I bought an exercise video once, (Buns of Steel), brought it home, wrestled with the cellophane prison holding the precious contents locked inside.
Once freed, I popped it into the player and sat down to “watch” it. Yep, I sat in that beautiful buttercream colored leather overstuffed La-Z-Boy recliner rocker and watched with keen observation, the tight spandex super fit babe with a perfect hard tail “go at it” with what seemed about 30 muscle tearing motions.
My self-rationalization for the exercise preview was that I should “watch” it first to learn before trying to practice. I mean c’mon who wants to pull or strain anything well… uh…. right there?!
My dream booty was only 30-minutes-three-times-a-week away.
In honest reflection, I think I spent more time getting the DVD out of it’s store-bought protective anti-theft casing than I ever did in actually doing any of the butt remodeling exercises.
Any good consistent under achiever worth their salt realizes the value of integrating underachievement into every aspect of their life.
That being said, how many proverbial “videos” have I sat and watched in my personal and professional life? How is it that I so often in my life have had the experience of being clear about what I want…. clarity of focus and vision…yet for some reason don’t quite seem to get there?
I mean… I have books, tons of books… on the subject of…. uh…. many subjects. I love to read (I love to watch videos). And, I love to think. I love to think. Did I mention I enjoy thinking?
Mostly I like to think about what I’m going to write, yet never seem to get pen to paper.
A wise mentor of mine once said, “Writing is the doing part of thinking.” Mmmmmm…. so it’s in the doing that I have let myself down in the past.
I began looking at all the highly creative ways in which I had cleverly disguised my lack of commitment or follow-through to me. My own self. Ouch.
To thine own self be true??? The hard fact and harsh reality is that I would never attain a dream derriere… or a life of personal and professional success with this self-commitment phobia of mine. When would I say “I do” to me?
Ahhhhh…. the joys of waking up… no Folgers in this cup. Acidic and harsh on the stomach? Yep.
Being more inclined to Mary Poppins-type imaginative thinking, I go for some “sugar” to make my medicine go down. (Who’s counting spoons?)
And no, I don’t mean alcohol or alternative substances. (”Perhaps an occasional Nutella Belgian Chocolate binge, but that’s it… I swear.” *Handing the little plastic cup back to the nice lady in the white lab coat.* )
Seriously, my “sugar” is the new mercy available in the morning. It’s hope. It’s the realization of what I could have, be, or experience in my life if I would but “do” what I read in those thousand books of mine, (or watch on an occasional exercise instructional video), wink! Wink!
So, what’s the difference between a Top Gun and a Frady Cat? Commitment…
Where are you not committed to you? Are there areas in your life where you have not trusted yourself? How bad do you want those buns of steel? (Oh ya, sorry, that was for me.)
I dunno, but maybe in seeing that we disappoint ourselves… we fail us… we do it to us far more than anyone else does it to us, we can then embrace the responsibility to finally say “yes” to us.
Will you take you? … to have and to hold from this day forward?
“I do.”