This is so true! Another true statement is every journey requires a first step. Sometimes, it’s small, simply a toe-dip into cold water. Other times, people make leaps, throwing caution to the wind and taking several chances (and get setbacks from an injury). Either way, that first step is by far the greatest one. But then there is a second step, a third step, and so on… They are all a challenge!
The problem with picking a goal and sticking to it isn’t taking that first step. It’s the steps long after that first step. Starting a new routine, goal, and activity is easy. It is week two and beyond when I let everything I can make up get in the way. Success takes work! There is no magic pill.
The mind makes choices we direct it to make. To explain, picture yourself alone in your home, sitting on the couch, watching your favorite game or TV show after running a marathon, 50-mile, or 100-mile race. You are so sore you have a hard time moving. Suddenly, you realize you’ve forgotten to grab your favorite beverage to go with those chips (I know, a bad choice, so let's change that to Kale Chips) and are now faced with a dilemma. Seeing as you have nobody in the house to do your work for you, you can either watch your game while sipping a delicious beverage that you just got off your ass to get, or you could continue to sit there wishing you had the energy to get back up from your comfortable position to get yourself one.
Something tells me that if you really are serious about drinking your favorite beverage with your game, you’ll find it within yourself to get up off the couch to pop open a bottle of icy, happy goodness. So, if you can find it to get up off the couch to grab a beer, what’s holding you back from getting out of your comfort zone and moving toward greatness and health? When it comes down to it, both moves need some desire on your part, so to be as successful as you want to be, you have to want it badly enough to get up and go after it.
As stated earlier, my second biggest problem with reaching my goal is continuing past the first step. Sometimes, I dip my toe into the water and immediately retract it, screaming and flailing my arms (fat shaking), saying it’s too cold and there is no way I am getting in the water. But usually, the initial shock of the cold only lasts a minute or so before I adjust to the temperature and before I know if I’m swimming in a warm, refreshing pool and soaking up all the sunshine. But I would never know unless I grit my teeth and get in all the way.
Long-term health is a big commitment. But it will be challenging to get if something is worth having. You have to work for it, and I think most people (me included) have just gotten lazy. Most people are born and raised in a lazy society. People hardly work off of their own sweat and tears anymore. Half of them practically had life handed to us on a silver platter.
Pain and fatigue are just side effects of being the best to a professional athlete. And as long as they continue to fight these things, they will continue to come out on top. It’s how they got there in the first place and how they stayed there. Nobody wins the gold by sitting on their ass eating potato chips (or Kale Chips). We spend too much time saying, “I wish I could,” instead of, “I’m going to give it a try”. Do you want to be thin and healthy? Train for it. Do you want to start your own business? Invest. Do you want to own a house? Work for it. Not all of us are lucky enough to have our lives handed to us, and even then, it seems that people aren’t really happy. They’re missing something, and I believe they’re missing the pride and satisfaction that comes from knowing they worked to their fullest extent and paid off every debt in life with real blood, sweat, and tears. Nothing can take that kind of satisfaction away. I know as many friends filed for bankruptcy where I stuck it out for 12 years of hell, but I made it on my own, without pity or outside help. Just hard work! Now, I need to look at my health, like my finances. Get it down with hard work and long-term effort.
So I reminded myself that I don’t always have to cannonball into the deep end, but I’ve got to get my feet wet before I learn how to swim. So, I have had a few weeks of solid workouts. I am sore, my breathing is very difficult and I really do not feel good at all. But this is the first step stage. I need to focus and get through it, and then I can complain about these issues while I am in better shape. As long as no one, including me, listens, I will be just fine!
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