Choose to Take the Journey

“The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.”
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

How many of you thought I wasn’t going to meet my stated goal of 8 posts this month?

I’m sure there were at least a handful of you. This month presented a good opportunity to write about this topic, a time when I would be stretched so thin that I might actually fail and have every excuse to do so. But there are no excuses. It does not matter that I got sick twice this month, that I had to host 2 friends in my apartment from out-of-state, that I was doing continuing education, or going to a Tony Robbins seminar, that I was working more than I’ve ever worked in my entire life. When you decide on a personal standard, you must commit to it, no matter what. No exceptions. There is not a human being on this earth who has ever done anything of note without setting a personal standard and committing to it.

When I decided a couple of months ago that I would meditate every day, I did not mean when I felt like it, or when I had time. I made time, even if I did not feel like it. This also meant I was meditating at work during my lunch break, while my friend watched youtube videos on my computer, or at 3:30 in the morning with my other friend, even if that meant we were only going to get 3 hours of sleep instead of 3 hours and 20 minutes of sleep. Is it because I’m a robot with no life?

Perhaps. Or maybe I just decided that my word is gold, and when I say I’m going to do something, I do it. When I get home from work, do I ever feel like working out? Do I ever have an extra 40 minutes of time and energy just waiting to be spent? Never! But I do it because I know that if I don’t do it today, I’m not going to do it tomorrow. The number of rationalizations and excuses will only multiply and intensify with time. Starting a new habit or changing an existing one is a lot like flying a plane; most of the fuel is spent just taking off from the runway. When I do fail in my consistency, which does eventually happen, I make sure I have enough pain, enough fuel, to propel me further and for longer when I take off the following time. I told myself that if I couldn’t rise to the challenge of writing 8 posts this month, how could I possibly live the life of my dreams? That is why you guys will get your 8 posts each month, come hell or high water.