How Bad Do You Want It?

Have you heard this story?  A man went to a priest and said, “I want to know more about God.”  The priest takes the man into the nearby river where he baptizes people, and then pushes the man down and holds his head under the water for ten seconds.  When the priest pulls the man out of water he asks, “What is it you want?”

“To know more about God!” says the man.

The priest pushes the man’s head back under water for 15 seconds this time, then pulls him up.  The man is gasping, confused and angry.  “What is it you want?” the priest asks again.

“To know more about God!” the man sputters out again.

The priest dunks the man under water a third time until the man begins to struggle violently.  The priest pulls the man up and asks, “What is it you want?”

“AIR!” shouts the man.

“When you want to know God as much as you want to breathe that’s when you will find all your answers,” said the priest.

This story is an intense example of calling someone out on their bullshit.  How many times have you heard people say, “I want to lose weight” while they are sitting on their comfortable couch and eating yummy junk food?  It’s easy to want something.

But to actually turn that want into achievement you have to want it so bad you can taste it.  You have to want it so bad you are willing to face discomfort, self doubt and possibly ridicule from friends and family and still proceed forward.

My entire adult life I wanted to lose weight.  I wanted it enough to try tons of fad diets and a variety of exercise classes, but not enough to change my lifestyle.  That would be too hard.

It wasn’t until I was 50 lbs. overweight, I though my husband was going to cheat on me, my 20th high school reunion was coming up, and I couldn’t fit into a single pair of jeans in my entire closet that I really wanted to lose weight.  I felt like I was drowning in my own life, gasping for breath, and I wanted to be fit as much as I wanted air.

Once I reached that point, nothing, nothing was going to stop me, not even my own self-sabotage.  Instead of caving into my old thought patterns (‘I can’t do this’ ‘I’m too old’ ‘I have kids’ ‘There’s no time’) I examined the fears behind them (‘What if I fail?’ ‘What if I succeed and people call me skinny b****?’) and realized that I had nothing to fear.

When my husband offered me chocolate I said no.  When I couldn’t get to the gym I did mountain climbers in the hallway.  When someone told me that I would probably gain all the weight back after the reunion I wrote Trolls and Miracles in response.

Once that switch clicked in my psyche I was a woman on a mission because the stakes were so high in my mind that failure was no longer an option.

How about you?  Do you sorta want to get healthy, or are you driven?  No one is standing in your way but you.  No article you read nor trainer that you work with will be able to give you that want, that desire, to change and improve your life but you.

The question is, Do you want it as bad as you want to breathe?

Lisa ????

Lisa Traugott is a Mom’s Choice Award winning writer, fitness blogger, wife and mom of two.

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