Photo taken by Logan Cook.
Can goals be defined as things we don’t yet have? Perhaps parts of ourselves provide us pain. Maybe inertia is alive and well, and we’re comfortably floating in whatever direction is our life, yet a voice inside prods: “This needs to happen. You need to be here. You need to do this.”
So begins the process of making plans to lose weight, go to bed earlier, or feed the cat regularly. In times of real discomfort with our current situation, we steel ourselves, making lists, marking calendars, and buying the appropriate products. “This time I will do it!”
The switch needs to be flicked, and we only partially do so. Maybe we follow our plan for two days. Maybe the P90x DVD set doesn’t leave the box or the broccoli stays in the fridge and eventually spoils.
Time continues and the memory of previous attempts to change resurfaces, bringing up potential angry conversations. Actions needing to happen did not, and the internal voice is pissed, “You can’t do this, you never can. You never change!”
Maybe this moment is a friend. The phrase, “Fall down seven times, get up eight” paints a portrait of continual perseverance, an aggressive attempt to never be rocked by life. Yet life happens and does rock us. The laundry piles up, the kids need feeding and Easy Mac can sit in cabinet for years while broccoli cannot. We cheat on ourselves. We fall down.
Meeting with this moment might bring pain, but could it be a way of getting closer to ourselves? Intimacy with failure means knowing fully the patterns where we back away from what needs to happen. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 1,000 times, and I might begin to see what’s going on.
Time and time again, we’ve fallen short, and we know all about it having paid attention. This time we’re ready, there is no surprise. We realize that a night of 3 hours of sleep means we’re hungry for Snickers.
This time, we don’t pick up the candy bar because we know what will happen. We’ve been here before and seen the story play out. This time, we grab for broccoli, or spinach, or a jump rope.
Maybe we fall down seven times but get up the eighth because we see life’s left hook and get out of the way---or better yet, we dodge the left hook thrown by ourselves.
What do you think? Agree or disagree? Join the conversation by writing in the comments!
