Sunday, June 29, 2008

Put on a rain jacket and go...

When Lance Armstrong was asked about dealing with challenges in race preparation (specifically in dealing with harsh treatment by the media), he's answer was "When it's raining, I just put on a rain jacket and go."

Pretty simple approach, don't you think? But it speaks volumes in it's simplicity, at least to me. And what does it speak to me about? In a word...excuses.

Let me tell you, I am the girl who can make an excuse for anything. I can justify anything. You want those shoes but don't need them? Call me, I'll give you a great justification for why you should buy them. But back to excuses.

When it comes to this whole eating right and getting more active thing, its filled with challenges. Every day. Every day will bring you the oppotunity to make a good choice or a bad choice. And lots of them. After awhile of making the good choices, they become easier, almost rote. But there are times when its hard to make the right choice.

Exercise? But it's too hot. I don't have time. I'm too fat still. I don't want to get up early. I hurt my _____(fill in the blank) so I can't do anything. American Idol is on.

Eating healthy? It's more expensive. I don't like to cook. It's my birthday. There was a bowl of candy on so and so's desk. But they kept pushing the cookies on me. It's easier to go through the drive through.

I could go on and on. We all have our excuses. We all have ways to justify in our minds why it's okay to make the bad choices. But consider this. For EVERY excuse we give ourselves...EVERY SINGLE ONE, there is AT LEAST one solution. You just have to find it.

But where are the bad choices going to get us? Not to our goals. If Lance Armstrong looked at every adversity as chance to back down from his goals, where would he be? He wouldn't have been a 7 time Tour de France champion. And you know what else? He'd probably be dead. (And this is MY blog, so if you think you're going to post any comments about Lance doping, you can forget about it because it'll be deleted and I'll hunt you down and beat you. Okay I wont beat you, but they'll be deleted.)

The point is, if its raining, so what? Put on your rain jacket and go.

3 comments:

  1. Great post Ginny - we share the same thoughts on "excuses." I've made them all, I know the drill. I'm learning to combat the "well I had no choice, but to...." with "I am an adult, I absolutely have a choice." I remember also that NO ONE can make me feel a certain way...that's all me.

    You're wisdom is excellent - keep on keepin' on.

    Laurie

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  2. What a great blog! Thanks for putting things into perspective!

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