Know Where You're Going & Plan the Trip!

A man named Henry Emerson Fosdick once said, "He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end."

We often hear "the end justifies the means", but have we really thought about what that means for the life-changing journeys we are on? This literally means that our actions are acceptable if they help us achieve our desired end result.

This begs two questions:
What is our desired end result?
AND
What means are we willing to use to get there?

We can't just focus on the result we're wanting without bringing into sharp focus the means we're going to use to accomplish what we want. So many people talk about having a plan. The importance of having a plan and working that plan cannot be underscored enough, because failing to plan is itself a plan to fail.

I've spent a tremendous amount of time questioning my weight loss and fitness plan. I have it set as a daily spark goal for myself - to start each day reviewing my goals. If I'm not daily committing myself to focus on making right choices for my health, then I am going to be more prone to letting those choices be made for me. Does it take extra work? Yes. I plan ahead for meals and snacks and steal time during my son's swim practice to hit the gym. These are things I plan out ahead of time so that I don't find myself at the end of the week saying, "A whole week flew by and I didn't work out once!" or "I got caught up at an appointment, etc. and had to hit the drive-through for lunch." These things happen when we don't plan.

It's not enough to just say I want to weigh 135 lbs. I'm letting myself down if I only visualize myself wearing a size 5. That would be like wanting to take a dream trip to Italy. You're given the airline tickets (joining www.SparkPeople.com for free), but forget to plan the trip! I'm committed to NOT throwing away that opportunity. Now it's a matter of replicating the success I had the first time when I lost 61 pounds before becoming pregnant with the twins. It's not rocket science. It's just determination to feel better about where I am physically and deciding that where I am now is not where I want, deserve, or need me to be.