We all have big goals in life that aren’t so easy to achieve. Many of us are hoping to lose weight and adopt a healthier diet, but this isn’t as easy as it sounds. We all end up backsliding by skipping the day at the gym, munching on a twinkie in the middle of the night, or failing to show up for the classes we hoped would improve us.

While you may dream of waking up refreshed and ready to hit the gym, you can’t change your mindset that way. It’s actually the reverse. When you force yourself to do a specific thing repeatedly, eventually the mindset occurs and you’ll do it out of habit.

Just show up

Don’t feel like going to the gym today? Go there anyway, even if you’re not planning to work out. If you simply go, you’ll often find yourself ready to work out anyway. Eventually, you’ll find getting up and not going to the gym odd, and go even when you don’t have to or need to.

Don’t tell yourself you can’t

Many of us have aspirational goals that we have to reach for if we’re going to succeed. It’s possible these goals may be greatly out of reach, such as being first place in a marathon, or going into space. When you tell yourself you can’t do these things, you’re reinforcing a negative mindset.

In order to change your mindset, you need to have control over your thoughts. Meditation can help with this, but also avoid telling yourself you can’t do something. You can. You simply need to think of a way.

Control what you can

You can’t control your mindset. That’s something that develops from what you can control. You can control your thoughts, you can control what you physically do. You can’t control how you feel. Work on showing up, and monitoring your mind flow for negative thoughts. The mindset will follow.