How bad do you want it?

How bad do you want it? Well, it depends on what “it” is. Each of us has an “it” that we want. Your “it” could be weight loss, it could be being debt free, it could be being tobacco free, it could be being out of a bad relationship, it could be deeper committed to God, it could be more consistent in your walk with God.  “It” could be any number of things.  The question is how bad do we want that “it”?

Lets work on a “want” rating scale:

1= I have a desire to want to, but right now, I just think it is a good thing to want to do.

2= I have thought about, and possibly written out what I would do to make my goal become a reality, actually thought through a plan of action.

3= I have made a few, small steps in that plan, nothing that costs me money or any great deal of time or energy yet.  (Done a web search, read a few free pamphlets at the doctor’s office,  asked a few friends “what would you do if you wanted to ……”)

4= I have told a few people of my goals and desires to achieve this goal and taken a few more steps and possibly spent some money

5= I have made sacrifices of things that I love that I know will not allow me to get to my goal.

6= I have made a sizeable investment (finical, emotional, physical, etc like joined a gym, written a dear john letter, started seeing a councilor, started a tobacco patch etc.), a public declaration (on social media, or otherwise let a larger population know)

7= I have created some kind of accountability or follow up system to make myself become more accountable for my actions.

8= I have reevaluated my plan and made adjustments to the plan to firm up the areas where the plan didn’t mean realistic expectations.

9= I have come up with (and executed) a plan to challenge myself when I stall out on my journey.

10= I have decided that nothing, absolutely nothing is more important than my goal. No distraction will deter me, No defeat will deflate me. No set back will derail me. No bad decision on my part will make me give up. I will accept nothing less than the goal I have set for myself. I WILL ACHIEVE WHAT I HAVE SET OUT TO DO!!

So, on our scale of want to, where are you? I know for me, there are days I wake up at a 10 and by the time I go to bed I am a 1. Then there are days I wake up at a solid 5 and go to bed at a shaky 6. Your desire to get to your goal can come and go like the rolling in and out of the tide. I often say my motivation attention span lasts about 3-6 months. I can only push myself HARD to get to a goal for 3-6 months. It is hard to maintain that 10 kind of “want to” for years on end.

What I am trying to get at is, don’t beat yourself up if you can’t keep your “want to” at a 10 all the time. I have a calendar in my purse to use as my motivation report card. Where I can grade myself every day on the “it”s I am striving for. At the end of the week, I can look back over the week and say, Sunday was a 5, Monday was a 7, Tuesday was a 4, Wednesday was 8, Thursday was a 2, Friday was a 10, Saturday was a 8. So my average for the week was 6, not a bad week overall.  And the next week I strive to do a bit better.  I am not going to be perfect, so 6 is a good start!!

A few 10 days will make you want to have more 10 days, cause those days feel great. And those days get you to your goal!!

Good luck getting with your “it”. You can do it! Stay focused and remember Philippians 4:13!!

Perfect is not the point

I am learning this truth, day by day, little by little in every area of my life. I am a perfectionist in the worst way. I like to be perfect and really hate the area’s in my life that I am not. I refuse to do any sport or anything I can’t do perfectly or at least really well. I am really competitive and want to be the best. I truly hate this about myself. It is something me and Jesus are working on. I can allow myself some imperfections allowances in some places, and in other places I can’t seem to take it. So instead of being imperfect I refuse to try. So the mantra I am trying to adopt now is “perfect is not the point”. I have been telling the members of my WW meetings to give themselves permission to not be perfect, the last time I said that in a meeting I felt the Holy Spirit say to me “Why don’t you give yourself the same permission?”

 In the meeting I was talking about tracking your food, writing down everything you eat is a huge key to your weight loss. But most people really struggle with doing that 100% of the time. So I tell people to find a happy compromise that they can be ok with. Some tracking is better than no tracking. So I am trying to take on that mentality with the rest of my life. I can’t clean the house from top to bottom in one day, so I’ll do a little every day. Which may seem completely logical to some, but to me this is a new concept I am trying to adopt, along with many other things. 

God isn’t looking for us to be perfect, He wants us to put forth and effort, then rely on Him for the rest. His forgiveness and grace is there for us when we fall short of perfect, which we always will. We are pleased with our children when they try to do what is right, they don’t always get it right either. It’s about the effort we are putting forth. I know my heart, I know when I am giving it my all, and when I am giving it only a 75% (or sometimes less) effort. God knows too. He wants my heart to be right.  I too often look at myself through other peoples lenses, “what will so and so think of me if I do or don’t do that”, when I should think “what will God think if I do or don’t do that” most of the time I would realize that God doesn’t care about some of that stuff as much as man does. It would free me up to relax in some areas and in others, it would really make me behave myself more.

Perfect isn’t the point the intent of the heart is what is. God knows my heart, now I just have to know my heart too!!