I was blessed to get to spend the past week at Anna Maria Island in Florida with my husband’s family, and we had a wonderful time. It wasn’t quite as warm as we were hoping for, but we did get to spend the first few days in the sunshine at the beach. The waves were crashing down and Eli and his brothers were riding the waves and having a blast. As fun as it looked to join them, the water was COLD. And I am such a wimp when it comes to cold water. So I decided to bask in the sunshine instead.
Eli urged me to join them, and assured me I would quickly get used to the cold water. I didn’t really believe him. After a whole lot of pressuring (and maybe a little bribery), I grudgingly agreed to get in. Don’t get me wrong- I love enjoying the water and the waves. But there was a barrier to get over that looked too huge for the benefit – cold water.
I dipped my toes in and cringed. No way was I going to immerse my entire body in these temps! But I squared my shoulders and braced myself as I forced my body closer to the waves.. Ankles in… stop. Calves in…. Stop. Knees in….. Big breath. By now the waves are hitting me and splashing up, and I’m still cringing with every step. As I inch closer, each wave takes my breath away and I want to run back to the warm sand and sunshine. But I notice something amazing… I no longer feel the water on my feet, or my knees. They’ve adapted. With that in mind I inch even closer, and finally decide to take the brunt of a wave and ride it in. FREEEEEEEZING. But since I was already in I ran back to take on another one, and pretty soon, I honestly didn’t even notice the temperature of the water. My body had adapted – and I was having so much fun!
What’s the point of all this? It got me thinking how the things in life worth doing, usually don’t come easily for us. We have goals in our mind, but cringe at the path we must take to achieve them. We dread the mountain we must cross, and when we do get motivated enough to finally start – we want to run back to the comfort, the warmth, the sunshine that we were basking in. But if I would have stayed on the sand, I would have missed out on amazing memories made in the water. It’s a small analogy, but it applies to so much.
We want to be healthy and lose weight, but we want to start… tomorrow. We cringe at the idea of giving up our favorite sweets. The mountain looks huge, but we look back at pictures of us and want to look like that again. If we can just dig our heels in and plunge in, pretty soon – we won’t even be feeling the pain of missing out on sweets. We’ll be enjoying feeling great again. Sure, along the journey we may want to run back to our comfort zones. But it will be SO worth it.
We certainly will never regret dipping our feet in and taking the plunge – and sticking with it. We’ll feel better, we’ll feel empowered, we’ll have fun, we’ll accomplish great things. But If we STAY in our comfort zone, we will miss out. It’s a daily decision.
xoxo
