Burning Ships and Bridges

Last week I read a blog someone wrote about the importance of
"burning the ships" as a way of forcing us to move forward towards our weight loss goal. The blog got me thinking, and I ended up doing an internet search to learn a little more about the whole concept of burning ships. Here's what I found:

“The ancient Greek warriors were both feared and respected by their enemies. In battle, the Greeks established a well-deserved reputation for their unsurpassed bravery and unshakable commitment to victory. The key to their overwhelming success on the battlefield had far more to do with how the Greek commanders motivated the warriors than it did with issues of tactics or training. The Greeks were master motivators who understood how to use a "dramatic demonstration" to infuse a spirit of commitment into the heart of every warrior. Once the warriors had been offloaded from their boats onto their enemy's shore, the Greek commanders would shout out their first order…"burn the boats!" The sight of burning boats removed any notion of retreat from their hearts and any thoughts of surrender from their heads. Imagine the tremendous psychological impact on the soldiers as they watched their boats being set to the torch. As the boats turned to ash and slipped quietly out of sight into the water, each man understood there was no turning back and the only way home was through victory.”


No retreat and no turning back – I like it! In all of my past attempts at losing weight, I never quite burned the ships. Whether it was keeping bigger sizes “just in case” or maintaining a mindset that gave me permission to return to my old way of eating, I kept glancing backward even as I tried to move ahead. I’d see the scale drop a few pounds, but never quite believed it would be permanent, even thought I hoped it would. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the very fact that I kept looking back factored in to the inevitable failure I experienced.

When I started on Take Shape for Life/Medifast, I finally decided that this was “it” – my last diet forever. To that end, I got rid of my other diet books. I also got rid of my clothes as I shrank out of them – there was no saving of any bigger sizes “just in case.” I burned my bridges and I burned my ships, because neither the bridges or the ships would bring me to a place I wanted to be.

Because I kept burning the ships and the bridges as I continued on my journey, I had no choice but to keep moving forward – retreating was not an option. It was scary. Make that: it was very scary! I had never been successful in losing any significant amount of weight, and I certainly hadn’t been successful at keeping it off, so burning bridges and ships felt reckless. As it turned out, it was a real step of faith. However, taking a step of faith – one step at a time – makes all the difference! Once you know there is no turning back, it’s amazing what that does to your attitude and your motivation :-).

So who’s committed to an on-plan, ship-burning day today?