A Thought on Self-Control

Self-control, supposedly I have it.  I have a hard time believing that at times.  My friends and family will point our things that I have done that require discipline but I shrug them off because for whatever reason it wasn’t hard.  But the things I REALLY want, these are the things that are hard and yet I haven’t been able at this point to get myself together. 

 Weight would be one of the biggest areas.  I have been overweight for a while.  Currently I am at 300lbs.  I want to be thin and beautiful but; apparently I want to be fat and lazy even more.  If I really wanted it I should be able to look at a bottle of soda and say "no, I want to be thin more then I want that soda".  Instead I get angry why do I have to diet?  Like this is some punishment handed down by God.  Others don’t have to diet and they are fine.  Why me?

What a stupid and utterly selfish way of thinking.  First off as I have learned while trying to save up my first $1,000:

·         I have to choose to deliberately to make the right actions.

·         What other people are or are not doing is not important it is only important what I do to reach my goals.

·         My mindset has to change before my actions change.

·         Find a way that works best for you.  Don’t worry about whether it looks silly or seems old fashion only worry about the results. 

I have gained this knowledge now I just need to apply it from one area (finances) into another area (weight loss).  One would think that I have put a lot of time into this already. After all I, like a lot of women, can name almost every diet and at times can tell you the calories of most foods.  But that is not really thinking about it —what have I come up with for me?  And that is what I need to spend some time thinking about.

What I Did on Sumer Vacation

Have you ever had a fantastic summer where you did the coolest thing and had a total blast?  Then you went to school and the first assignment the teacher gives you is to write about what you did on summer vacation.  All of a sudden every cool thing you did goes flying out of your ears and you can’t think of one solitary thing you can write about.  That pretty much sums up my thinking for today.  Never fear next week I will have an amazing and thought provoking blog.

The Enemy of the Great is the Good:

(The following is based on: 4 Disciplines of Execution CD with speaker Chris McChesney from the Franklin-Covey Company)

            As I have stated in one of my earlier post I am a huge self-help geek.  I love to read the books, attend seminars and listen to the CD’s constantly.  Franklin-Covey has one on accomplishing what it calls your “W.I.G.” which stands for your Wildly Important Goals. Among all the great things it discusses as obstacles that get in the way of achieving your goals is trying to do too much.  That to obtain your goals you have to say no to things that are merely good and focus your energies exclusively on the great.

            I have found that this is a very important key for me.  I am the queen of multi-tasking.  So much so that I actually hate to sleep because I can’t do anything else while sleeping and that annoys me.  It feels like I’m wasting time just “laying there”.  They recommend you focus on only three WIGs at a time.  I have found it very helpful and I have created my three however; I keep trying to add or focus on other things.  This leads me to becoming sidetracked.  For example currently I am looking for new employment.  Instead of putting most of my energy into this I’ve derailed myself by trying to create artwork for an art show I be participating in October.  The one is my WIG the other is not but it is something that will eventually be a WIG when I’ve completed one of the others. Because I have not focused on finding employment I do not have the time and resources that the new job would give me so I can do quality artwork.  And down the spiral I go.    

How do you do it?  How do you focus like a laser beam on what you truly want?  Franklin-Covey recommend weekly meetings and keeping a score board to keep track.  But when it’s only you doing these things it’s hard to maintain the necessary discipline.  If you only have 3 runways you can’t land 4 planes at one time.  There will be a crash! Which could not only take out one of my WIGs but could take out the others as well.  You just have to make the decision daily to keep with your goals.  It’s a struggle but if I can overcome it I would take a giant step forward in making the life changes I want to achieve.