It’s a proven principle, when you focus on what you want there’s a greater  likelihood that it will happen. It’s the same principle as “thoughts held in mind produce their kind” and “like attracts like.” Hold onto something energetically in your mind and your attitude and behaviors will fall in line behind it. Poof! What you will see in your life will follow your thoughts.

Unfortunately, most of us focus on what we don’t want. It’s a sort of safeguard from failing or maybe a holdover from what you were programmed to believe about yourself in childhood. But the principle remains the same, like attracts like. If you focus on what you don’t want (most of us do so unconsciously, yet vigorously), it will tend to show up in your life. Then you say, “See, I never succeed, the deck is stacked against me” Or, “Why bother, I never get what I want.” You reinforce that you were right about your wrongly held intention. 

With diabetes you can either focus on what you don’t want like complications: blindness, kidney disease, heart attack, amputation and a shorter lifespan or you can focus on what you do want: a healthy weight, feeling vigorous, showing up as the healthiest person in your doctor’s office; your actions in both cases will be in alignment with what you focus on. 

So this morning I heard in a segment of Good Morning America with Dr. Oz, noted heart surgeon and health guru, on Keys to Long Life a new study came out that shows these keys can reduce chronic illness by 80%, add seven years of life and cut our health care costs in half. 

But what intrigued me was what Diane Sawyer quoted as the new mantra, “Eat what you need to eat first instead of worrying about what you don’t eat. Hmmm…focus on what you want not what you don’t want. So shop, cook and savor the flavor of the recommended daily 7 servings of whole grains, 4 servings of fruit, 5 servings of veggies, 2 servings of lean meat and a handful of nuts and let go of the worrisome thoughts around what you’re trying to avoid. Every time you go there you take a step off the road to what you want.