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Right, so I’m thinking that some of you aren’t hearing me when I talk about this whole commitment thing. It reminds me of when I am trying to teach the kids something. I explain to them that they should or shouldn’t do something, they ask why, I tell them I know from experience and then they ignore me anyway. So I figured, maybe I’ll say a little bit more about it.
I’m 38 years old, and I’ve been overweight most of those years. It took me until the age of 35 to get even semi-serious about losing weight. And it took me 3 years after that to learn the importance of commitment. I’ve wasted A LOT of time because of that. I could be done with this. I could be at my goal weight and really kicking some butt if I hadn’t waited so long to realize that a simple interest in losing weight wasn’t going to cut it.
What do I mean? Let me give you some examples to see if that helps. There’s a big “lunch” coming up at work. Someone’s anniversary or birthday or something like that. It’s at a restaurant that has nothing to eat that matches your meal plan. If you’re simply interested in losing weight, you tell yourself that it’s okay to go anyway. You would hurt feelings if you didn’t go, one lunch isn’t going to kill you. If you are committed to losing weight, you realize that going to lunch would not be good for you, you go to the person and explain that you can’t make it, happy birthday/anniversary just the same, and then you don’t go. Or maybe you call ahead and ask the restaurant if you can bring your own food.
If you can be easily swayed to give excuses to yourself and others, you are merely interested, NOT committed.
Another example. You usually work out at a certain time each day. Another appointment conflicts with that time on Thursday. You could easily work out earlier in the day, or maybe later in the day, but you use that appointment as an excuse to not work out. That is not committed. When you are committed, you prioritize. And sometimes that means getting to bed early so you can wake up early to work out, or rearranging other things in your schedule to make time to work out. Sometimes that means going to work out even when you really don’t feel like it.
I’m not trying to be judgmental–God knows it’s taken me long enough to get where I am. I’m just trying to say listen, I’ve already been there. I’ve already wasted enough time for the both of us. Learn from my mistakes and get committed NOW.