Back on Track

Last week, I was a bit frustrated when I sat down to look at the goals  that I had written down back in January. Of the several goals that I had written down, I was only pursuing a handful of them on a fairly consistent basis. Of the goals that I could consider myself still pursuing, I was not on track for achieving any of them within the timeframe that I had set for myself. The majority of my goals had drifted into oblivion, forgotten like lost toys, and replaced by more “pressing matters”.

I tried to rationalize and justify my lack of consistency. I tried to explain away my lack of progress.

“You know,” I told my friend over lunch, “It’s like there’s a battle going on within myself. I have this great opportunity in front of me to really make some changes in my life. But the old me is trying to hold on. Trying to make excuses, trying to procrastinate, trying to follow distractions and shift my priorities, trying to make me undisciplined and inconsistent. It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy that the old me wants to make sure comes true. The old me keeps telling me that I can’t do it. I can’t accomplish my goals, and the new me is struggling to prove myself wrong.”

My friend is a very successful person, whom I hold in high regard. “I struggle with the same thing,” he said to my surprise. “For quite some time, you have learned to accept failure. You have learned that mediocrity is just fine. Now, you are starting to make some changes in your life, starting to pursue your dreams again. And a part of you is preparing yourself to fail again, preparing yourself to accept mediocrity again. Because it’s a much easier path to accept than the path that leads to achieving your dreams.”

I looked down at the table, somewhat ashamed. Never in my life had I considered myself a person that accepted being average at anything that I pursued. Yet, what he said was the truth. For several years I had conceded to being average, maybe even below average. My eyes pleaded for an answer when I looked up at him again.

“Do you know what the solution is, Shane?”

“No…I don’t.” I waited anxiously for some profound solution.

“You just have to get started again, Shane. Put yourself back on track.”

I looked at him somewhat in disbelief that the solution could be so easy.

“Getting started, though,” he continued, “is usually the hardest part. But once you get started, it really isn’t that bad after that. Think about waking up in the morning, or working out, or eating right, or just getting things done that you know you should do. The hardest part is always starting. Just get started again, Shane. Just get started again.”

We all have goals and dreams. Some of our goals and dreams we have allowed to be lost. But things that have been lost can be found. Like finding a favorite toy that you had forgotten you had, the joy and passion can be rekindled, but we have to fight the part of us that has told us for so long that failure and mediocrity is acceptable. We have to fight the part of us that tells us to just stay in bed, the part of us that tells us we can work out tomorrow, or the part of us that tells us we don’t have the time. Despite previous failures or the lack of progress, we have the power to take another look at our dreams that we have allowed to be pushed to the wayside, and make the decision to “just get started again”.