I was outside in the garden, moving a few Snow-in-summer plants into slightly different locations, and Puusti the dog was not keen to be trapped inside. I was at the front of the yard which isn't fenced, otherwise I would have had him out with me, and he let me know his displeasure. He is still too barky for my liking. He is far better with me than he is with Smallsteps and my wife though, because I am consistent in his training.
Consistency is pretty much a key to all kinds of successful outcomes, whether training a dog, learning a skill, or staying healthy. While we have to get used to random and unexpected events, we should be trying to maintain a consistent approach to the parts of our life that are either important to us, or necessary for us to achieve what we want in the areas that are important. We can consistently improve tennis skills for example, but if we aren't looking after our diet consistently, the improvements are going to have little effect if we are either out of energy, or too large to move around the court.
Diet is a big issue for me.
For me to get to a healthy weight, I need to lose about 15 kilos (~35 pounds), which is a massive amount. However, I'd be pretty comfortable if I could lose even half of that. I train hard enough, but my diet is out of synch for getting that result. Why is it that I am willing to increase my training, but find it so hard to just eat better?
I was having a discussion with these kinds of things with Smallsteps the other day, where we were talking about how little choice we have over some things, like skin colour, or who our parents are. And I was saying how even when we are old enough to have choices, our habits from when we didn't can be incredibly hard to shake.
This is a big part of the food issue for me I believe, because from a pretty young age I was getting many of my own meals prepared, but I couldn't really cook too well. So, there was a lot of easy to prepare but not overly nutritious meals. I was very active as a kid, and metabolisms of children work faster, so I wasn't overweight. But those habits have stuck with me, even though I know better and can now cook adequately.
Repetition is a feature, and a bug.
Repat the right thing enough and the right actions become automatic, but that is the same for repeating the wrong things too. Repeating the wrong thing over and over and what happens is our default becomes doing the wrong thing. It is pretty obvious that one cigarette isn't enough to become addicted, but a few more, and a few more, and then attach the behaviour to some emotional state, and it can quickly become a bad habit, hard to shake.
To reverse my own bad habits, I have to start repeating good habits, which is incredibly hard because they don't come naturally. Lowering the bar to doing the right thing, making it the easiest choice, helps, but there is still that pesky emotional attachment that we have to doing what we have always done. It feels right - even when we know it is wrong.
But, I have to persevere, because while I am an old dog, in this world, it isn't an excuse for not being able to change. The world is changing rapidly, creating new challenges and stresses, and we have to constantly adjust to keep up, or stop ourselves from sliding down into the abyss. That takes energy, consistency, some willpower, and a willingness to keep on changing, keep on building, keep on letting go of what might have felt right before.
Feeling right about it, doesn't make it right.
We are all conditioned by our environment and the actions we are repeating daily. Some of these things we had no choice over originally, but at some point, we can't claim that as a reason that we can't change. We all can, we all do, but whether we are able to do what it takes to change in the direction we actually want to go - well, that is harder. The intention can be there, but if the attention and energy isn't paid at the right time and on the right things, where we want to go - passes us by.
A lot has passed me by.
I an claim that it wasn't me, I had no choice in how I was conditioned. but, where does that leave me? Forever stuck a victim of circumstance, unable to forge a new path, by creating new habits. It is a powerless position, rather than an empowering position that says, even if I fail to make my goals, I am going to push toward them.
But without consistency, failure is almost guaranteed.
Taraz
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