Keeping with an exercise plan, or any healthy lifestyle choice for that matter, is difficult. For every reason we have to do something good for ourselves, we can always come up with loads of reasons to not do it. The weather is too hot/cold/rainy to go outside… I ate a carrot stick yesterday, so I should be able to sneak just one doughnut…
Funny how rational we can try to become.
Over time, however, the easy way out becomes less attractive. We pull on our running shoes and head out into the pre-dawn quiet of the neighborhood to find some authentic part of ourselves in that dark.
Without sharing our intentions, maybe we walk past the temptations of an office potluck and opt instead for the healthier lunch option.
We practice tough love with ourselves. We reward ourselves at times, but mostly we remind ourselves of why we are here. Why we are choosing the things we choose. And most importantly, why we are doing the things we are doing.
Taking Action
One of my greatest mentors, though I do not think she ever understood how important her influence was on me, was my lead worker in Social Services.
Public Social Services, as a government operation, always demanded more from me than I thought I could provide. For those of us who returned to the job day after day, we developed unique skills.
As I struggled with balancing multiple regulations with the demands of my clients, it was easy to sometimes get bogged down in all of the “what-if’s” and lose sight of what was necessary. To which, Phyllis would give me one directive.
“Determine eligibility.”
Step back from all of the inventive problems my mind created and evaluate the base issue. If the case was eligible, proceed. If not, stop.
Oddly enough, the more complex I imagined a situation, the less likely I was to find that it needed to proceed.
Difficult Lifestyle Choices
It may just be a quirk of my nature, but I often find myself choosing the less desired (more difficult) path through life. Maybe it comes from noting that my greatest learning/growth comes only from choosing tougher paths.
In athletic endeavors, this is the training effect. Pushing boundaries (physical and psychological) yields results that do not come from any other method.
Education of the young mind is also about posing challenges that may seem overwhelming, yet produce profound results when applied judiciously.
The model is there for us. We have but to employ it – or not.
I’m Not A Quitter
Staying the course, whether efforts to accomplish personal records (PR’s), improving a lab value at your next doctor visit, or maybe just being able to comfortably pick up a grandchild, is a commitment. Taking that commitment seriously is what separates us from our world. The universe has no desire to invest in our personal concerns. That is purely up to us.
Disappointing though it may be, there is no easy way out. The easy way is a wonderful ideal, but nothing of substance is accomplished without work. All are welcome to join me embracing the suck and see the work as a positive. If the task you have selected was not difficult to do, there would be little to be gained.
Enjoy the ride.
“I learned patience, perseverance, and dedication. Now I really know myself, and I know my voice. It’s a voice of pain and victory.”
– Anthony Hamilton
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