I had 50 days in a row of my bathroom scale going in the wrong direction and – that feeling when you want to give up – that’s exactly what I was feeling.
That’s when I did something drastic.
A Very Human Day
Did you ever have a day that felt like this?
If you say “no”, then we know you’re a robot and probably the type that would pick on that poor guy. For the rest of us non-robots, or at least, very-human like robots, life can sometimes get the better of us. You, like me, have many very human days when you want to give up.
That’s exactly how I felt standing on that scale and seeing the @#$#* numbers go up. Sorry. Forgive my punctuation.
The Underlying Problem
It’s not that the numbers go up: it’s that there seems to be little rhyme or reason. Sure, if I eat a ton, they go up, but some days when I eat bad food and too much if it, it goes down and some days when I have rabbits telling me I need to eat more it goes up. There seems to be no standard by which I can confidently say “this will put you on the right track.”
It’s that very frustrating moment when you want to give up. It seems like nothing you do matters. It seems like things will go wrong regardless. It feels very defeating.
That’s how I felt after weeks of seeing things go in the wrong direction. I finally had the thought: “what’s the point? I’m just going to give up”.
Immediately I realized the real problem.
The Daily Struggle
To understand the problem you have to understand that at some point in my life I was literally obese.
I worked hard to lose weight and get it under control. Since that time it’s been a constant battle. There are stretches where it’s very good and stretches where it feels like I’m punching a wall.
But on that day where for just a second I thought of giving up, I realized something: it’s never going to be perfect. I’m not going to be like Mr. Rogers and always be at my perfect weight every day. It’s going to fluctuate.
Life Is Unexpected
Life isn’t perfect. Sometimes it’s annoying. Sometimes it’s frustrating. It throws us curveballs and unexpected surprises. But when it knocks us down we have to get up, brush ourselves off, and keep going forward. Why? For the same reason I have to keep trying to get to my ideal weight.
At this moment I’m within 10 pounds of where I want to be. I was within less than a pound at the end of last year and I’ve struggled to get back to it. I may never.
But I’m still a long way from where I was. If I give up, I could end back up there. Sometimes our goals are like climbing a hill. We may stumble. We may not make much progress. But if you give in when you want to give up, you slide down, and it takes that much more effort to get back up.
When You Want to Give Up: Don’t
The next time you find yourself in a position where you want to give up, don’t. When you’re climbing that hill, you can take a breather. You can take a rest. You can soak up the sunshine. You might stumble. You might fall.
But when you’re focused on success, even when you fall, you’re still worlds ahead of where you’d be if you’d just given up.
Don’t give up. Find ways to keep the momentum going. Find encouragers and partners and people who will help you. Keep moving forward. It’s much better to keep moving toward your goals, because even if you don’t always attain them, you’ll be much better off than if you’d never tried.
