January 12, 2018 – I’m like a steamroller these days!

         It is January and step aside; I’m on a cleaning spree. I’ve become inspired on how nice my drawers and cabinets look after I’ve cleaned the clutter out of them and pared down my assets.  That old phrase:  LESS is MORE is chiming in my head these days.

         I’m on a roll one might say. Today I started on my writing center.  OH MY – I am a paper rat and I simply took everything off the top of my desk and plunked it elsewhere.  I will be wadding through it in the next few days.

I started this project with the follow mantra:

 “Do I actually need this for anything?”

“NO,” I said. I flung it in the trash [or recycling].  It felt so liberating.

         I cleaned my top credenza file drawer and even went so far as to type large print labels for the folders.  I usually purge these files the week I have my taxes done, so I am way ahead of schedule.  I’ve the bottom drawer to do tomorrow. But, just pulling the drawer open I see it all neat with plenty of room and lovely labels.  It makes my heart sing.  Somewhere I found real motivation to tackle this project, yet I can’t seem to muster up enough to tackle some of my other life-changing projects as in “DIET and EXERCISE”.

         Recently Terry Ledford’s column in The Daily Courier entitled, “How much do you want it?” discussed motivation.  He says,

         “I learned a long time ago that I can’t help someone change unless they really want to change.  Even with the right motivation, it is hard, but without it is impossible.”

         That sort of sums up my losing weight – at the moment I feel it is impossible.  Does anyone care, except me if I look awful in the mirror?  “NO.” I say to the fat – OINK - reflection in the mirror.

Ledford sums up the concept:

“We may want it, but is that enough?  There is a huge difference between wishing and wanting something, and deciding to make it happen.”

I understand that and my wishing isn’t enough wanting at this point when it comes to dieting.  I am settling for just behave around food for a while and work on other aspects of my life.  My determination and my motivation just isn’t there at the moment because it is hard and I am not in the mood for hard.  It is going to take a lot more determination, dedication and motivation, which I can’t seem to pull out of thin air at the moment. 

Meanwhile, I am working on other areas where I seem to have enough determination to complete the small project and see great results.  Maybe if I see enough great results in these small matters, I will get around to the big one – diet and exercise.

Ledford’s article gave me additional food for thought – against the diet as well as for the diet.

Against the diet: Research is well-known that mastery of a skill takes about 10,000 hours of practice.  If you take 3 hours a day for diet, including shopping, preparing, and cooking, [and cleaning up] and that time also includes exercise and multiply it for a year – that is 768 hours invested.  10,000 hours equates to roughly 13 years.  Have I actually figured out how to correctly diet and exercise yet?  Not exactly, as I’ve never really been successful. Ten or 15 pounds doesn’t make me svelte.  Obviously, I haven’t mastered the skill or the life changes yet.

However, for the diet Ledford suggests:

“Make sure every step you take is in that direction.”  Every step we take either takes us toward or away from our goals.  The steps can be small, but if taken in the right direction, they will get us to our goals.”

So, that is where I am, just behave around food and possibly I can make small daily changes that will end up as big changes in the long run. Meanwhile I can look forward to a clean house, and being so organized I can easily locate those 3 hours needed for the life changing step of diet and exercise.

Ledford finishes it with a nice pep talk:

“If the goal is good, right and worthwhile, it is worth the effort to make it happen.  Change can happen, if you really want it.”

I’ll revisit this when I’ve gotten the rest of my life in order – hopefully that is all that I am lacking.