Don't Get Bogged Down in the Process

Tomorrow will be a week since my total knee replacement and over these past several days I have spent a lot of time reminding myself that I cannot get bogged down in the process.

Right now I am at the "it's gonna get worse before it gets better" stage.  The pain is worse than it was prior to surgery, so it would be really easy for me to question my judgment in deciding to go forward with the knee replacement.  Of course, that wouldn't really help anything at this point because I can't undo the decision that was made - I DID have surgery, and for good reasons.  Getting bogged down in second-guessing myself is silly.  I also know that the knee had gotten quite bad and would only get worse (my doctor said the x-rays didn't tell the full story and that my knee was far worse than he'd anticipated).  I know I did the right thing and I know that just a few weeks from now I will be SO glad I did.

I just need to get from here to there :-).  I am going to a leadership conference at Sundance in early October and it's about a 10 minute walk down the mountain from our mountain suite to the conference center.  I am focused on being able to walk up and down that mountain (my doctor tells me that's a very realistic expectation).  Keeping my eyes focused on the goal that I want is helping me get through the challenges of today.  While the recovery is a bit rockier than anticipated, I knew it would be challenging and painful and I resolved ahead of time to not get bogged down in the process.

When we're in the middle of something that's difficult, it's easy to believe the lie that things will never get better - that what we're dealing with now is what we're going to be dealing with for the foreseeable future.  This simply isn't true!  What IS true, however, is that if we allow our minds to go there and get bogged down in the process, it will negatively impact our ability to deal with the here and now.  When we're in the midst of the process, getting and maintaining perspective is critical.  It's not easy, but it IS our choice!

Right now you may be at a point where staying on plan is HARD.  You may be second-guessing why you started this program to begin with and you may even be tempted to believe that it really wasn't THAT bad before.  Don't go there!  Keep your eyes on what it is that you really want and understand that staying on plan, even when it's hard, is just part of the process.

In the end, it WILL be worth it!  You'll get there one day, one meal, and one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)