What's Your Perspective?

I heard a great story about the difference perspective makes.  According to the story, a man walked by a construction site and talked to three workers.  He asked the first worker what he was doing and the worker said, "I'm laying bricks."  When the same question was posed to the second worker, the man replied, "I'm building a wall."  The man then asked a third worker what he was doing and that person responded, "I'm building a cathedral."

Sometimes when we're in the throes of 5&1 (and sometimes it really feels like we're in the throes, which the dictionary defines as "intense or violent pain and struggle, esp. accompanying birth, death, or great change"), it's easy to see nothing but the brick in our hand.  We may not yet have a vision of building a cathedral, or that vision may have gotten clouded along the way.  Today may be a day when all you can see is the brick in your hand; the brick is heavy and dirty and you're aware of the mortar caked under your fingernails.  I've never laid bricks, but I can only imagine that it gets pretty monotonous after a while, and probably downright miserable on a hot summer day.  If a bricklayer can't see beyond the next brick going down, it must seem like a pointless and never-ending task.

Or perhaps you've moved beyond the brick and can see the wall you're building - you've been able to step back a bit and see that you've made some real progress.  That's a good thing!  The challenge is to not get content with a free-standing wall when what you are really building is a cathedral :-).  I've seen far too many people make great progress but stop short of their goal because they got a little too comfortable with where they were.  They were busy laying bricks for a while, then took a step back and realized that they'd put up an entire wall.  Instead of pressing on to finish their task, they spent too much time admiring what they'd done instead of staying focused on where they needed to go and what they wanted to build, and before long they abandoned the program.  It wasn't that they were unhappy with the progress they'd made, but they decided to settle.

You don't settle if you know you're building a cathedral.  You may just be in the initial brick-laying stage, or perhaps you've given yourself a minute to reflect on the wall that's gone up, but cathedral builders don't stop with a wall because they have a cathedral to finish!

What are you building today?  Do you have a vision of your finished product - a healthier you?  Your body IS a temple, your own living, breathing cathedral, if you will.  Don't stop before you make it as healthy and vibrant as it can possibly be.  If necessary, put together a storyboard of what you want your life to look like when you reach your goal - cut out pictures of people wearing the clothes you want to wear and doing the kinds of activities you want to do.  Put your storyboard someplace where you'll see it as a way of helping you to stay focused on what you're building, one day and one choice at a time.

Our perspective, like so many other things, is our choice.  Choose wisely :-)

Taking the Scenic Route or the Autobahn?

My husband and I do a lot of traveling these days - both because of our business and just for fun (although we love what we do, so all of our travel is really for fun!).  Sometimes we fly due to time constraints or distance, but whenever possible we like to drive because we love road trips.  When we have time, we stay off the interstate and are on the lookout for all of the hidden treasures we miss when we're on cruise control at 70 miles per hour.  We love to stop and take pictures along the way, talk to people, and try fun, local restaurants.  We don't always have time for a leisurely drive, but it's fun when we can.

There are other times, of course, when we are focused on getting where we need to be and set our GPS to get us there as quickly as possible.  The route we take depends on how fast we want/need to get to our destination.

I don't know about you, but once I finally decided (REALLY decided) to lose weight, I wanted to reach my goal as quickly as possible.  I wasn't interested in taking the scenic route - I wanted the autobahn.  I'd done the "count points" program three different times, none of them particularly successfully, and the thought of doing a lot of work and getting maybe a half-pound loss per week for the effort didn't appeal to me at all.

I didn't want a "make it up as I go along" plan, either - I'd done that a zillion times.  You know - the "I'll just eat less, watch my portions and make better choices" plan, completely unstructured and for me, completely unsuccessful.

This last and final time (thank the Lord, it really WAS the last time!) that I decided to lose weight, I wanted a proven system. I wanted something that was fast AND safe, and I wanted something that would not just get me thinner, but also healthier.  Take Shape for Life/Medifast totally met the criteria and then some! 

When we're going on a trip and time is of the essence, we study a map and find the shortest route from Point A to Point B, or we plug the destination into our GPS and select the "shortest route" option.  Once we have our route in place, we stick to the route and ignore the signs that advertise attractions ten miles off an exit en route.  It's not that the attractions aren't interesting, but we have a destination to get to and we're focused on getting there as soon as we can.

Those off-plan foods are the attractions ten miles off the exit . . . if we veer off course and take the side-trip, we're going to waste a lot of time and delay getting to our destination.  When it comes to getting to a healthy weight, we need to stay in the express lane with no exits between the time we get on and our goal.  

Are you on the autobahn today or are you taking a leisurely route to get to your goal?  The choices you make determine the route you take.  Choose wisely :-)