Changing Time

Habits eat willpower for breakfast.   John Ortberg

I am tired of starting and stopping things. I tend to get fired up about changing my health (in all areas) then end up falling short of my intended goal and giving up. It's a frustrating problem of running out of willpower when I tend to need it the most.

The truth is that my willpower is a limited commodity and I can't rely on it alone to make the difference in my lifestyle. While there are times when I need to be resilient, I also need to learn new ways of living. It requires a rewiring of my brain to swap out old habits for new ones. Writing these words is obviously much easier than fulfilling them, but I believe that consistency and a "one-day-at-a-time" focus will bring the change that I'm so desperate to see. Realizing that I can't will myself to be better, but must develop new patterns of thought and behavior is actually a relief even if it seems that it will take longer to become a reality.

All By Myself

Maintaining our character and holding to our values is not easily done alone. We might have the willpower and the plan to succeed for a while, but trying to maintain focus without accountability and support becomes increasingly difficult over time. We will all have moments of weakness and temptation where our supply of willpower seems to have run low. When we are in isolation we are more likely to choose poorly. In fact, sometimes we choose isolation because of the decisions that we have been making or anticipate making. The truth is that isolation is the enemy of accountability. Removing ourselves from the company of like-minded people eliminates the guardrails that help keep us on the safe path of decision making.

All of us need a dedicated community of people around us for support, strength, and reminders of what is most important. It's in the honest togetherness of genuine relationships that we find the courage to keep making right decisions.