Musings

Climb! (photo courtesy of Flickr)

After a dismal week of progress (no pounds lost), I got to thinking about motivation.  Clearly it’s possible to lose weight, to alter one’s lifestyle, and to move toward a better life. Why is it that we fail and fall in our journeys?

A spiritual answer might be the concept of concupiscence – that we humans “walk with a limp” as a result of original sin (Adam & Eve).  I’ll set that answer aside for now, as it requires more intellectual horsepower than I can muster at 4am.

I think the truth might be closer to “lack of vision”.  Starting a new project is exciting! Visually it’s like setting out on a journey.  At first, the road is clear and wide, there are lots of excited people happy to see you on your journey, and you can ride that natural excitement out of town and onto the plains.

Once you’ve been on a the road a while, though, it starts to head into the hills, and the journey takes you up and down.  At the top of the hills, you can still see your destination in the distance. That vision powers you through the next valley and up the hill on the other side.

A little further along the road, you get into a forest.  Now the hills are there, but the sky is blanketed in the boughs of trees, and it’s hard to see the destination – your goal – at the crest of the hills.

It’s at this point that I think a lot of us start to get lost.  The road ahead is either unknown (for the lifetime-unhealthy) or overgrown (for those who have been unhealthy for a long time).  It seems easier to turn around and retreat to a place where we can see our vision again, even though you’ve gone backwards.

The challenge is to climb a tree.  Wherever you are in your journey, when the forest gets thick, and the valleys seem dark, and deep, take a moment (a day, or a week), and mentally climb a tree to get your bearings back.  This is recommitment – to find again the direction and purpose for starting this journey in the first place.

This is week 7 of 10×10 in 2010, and I’m climbing a tree.

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