A Clear Decision

I know there are a lot of folks out there that either don’t like to make decisions or find decisions very difficult to make.
Don’t worry if you are one of those people. I promise this decision is very clear-cut.

We are all very well aware of positive changes that we could make to improve our lives in some way. Perhaps you need to lose weight, quite smoking, start exercising, eat more nutritious foods, stop drinking pop or energy drinks, leave a bad relationship, put more effort in to maintaining good relationships, be more open, get (or get more) therapy… the list is truly endless.

I recall the day I gave up drinking. Up until that day I had excuses galore. If you could give me a reason to quit, I could give you 3 reasons not to. No one could reach me no matter how hard they tried. I wasn’t ready to listen. Then a day came when I was drinking very heavily and broke in to a pool for a swim. A private pool, it was February and I am Canadian. Swimming while drunk in below zero weather was the type of “great” choice I tended to make when drinking heavily. I could have died.
Still… that did not make me care enough to quit. Neither had the plethora of other times that I had risked my own life in the past.
Then the “pool day” happened and I was picked up by police officers who did not think that I was nearly as funny as I found myself. They were polite but obviously fed up with “people like me”. I can not blame them for that.
So… they took me home and when I got out of the police car, my 2 older children were looking out the window and saw me. They were far too young to recall this day but I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember looking at their faces and it suddenly occurred to me that this just wasn’t funny any longer. This was not the mother I wanted my children to know.
That was the day I gave up drinking.

I tell this story because there are a million like it.
People who continue to smoke despite losing loved ones to it.
People that have bad backs, bad knees, and a bulging body but just can not find a way to lose the weight. I am included in this one.
People that procrastinate with housework, schoolwork or office projects even though procrastination adds so much more stress to have these things hanging over them.
All of the people in any of these situations or ones just like it have not yet been able to make the decision to make the change. To just do it.

In my life so far I have quit smoking (July 1st 1989), quit drinking (February 16th, 1998), lost weight (45 pounds)…
I am not bragging here. I am just trying to show that I know none of what I am saying is “easy” work. I am in no way minimizing the effort needed to make positive change in your life and to stick with it.

That said… no matter how big the decision, how huge the life change, how enormous the effort required, how seemingly impossible the task may be? When you are really ready? You will make that decision to just do it.
You will refuse to allow for excuses.
You will find a way to achieve your goal no matter what you need to do to get there.
It really all boils down to nothing but a decision.
Are you ready to make a change or aren’t you?

If you have excuses? You are not ready.
If you blame others? You are not ready.
If you think it is impossible? You are not ready.
If you are afraid of others think? You are not ready.

Just take a moment to think what you want to work on right now. Is there something that you know needs to be done but it will be hard to achieve?
I have something that I have recently decided to do and I am ready to do it. I am not even going to tell anyone what it is because I need to take full responsibility for myself and my choices. I need to do this alone. At least for a little while. When I feel like I have a very good handle on it, I will start to share it with others but right now? My drive is inside of me and not yet ready to come out. Having a secret motivates me for some reason.

Even though I am being a bit mysterious about my goal, I have what I need to accomplish it. I have made the clear decision to do it. No more excuses, no more letting myself off the hook, no more pretending there is not a problem. It is just time to lace up those dancing shoes and boogie. 🙂

Do you have a decision that you are thinking about making? Do you have something you have always wanted to do (or not do) but just never made the clear decision to begin and just do it?
What is holding you back? What is more important than what you need to do for yourself?

If I may add a bit of advice here? Even if you are not yet ready to make the change that you know you need to make, start thinking about it. Get it in to your head and play around with it a bit. Feel free to keep on doing whatever it is that you need to change but just get your mind thinking about the alternative. Would making a good decision improve your life, give you more time with loved ones, allow you t be a better parent/friend/spouse?
One day that little voice that you have been talking to about this will give you a good kick in the arse and you will decide “This is the day!”.

We can all have better lives. Be more passionate, giving, loving, and compassionate with ourselves. We deserve to be taken care of and the person that needs to give us that attention is easy to find. It is us.

So go ahead. Make a decision… or don’t. Just know that you are the one that will benefit most from any positive change that you make and you are worth it!