Good Intentions

I am the queen of good intentions - really I am.  Over the years I've found that my follow-through often falls apart, but wow, my intentions are SO good and so sincere! 

I realized this all over again this weekend while cleaning out a drawer in my office (the last of the drawers and cabinets in my house to be cleaned out and organized!!).  It's a pretty deep drawer and it was piled almost to the top with papers that I'd throw in the drawer, usually to clean up my office just before a guest arrived, always promising that I'd get to the papers "later."  I don't know when your "later" shows up, but mine often takes its own sweet time :-).  This weekend was my "later," and oh my . . . it HAD been a while since I got to the bottom of the pile of papers!  I'm embarrassed to admit it, but at the bottom of the pile were several Christmas cards from last Christmas (yep, it was THAT long since "later"). 

Interestingly, one of the things buried in my paper pile was a book entitled (and I'm not kidding!), "100 Ways to Simplify Your Life."  I bought the book a while ago and haven't cracked the cover yet, but I obviously had good intentions at the time about getting more organized and simplifying things.

The problem is that good intentions or even the right tools (like my book) aren't enough.  Without follow through, good intentions pile up like the papers in my desk drawer.  Tools that remain used are useless, or worse, add to our guilt because they remind us of what we intended to do but never quite got around to doing.

Everyone who started on this program began with good intentions - the BEST intentions.  This was IT - it was time to lose weight and get healthy once and for all.  This program comes with a variety of tools for us to use, and with the tools available and the ease of the meal replacements, there really isn't any reason why everyone doesn't reach goal, right?  Or ???

The missing ingredient to success for many is the follow through.  We get off plan for one reason or another (the reasons don't matter), and we mean to get back on, really we do.  We have good intentions . . . but our follow through is lacking.  Sometimes we sabotage ourselves for a variety of reasons, and sometimes we're too quick to settle for less than what we really want because we're distracted by the lure of immediate gratification. 

We have the right program, we have the right tools, and we have good intentions.  The only thing we need to be successful is follow through.  That is the choice facing us today . . . choose wisely :-)