I’ve discovered, as I’m sure many of you have too, one of the main themes of life is that oftentimes the things we wish to accomplish or the challenges we want to overcome require a course of action that is simple, but not easy.  This concept is all encompassing and not limited to any specific area of life.

For instance, if you want to get or complete your education, the degree plan that your advisor lays out may seem very simple, but studying for and passing some of the required classes may not be easy.  If you want to lose weight, knowing which foods to eat and which ones to avoid, when to eat and how much water to drink seems like a simple plan, but adhering to that plan is not easy. For me this is especially true if there is chocolate (the darker the better) or ice cream (I was born with the ice cream gene – this gene has been passed down on my mother’s side, starting with my grandfather) immediately accessible.  If you want to start saving for retirement, setting aside a certain percentage of your income is a simple math calculation, but figuring out how to adjust the rest of your budget with that percentage removed can be difficult for the first several months.

So what happens when you knowingly and consciously make choices that are counter to your desired end goal?  Why is it so easy to justify falling off the wagon and give into the little voice that says “Go ahead, spend that extra $20” or “That piece of cake won’t hurt anything”?  Here’s some good news – this is a centuries old problem.  In his letter to the Romans, Paul writes “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ” (Romans 7:15, 19, NIV).  Matthew 26:41 reiterates this thought: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (NIV).  I have had many times when I made my mind up to do something or not do something and have then turned around (sometimes immediately, I might add) and done something completely opposite of what I had initially determined to do.  For the most part, I am now at the point where when I have set a goal and I take an action that is not going to move me towards accomplishing that goal, I can admit to myself that I am making that conscious choice, so the only one responsible for a slower timeline is me.

Keeping your goal in the forefront of your mind is key and I have found it helps to set up some kind of reminder.  The reminder you choose might be a magazine picture on your fridge of a place you are saving to go on vacation, or an item of clothing that you want to be able to get into (or back into) that you hang in a highly visible place in your bathroom or your closet, or it might be something as simple as a date on your calendar.  Setting benchmarks on the way to your end goal also helps maintain motivation so you can see where you started, how far you have come and the decreasing distance still left to go.  Your desire for your goal has to be greater than your desire for the temporary comfort.  I can’t think of any good thing or major accomplishment in my life that has not required hard work and sacrifice, both of which were well worth it in the end.

Here we are in St. Lucia from several years ago.  This was an anniversary trip that we planned and saved for for a number of months.

When I was younger and worried about how to accomplish something, my dad would frequently remind me of the saying “How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.”  I doubt that elephant is on anyone’s diet plan, but you get the idea – break the big task down into smaller chunks and focus on completing that task before moving on to the next one.

Sounds simple enough, right?