Shots Across the Bow

When it comes to lasting changes in life, we need to be persuaded on three levels, usually in the same order.

Mental: First, we must be convinced that something is true. It needs to make sense to us or at least we need to trust that it can make sense. This is why expert opinions carry so much weight and why we "stick with what we know."

Personal: Second, we need to feel it applies to us; not just that it matters but that it matters to us. So long as it doesn't affect us, we can remain indifferent.

Yet it ends here for most of us. We know something is true and we know we need it but we procrastinate and drag our feet. We're convinced, we're just not committed. People who aren't facing the same decision in their lives often don't get it, "What's the hold up? Don't you understand?" Of course we understand, we're not stupid, but it's hard to take the last step…

Volitional: Last, our will must be overcome. We have to pull the trigger and actually do what we know to be right. And, for a lot of us, we have to be scared first.

That has been me. I've known that eating right and excercising is right. I've known that it's especially urgent for me to do it. But now I'm scared and that may actually get me going.

And I've had a few shocks this week. I've never had chest pain before, but I have now. I've never had high blood pressure (and I've checked it often), but I have now. I've never weighed this much, but to my disbelief, I'm now twenty pounds heavier than I thought I was. Twenty more than my highest known weight!

I'm terrified. It's time to change.