Choices

I have read so many self-help, self awareness, self-improvement books and newsletters about how to accomplish your goals, and I understand the idea, but actually being able to put the lesson or the message into action requires understanding on another level. For me, the true realization of what something means happens in a moment when I least expect it – like washing dishes or taking a shower. Hmmm…water usually seems to be involved. Anyway, I had one of my sudden understandings the other night while cleaning the kitchen after dinner. Even though I thought I understood the steps to accomplishing a goal, I realized something on another level – something that may actually have an impact on whether or not I succeed in accomplishing my goals. It’s simple; it’s sweet and makes complete sense to me. When making choices, we often choose what we want in this moment, not a future moment. To succeed, we have to make choices based on what we want in our future.



Example:


My goal is to be more fit. More fit means to exercise more often. In the present moment, I don’t feel like exercising - I don’t have time – I don’t really want to exercise – I can exercise tomorrow. If I make my choice from the present moment, I won’t exercise. However, if I make my choice based on what I want in a future moment, it might help me push past the present moment's “I don’t want to” and focus more on “I want that. In order to have that….I have to do this”.


In a nutshell….stay in the present, but make choices on what you want in the future. I have been exercising daily and for longer periods of time. Will I accomplish my goal? I think if I continue to make choices based on what I want in future moments, I will. And if I apply the same principal to choices I make about relationships, business, diet, you name it, what will happen? I think I want to find out.

I actually wrote this about a year ago.  I was able to maintain that for a few months, and then I got busy with projects and it was easy to listen to the voice that said "I don't have time to exercise. I have way too much to do."  One thing led to another and before I knew it, exercise was not in my reality. 

For the past few weeks I have been exercising again.  I'm also trying to do other tasks that I often put off - like bookkeeping. It is so easy to reach for an excuse to not do the things we don't always enjoy.  However, once again, if I think about what I want or don't want in my future, maybe I'll hold true to my intentions.  So....we'll see how it goes.