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Thursday, May 28, 2009

It Ain't Easy


Wouldn’t it be nice if there really was an Easy Button? The Staples commercials play into our desire to have easy at our fingertips. But in real life there is no magic button – yet we still try to find one. We desperately want easy. We want a pill to help us lose weight. We want a partner, a soul mate, who magically reads our minds and instinctively knows our deepest desires. We want to hit the lottery. We want an Easy Button!

The truth of the matter is most things worth having aren’t easy. Sure there are big lottery winners and that rare couple who fall in love at first site and finish each other sentences but the rest of us have to work for it. The work doesn’t have to be arduous or terrible but it does have to be work.

If you find a profession or a person that you are passionate about then the work should be worth the effort and your passion should help you carry it through the more difficult part. Passion and that dreaded D work: discipline.

That’s the part that makes us crave the Easy Button! When the passion ebbs, that’s when the discipline has to flow. As a dieter, I’ve had weeks where I’ve consistently lost weight but inevitably I’ve hit those plateaus where the scale doesn’t budge and in some instances has gone up … even when I’ve done everything right. At those times, my passion runs low and if I’m going to make it through, the discipline kicks it up a notch.

I stick with the grilled chicken, steamed veggies and sorbet when my frustration is crying out for a juicy cheeseburger, salty fries and a chocolate shake. When your relationship hits a rocky patch, it might seem easier to call it quits or reach for that third party (the romantic equivalent of the burger and fries!). It seems tempting to drop out of the graduate school program or up and quit the job (Okay, not in this economy but you get my point). But if the prize (or person) is worth it, then the discipline will pay off in the long run, and if you stick with it the passion will flow again.

Save the Easy Button for Staples.

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