Friday, September 4, 2009

CELEBRATING SMALL VICTORIES

DAY 9:  Celebrating small victories is empowering.

“In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves.”  Henry Truman

As part of my program to optimum health, I had determined last week that I would ride my stationary bike every day for ten minutes.  I had determined I had only one excuse and that was if my symptoms got so completely out of control  it would be difficult for me to walk downstairs.  Otherwise, I would at least need to sit on the bike to determine if I could ride the bike or whether I could at least do a couple of minutes.  I am trying to eliminate my “all or nothing” mentality.  Also, my past history was to decide to do laundry or wash dishes or do some other mundane household chore first just in case I didn’t have the energy to do both.  In other words, I wasn’t putting my health as a first priority.

Anyways, I am celebrating a small victory tonight.  This morning I didn’t rise out of bed as early as I should have since my body wasn’t cooperating.   When I got up, I remembered that a plumber was arriving around 8:30 this morning.  My  typical reaction would have been to quickly shower, blow dry my hair, get dressed and be “ready” well before I knew anyone would be arriving at my place.  However, this morning, I realized I couldn’t do this since my first priority was to go downstairs and ride my bike.  This set me back by at least 20 minutes and the fellows arrived before I was fully dressed and with my hair wet.  Fortunately, my husband was still home and he talked to them a few minutes while I quickly put on a shirt, grabbed a blow dryer and brush and quickly moved into the other bathroom.  I thought I could make this transition smoothly and quietly but my husband called out, “Is it okay for them to come up?!!   Apparently, nothing could frazzle me this morning!!

This may seem like a pretty small victory, but  I have never been so focused to choose what is best for me over my false sense of what was more important. I find that this small action has empowered me to believe that I may actually “get it” this time:  Every other priority must take a lesser importance than my priority of getting better.  It makes me believe that my 365 day challenge to optimize my health may just work!!  It also has made me aware that celebrating these small victories can actually propel me more easily toward my goal.

[Via http://gaylejervis.wordpress.com]

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