A Mild Commitment...

      A Mild Sense of Commitment…

​Listening to a sports-scientist recently, I was reminded of the significance of mental attitude in the quest for health and fitness.
The scientist was talking about the need for a healthy attitude getting fit, losing fat, toning up.
The difference, he said, between a healthy attitude and a poor one is often what makes the difference between success and failure.
He said that a healthy attitude was where the trainee applied himself for the right reasons; these being health, vitality, mental acuity, a positive self-image, whatever that moves the person in that direction, and all that goes with it. And then worked like hell to start, get to the middle , and finish it. He mentioned that belief and confidence have a lot to do with that.
If we’re out of shape, tired, run down, off form, we’re undermining our own chances of living a happy and successful life; all our energies tend to get lost in the mere work of surviving.
Once we attain a sense of well-being, and that can be got just by deciding to start a programme that’ll help us, we shift our mind-set. We begin to think in terms of possibilities, how we can improve our lives and the lives of those near and dear to us.
Some people go headfirst into this, making it the first order of their lives in this time, and that’s ok, it suits them. Others take it easy, step by step, doing each phase in an orderly way, getting to their goal systematically. Everyone has his own way of doing everything in life. How we drive a car, ride a bike, hit a tennis ball, wear a suit, is our privilege and our business, so long as we don’t encroach on others.
This goes for being well, healthy and fit, too. Though we may all abide by the basic principles, we have our own way, style and method of applying them.
The one thing we do need to observe though, is the solidity, the strength, the belief, in our decision.
Wishy-washy, half-hearted decisions that sound like, ‘we’ll give it a bit of a go and see what happens’, usually have nothing to do with ultimate success.
Decisions need to be just that; decisive. A decision has the power to turn our lives around and give us rewards that are way out of proportion to the effort required, which is not to say that getting a result is easy, but it is simple.
Whatever it is you want to do then, take a decision, get started on the action required, and honour it. That means when you  fall off the wagon, instead of wringing hands and thinking how hard it is, get back on and keep on getting back on, because no journey is a straight line to the destination. And there’s your commitment; to yourself, your aims, your own aspirations.
That’s what commitment is, doing it when it seems hard, when you wonder what the hell got you into it in the first place, when you see all the people who are fit healthy and well, and don’t have to do what you’re doing to have that wonderful gift. And everyone experiences that. We all want to quit, give up, say ‘oh, hell let’s forget about it’. But that’s the easy option.

It’s in those times of fear, uncertainty, doubt, and we all have them, when you take a decision, again, and stick with your intention, that you’ll develop and grow a confidence in your abilities and yourself that will serve you for the rest of your life.
So hold fast, tie the colours to the mast, wear the jersey, whatever it takes to get to your goal, and live it.

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