You probably didn’t notice, because you are not hanging on my every word, post and utterance. But it has been just over three weeks since I’ve made a blog post. Oh, don’t worry. I have lots of excuses.
I’ve been working on some new products. I have been giving a bunch of presentations at conferences and corporate events. I’ve had several articles to write for CIO Insight. They’re all good excuses. They’re all important. But none of that matters. I still didn’t write.
When I got on my weight loss program a couple of years ago (the one that eventually led me to lose about 70 lbs!), the nutritionist who’s videos we were watching said something very important. She sat there and counted up all of the holidays, vacations, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. and said that if we count it right, there are 350 “eating holidays” for us to take advantage of. The translation was that there was always a very good reason why we should skip our diet on any given day. Every day has the potential to be a special occasion in which we let our diet go. There was always an excuse. But what matters is the choice you make.
These days I have decided to try to go beyond just losing weight and to really work on my fitness. I’ve been trying to run a few days a week. But do you know what happens? There seems to always be something more important, more urgent that comes up. I rationalize that I can’t afford to run today because I’ve got to handle this something or that something. And so sometimes as much as a week or two will pass between runs.
We make decisions every day. Each day and many times throughout the day we are choosing what is important to us and what is not. But sometimes, we let that choice get away from us and we simply respond to whatever is coming at us. Deliberately choosing what to focus on, where to invest our time, takes discipline. But the cost of not doing it is that you end up squandering the single, most valuable resource that you posses – your time.
For me, I had decided that I wanted to blog at least once or twice a week. To give myself an opportunity to just express myself and keep it real. And I have let far too many things get in the way. I wonder how often the same thing happens to you? But most of those things that got in the way are not worth the “mental calories”. It’s like making bad choices and eating the wrong foods. They are just mental fat – things that take up your time and produce no value or personal fulfillment.
I know that for me, just as it is with food and running, it is hard work to have the discipline to make the choices that I want to make. To stop spending time on those things that do not produce value and to invest myself where it counts the most. It’s a battle I will probably fight every day for the rest of my life. But I will continue fighting it and I will win it. Because I have a lot of creating to do. How about you?
Now, I think I’m going to go for a run.
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