at all. The conversation topics are not always my cup of tea, and I’m tempted to use food as a way to fill my mouth, so I don’t have to talk, or to give me something to talk about. This is a predictable situation that I find myself in often, therefore, I decided to create a PLAY to help me deal with it more successfully in the future.
 
Since the first step to creating a PLAY is to prepare, I simply asked myself, what can I do ahead of time to help me make this situation as emotionally and physically satisfying as I can?

• The first thing I can do is to make sure I attend the event at just the right level of hunger. If I’m too hungry I’ll want to devour the appetizers before dinner, or snarf all of the chicken, no matter how rubbery. (‘Cause let’s be real…the chicken is going to be rubbery….) Worse yet is when the food is delectable and I eat it so fast that I don’t even enjoy it! Coming with the right level of hunger helps ensure a much greater satisfaction experience all-around!
• Another thing I can do to prepare is to make sure that the meals I have before that event are satisfying. If I’ve had a satisfying breakfast and lunch, I don’t feel so deprived if the dinner menu is less than desirable. Or if the menu is amazing, I don’t feel like I must lick the plate clean if most all of my meals are satisfying.
• I like to keep a small snack in my purse for times when the food just isn’t cutting it for me. Then I don’t feel obligated to choke down the undercooked carrots, and know I can find something else I like to eat when I get home.
• Part of preparing for a successful public dinner event is to make sure I go with the right frame of mind. As long as we’re being honest, can we admit that we usually get what we look for? If we’re certain it’s going to be a boring event, it’s likely to be. That’s why next week we’ll look at the limiting beliefs (or lies) we tend to believe about these situations and how the truth can help us undo our old conditioning that has kept us stuck in our old PLAYS all of these years.

 
Preparing is critical to meeting our challenging situations successfully, but the PLAY doesn’t end there. Next week we’ll look at how to identify the lies and limiting beliefs that threaten to hold us back.
 
Tempted to join our From Food to Faith Community? See how you can try a FREE From Food to Faith group meeting. No strings attached! 

I decided to love it. I realized that I was missing out on many great opportunities to spend time with my best friend! So I began learning about the game.
 
Soon I actually understood all (…ok…most) of the numbers on the tv screen. I learned about rankings, national champions and underdogs. But nothing blew my mind as much as learning about plays. For years I had been seeing players block and tackle, but I had never realized there were multiple ways they could do this! I learned about hooks and swims, fakes and fallbacks. I learned that every game has to have its own game plan, and every team has a collection of PLAYS that prepare them to handle any number of the predictable scenarios they are likely to find themselves in.
 
What are the predictable situations you might find yourself in when facing your current opponent? If your opponent is the habit of turning to food when you’re not hungry, you might find that you struggle at awkward dinner gatherings with strangers. Maybe you get tackled every time you go to book club, or to Sunday dinner at Mom’s. Creating a PLAY for each of those situations allows you to make a plan ahead of time, when you are thinking clearly, to help you come out of those situations much closer to the goal.
 
Here are the steps to creating a PLAY:
P - Prepare
What will you do ahead of time to help ensure your success?
L - Lies
What are the lies or limiting beliefs you tend to believe in this situation? What is the corresponding truth to each of those lies?
A - Action
What actions will you take?
Y - Yardstick
How did you play measure up? Where does it need to be changed?
 
Remember, it takes a lot of practice for anything to become second-nature, and mistakes are a part of the game. The more we practice, the more prepared and confident we are that we can face our opponent and come off conqueror!
 
I am passionate about helping my clients develop their Game Plan and Plays in a Playbook to help them have the tools to deal with every situation, whether that situation is developing a healthy relationship with food, a stronger connection among colleagues, or increasing their Return on Investment.
 
I have found that having a coach is as critical in overcoming our life challenges, as it is on a football field. Watch this short video to see how you can participate in a FREE From Food to Faith Sample Meeting, and learn how to create PLAYS for your own life!

Next week: I’ll cover how we can use the first step of creating our PLAYS, Prepare, to help us find success on our journey From Food to Faith.

As Linda’s car pulled up in the driveway, I saw her break out in a big beautiful laugh as she quickly locked all of her doors and sat in her currently dry condition, pondering how to keep it that way.
 
What happened next surprised me. Rather than threatening us within an inch of our lives, which is what would likely have happened at my house, she simply decided there was no avoiding it, grabbed her purse, and bolted for the house as quickly as she could. She got no more than 5 feet before she looked like a drowning kitten, but she was laughing hysterically all the way into the house and for the rest of the evening.
 
I couldn’t believe it! Not only did she not get angry with us, she actually embraced it, and us in the process.
 
The final step in the Fish! Philosophy that unleashes your potential and that of those around you is the concept of Play. Too often we take ourselves far too seriously. We forget that every task, no matter how simple or repetitive, can be fun if we make up our minds to make it be.
 
Can you add a little play into your work? Your home life? Into the way you cook, shop, or clean? In my Intuitive Eating Group Meetings, we even turned our quest to change our relationship with food into a game! Playing releases powerful endorphins that create feelings of connection and satisfaction, leaving everyone involved better off in the end.
 
So when life seems a little overwhelming, perhaps you can consider implementing the Fish! Philosophy of Play into your day!

​By implementing the Fish! Philosophy in your life, you tap into your unique power to transform your life into what you have always wanted it to be. Contact me to learn how private coaching can speed up your move toward your goals.

How you choose to spend the seconds within those days is up to you. You can be the person who just does what they have to do, or you can be the person who impacts; the person who creates significance…that adds value, lifts up, and that is there for someone else for one of their 365 days this year.
 
If you do that often enough in your relationships, in your friendships, in your marriage, with your kids, with your mom and dad, with your brothers and sisters, with your aunts and uncles, your neighbors, with the man or woman at the grocery store, with your community, you will become world famous to them.
 
Most of us can’t imagine the rewards we get by living a “world famous” life. For sure, you will make somebody else’s day, but you know what? There’s more than that. When you begin to recognize your true potential, your true power to make somebody else’s day, as you begin to tap into the resources of curiosity and imagination, you begin to realize and believe in your own significance.
 
You have significance. You have the power to add meaning to somebody else’s life. When you realize this, then your own life will never be the same again.  When you look in the mirror, you will see something different within you. You will see a power inside of you that can impact anybody you come in contact with.
 
It’s a choice we can make. And not only do we enrich the lives of other people, we enrich our own lives in the process. So to paraphrase Clint Eastwood, go ahead, make their day

​By implementing the Fish! Philosophy in your home or organization, you empower others to make a significant difference in the lives around them. This dramatically improves relationships with family, coworkers, clients and community. Discover how to transform your organization today.