My best piece of advice yet
This might be the most important piece of advice I can give you on making changes to reach your goals.
Here it is: you need to see yourself as the kind of person that can achieve them. In short, you need to believe in yourself, your capacity and your worth.
Who you are today is a result of the identity you've created for yourself. The habits you have and the choices you make are a direct reflection of the story you've told to yourself about who you think you are.
Our ego, from the yogic perspective, is something to be transcended. We are told that "we are not our mind". And the goal of yoga, in some respects, is to be able detach from these mental constructs in order to perceive our true nature, which is eternal and changeless.
We all subconsciously create an identity to attach to that represents who we are, what kind of things we do, what we like, etc.
The important factor is knowing that our identity, or ego is malleable. We decide who we are therefore we can reinvent ourselves.
My 2 boys went through a superhero phase. They have a tickle trunk of costumes and when they don the cloak of Ironman or the mask of Hulk, they take on that persona and act as if.
We too have that ability. We can put on our energetic underoos and take on the qualities of the person we want to become.
So who do you want to be? What goal do you want to achieve? What kind of habits would that person have? What kind of choices would that person make? How would that person show up?
Once we get clear on who we want to become we have to act as if. We need to believe we are that person. We need to identify the self-limiting beliefs that hold us back and keep us stuck, and then tell ourselves a new story, one that empowers us and enables us to move forward and to instigate change.
"The key to building lasting habits is focusing on creating a new identity first. Your current behaviors are simply a reflection of your current identity. What you do now is a mirror image of the type of person you believe that you are (either consciously or subconsciously). To change your behavior for good, you need to start believing new things about yourself." -James Clear
Because if who we are is made up anyway – we might as well make up the kind of person we WANT to be.