Before and After... and DURING!

Have you ever noticed when you're on a diet, you're extremely excited the first time you notice the scale move a pound?  Then that excitement quickly fades when you realize that absolutely nobody else noticed the difference.  You struggle to drop a few pounds here and there, only making a dent, and eventually sometimes you give up because it's not happening fast enough and it doesn't seem to be making an impact on your body, on the way others view you, and on the way you feel.  However, if you don't quit, if you keep working at it, if you persevere long enough, then the changes that are happening gradually are sometimes suddenly noticed.  "Have you been losing weight?" a friend or co-worker might ask.  Then a smile comes across your face and you say whatever your newest landmark poundage was: "Yes!  Twenty-two pounds!" It gives you the motivation to continue, and to do your best to reach your goals.

The seeds we are planting in ourselves on this Journey are not to be expected to blossom immediately.  Your life won't suddenly become an upheaval and then you will be perfect.  That's precisely why it's the Journey.  Beaming has not yet been perfected, as far as I'm aware (but I can check with my Physics Phriends on this one).  You can't just drop a seed underneath an inch of dirt and expect a fully formed rose to pop up the next day.  In the same manner, you can't expect to attempt to incorporate these positive changes in your life and immediately have a Master's Degree in the craft of Life-Honing.

Each day is a step.  Each step is a small piece of a Journey.  And each Journey is different.

"Over time, a slow, steady stream of water will erode the hardest rock, and turn giant boulders into pebbles.  Over time, a little sprout can turn into a giant redwood tree towering 350 feet tall." -- Rick Warren

The trick is not to give up.  Even if no one else notices a difference in you yet, you know where you used to be, and you know how far you've come.  Sure, you're not perfect.  Nobody is.  Sure, you have a long way to go.  Everybody does.  It's why we're in this together.

Have you seen Finding Nemo?  The curmudgeonly clownfish Marlin is given a lively pep-talk by his somewhat annoying friend, Dori... she starts singing, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!" Your assignment for the day is to find some time to watch that movie because it always makes ME happy when I watch it, and it contains that catchy little ditty which will not leave your head (nor will it leave mine for the rest of the evening).  It's a lesson in perseverance.  You might find that most of the time, it doesn't seem like what you're trying to do to change your life for the better is making the slightest bit of difference at all.  Believe me when I say it will.  And, in the meantime, whenever you feel like giving up?

Just keep swimming.

Stephanie Jean