A Call To "Action"
Last night I had the great pleasure of watching the 2011 Ironman World Championship triathlon from Hawaii. I've watched the documentary ESPN puts together since 2007 and it is absolutely amazing. The video doesn't just concentrate on the professional athletes at the front of the race, but spends more time telling the stories of the "everyman" if you will. The regular people for whom just finishing is the greatest win of their lives.
In this particular special, they highlighted a woman who at her heaviest weighed 320lbs. When she crossed the finish line, forever to be known as an Ironman, she weighed 150. She wasn't some game show contestant on the Biggest Loser or any other show. She was just a regular woman who chose to change her life, and then did the most important thing, she "acted" upon it. She just put one foot in front of the other and started to move. In doing so, she lost an entire human being of weight and found the human being she had always known was there. She will forever be, an Ironman. A winner. Someone who took action when others wouldn't.
A few days ago I was talking to a friend. She too has battled with weight most of her life. She is the proverbial yoyo fad-dieter and fad-exercise program purchaser. She knows what she needs to do, but it is always just outside her grasp. It is always tomorrow. She's lived off of excuses for so long, she believes them to the core.
I submit, many of us are exactly the same way. Our issue might not be weight. Our issue might be substance abuse, a job we hate and want to quit to go do something we dream of doing, getting out of debt, anything where we continue to do the same thing over and over again, while expecting different results.
Friends, nobody is coming to save you. Nobody. If you want to be saved, you're going to have to save yourself. That is one of life's absolute truths. If you want to save yourself you're going to have to take "action." You can talk all day long about what you're "going" to do. That doesn't mean a darn thing.
You want to finish that degree you never got a chance to as a young man or woman? Then don't use the "I'll start next semester" excuse yet again. There are hundreds of colleges that provide non-traditional programs you can start TODAY. If your goal is to lose weight, then don't wait for dinner to eat right, when lunch is still ahead of you. You need to start at your very next meal. You want to finish the Ironman, a 5k, a marathon? You don't need fancy or expensive equipment. Put on some comfortable shorts, a t-shirt, and some sneakers and begin. Even if the furthest you can get today is the corner or your block. The corner of your block is far further than "I'll start tomorrow."
Friends the truth in life is, if you want to accomplish anything of great significance, you're going to have to do it yourself. One step in front of the other is all it takes. But you have to muster up the courage to take that first step, and then that second, and then that third. Success comes to those who take it, not to those who sit around waiting for it to knock on the door. Make this unassuming Thursday in May the first day towards your goals. STOP WAITING!!!!!!!!!! Stop making excuses. Start now. Take "action." You might be surprised as to the heights that first step will take you.
As always friends, I believe in you, you just have to believe in yourselves.
In this particular special, they highlighted a woman who at her heaviest weighed 320lbs. When she crossed the finish line, forever to be known as an Ironman, she weighed 150. She wasn't some game show contestant on the Biggest Loser or any other show. She was just a regular woman who chose to change her life, and then did the most important thing, she "acted" upon it. She just put one foot in front of the other and started to move. In doing so, she lost an entire human being of weight and found the human being she had always known was there. She will forever be, an Ironman. A winner. Someone who took action when others wouldn't.
A few days ago I was talking to a friend. She too has battled with weight most of her life. She is the proverbial yoyo fad-dieter and fad-exercise program purchaser. She knows what she needs to do, but it is always just outside her grasp. It is always tomorrow. She's lived off of excuses for so long, she believes them to the core.
I submit, many of us are exactly the same way. Our issue might not be weight. Our issue might be substance abuse, a job we hate and want to quit to go do something we dream of doing, getting out of debt, anything where we continue to do the same thing over and over again, while expecting different results.
Friends, nobody is coming to save you. Nobody. If you want to be saved, you're going to have to save yourself. That is one of life's absolute truths. If you want to save yourself you're going to have to take "action." You can talk all day long about what you're "going" to do. That doesn't mean a darn thing.
You want to finish that degree you never got a chance to as a young man or woman? Then don't use the "I'll start next semester" excuse yet again. There are hundreds of colleges that provide non-traditional programs you can start TODAY. If your goal is to lose weight, then don't wait for dinner to eat right, when lunch is still ahead of you. You need to start at your very next meal. You want to finish the Ironman, a 5k, a marathon? You don't need fancy or expensive equipment. Put on some comfortable shorts, a t-shirt, and some sneakers and begin. Even if the furthest you can get today is the corner or your block. The corner of your block is far further than "I'll start tomorrow."
Friends the truth in life is, if you want to accomplish anything of great significance, you're going to have to do it yourself. One step in front of the other is all it takes. But you have to muster up the courage to take that first step, and then that second, and then that third. Success comes to those who take it, not to those who sit around waiting for it to knock on the door. Make this unassuming Thursday in May the first day towards your goals. STOP WAITING!!!!!!!!!! Stop making excuses. Start now. Take "action." You might be surprised as to the heights that first step will take you.
As always friends, I believe in you, you just have to believe in yourselves.
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