Feature Article
Keep on Keeping on
In a way, growth is kind of like that. You decide there’s
some aspect of your life that needs change. Maybe your attitude
needs improving, or you feel stuck in your job. Perhaps your weight
has become a health concern, or the life seems to have gone out
of your marriage. Whatever it is, you know the time has come for
you to take action. Fortunately, there are lots of resources available,
and certainly this newsletter has provided some life skills to
empower you.
But what often happens at the beginning of new growth
is that there’s a
certain mind set that gets you to make the commitment to change. This energy
carries you into taking the initial steps--you join the program, or the gym,
you implement the skills. But life is interesting. Sometimes it can seem that you’ve barely gotten
started when every temptation you’ve been trying to avoid finds its way
into you path. Your spouse says just the thing that sets you off. Your friend
happens to serve your favorite desert at a dinner party. It’s not your
imagination, and it’s not life playing with your head. Really.
It’s the process of growth, pure and simple. It’s almost as if life
is saying, “You want change? Great! Let’s have all the things that
have challenged you in the past show up in your life, so that now you can choose
differently!” So, within these very obstacles are invitations—and
opportunities—for the very change you want to see happen.
Here’s a rule of thumb for you: Chaos and confusion always precede growth. Always. And the confusion shows up as the transition
experience from the old
behavior, old pattern, to the new one. So the challenges you experience
when you make change really are signs of growth, signs that what
you are doing is
working. Really.
So, what do you do in the meantime?
You keep on keeping on. Whatever it is you’re committed
to, keep putting one foot in front of the other. One of my dearest
friends can certainly tell
you a thing or two about that. Last Saturday, Karen completed an Avon
Breast Cancer walk—26 miles in one day! Not bad for a young
chick in her 50’s!
How did she do it? Well, she’ll tell you it wasn’t always
easy--that there were days she questioned both her commitment and her
choice. But she never
let this stop her, and she never lost sight of her goal. One step after
another, she kept on keeping on.
And so it can be for you. Keep working the program, practicing
those skills. Hang in there during the long, hot days of growth.
And one
morning you
too will wake up, feel that cool autumn breeze against your skin,
and know, beyond
the
shadow of a doubt, that you’ve finally (finally!) arrived!
Until next time…
Be well!
marina
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