December 23, 2023 by Molly Patrick

Jelly donuts

The difference between someone who gets results from healthy lifestyle changes and someone who doesn’t is that one person actually makes the changes.

Sounds super “duh,” but the number of times I’ve been 100% convinced that reading about meditation will give me special meditation-like benefits is too many to count. I’m guessing I’m not alone in this phenomenon.

Wanting to benefit from something isn’t enough.
Thinking about how to do it isn’t enough.
Being inspired isn’t enough.
Watching someone else do it isn’t enough.
Reading about doing it isn’t enough.
Buying the things to do it isn’t enough.
Those are all great places to start, but if you’re ready to actually feel differently, you have to do the damn thing.

Being an observer of something doesn’t create enough tension to nudge you out of your comfort zone. But being a participant does, which is the only way to make any real changes.

We can’t do the same thing over and over and expect different results (there’s another word for that). We have to do things differently in order to get different results. I don’t know about you, but I needed to hear that just now.

So many of us are afraid to push ourselves.
Afraid to fail.
Afraid of being told things we don’t want to hear.
Afraid of being uncomfortable.
Afraid of having it take longer than we want.
Afraid of it not working.
Afraid of going back to our old ways.
Afraid of what people might think of us.
Afraid of letting people down.
Afraid of letting ourselves down.

But do you know what? All of this stuff happens anyway. 

Whether we push ourselves or not, we will fail. We will be told things we don’t want to hear. We will be uncomfortable. It will take longer than we want. It won’t always work. We might revisit our old ways. People will think all kinds of things about us. We will let people down. We will let ourselves down. Not every time. Not all the time. But often enough.

If all this stuff happens anyway, even when we’re living within our safe little bubbles, eating jelly donuts (yum), and observing life, then we may as well call on our courage and become an active participant. Doing the things that scare us are also the things that change us.

You are so very capable of everything you desire. Let’s go do some hard things.

Molly

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Written by ex-boozer and ex-smoker, Molly Patrick that will help you eat more plants while throwing perfection down the garbage disposal.

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