Thursday, February 17, 2011

There Are No Short Cuts

“In our quick to fix society that aims for immediate gratification, many people think self discipline means suffering and self denial. Today, many are looking for that short cut in life. Yes we have become a quick to fix society, a “now” society. I want it now, what I see on TV because tomorrow is too late. If it feels good, I’ll try it, relief is just a swallow away. Temptation resisted is the true measure of character.” - Herb Brooks

My generation was a transitioned one between tough-love and spoon-fed. I had friends who worked very hard for their money and used it wisely; I also had friends who received a car the moment they got their license to drive. And I’m not talking a hand-me-down car, I’m talking brand new, off the lot, foreign import cars here and they took it for granted from the get go.

I was front row center to watch how the younger generation saw a transfer of ‘sportsmanship’ and ‘mindsets’ that although presented as “good” and “fair” turned out to produce whiny adults that believe everything should cater to and revolve around them. When I was in grade school I competed in track and field days with the entirety of my grade level – every year. If you didn’t place, you didn’t take a ribbon home. I shelter myself from the inevitable items that may be thrown my way from this next statement, but…there were winners and there were [gulp] losers!

That’s right, I said it, as a child I actually had to learn that everything is not easy. If I didn’t get out there and actually do the work for something, I didn’t reap the benefits and gratification from it. I was raised by parents who were not far removed from the Great Depression. The world was never handed to them on a spoon and neither has it been for me.

I have debt. I’m working very hard at getting out of it. It is no one else’s fault or responsibility. I have programed in into my mind that in order to change the mistakes I have made in the past, I have to work through it. I have to feel the pain in order to understand the blessing.  Maybe that is not true for everyone, but I know that it's right for me. That doesn’t stop me from buying a lottery ticket a few times a year and crossing my fingers though!

Deeper than debt though I see these "fads" that are hitting so many of my friends in the past few years:  diets. I am so against this that it’s ridiculous. Now, some people need extremes health-wise because they are at huge risks – that is understandable and encouraged when approved FOR THEM through their Doctor. But I cannot begin to tell you how painful it is to see how this mentality of instant gratification hits the most level-headed of people and makes them somehow think it makes complete sense. Sure, if you starve your body you will most definitely lose inches and weight. It’s a diet that’s been around for years, it’s called ANOREXIA! Or, maybe you’d like to try the higher class super-model version, called CRACK!

Fad diets come and go, that’s why they are called fads. I won’t call specific ones out on here right now, I just want to pass along the truth that, “If it looks to good to be true, it probably is.” There is no way to deprive yourself and then go back to how you were previously without gaining weight back. At the end of the day you HAVE to change your lifestyle. It’s about choices, portions, and exercise. You are beautiful just being you, so if it takes longer than you want it to you have to remember that - you're beautiful and worth being taken care of.  Nothing is worth causing your body to yo-yo.  THAT is unhealthy.  As long as you take care of yourself and your body you are doing what's right. Marilyn Monroe was a curvy woman, she’d be booted from the industry nowadays and yet she’s one of Hollywood’s biggest icons. Ironic, right?


“Temptation resisted is the true measure of character.” Get rich quick schemes don’t work. Lose weight fast systems lead to unhealthy deprivations and habits. Hard work sucks a lot of the time, but in the end it is the one that is most often the most rewarding in the LONG term.

So, from this cheese ball from Wisconsin, I urge you all to find something you want to tackle in life: finances, weight, material belongings, a dream that you’ve long let go of – put a goal in front of your mind and WORK towards it.

The only way to get published is to write.
The only way to be a star athlete is to practice.
The only way to be a teacher is to first learn.

Everything worth anything takes discipline and grace.


FACTS:

The Sistine Chapel took Michelangelo a little over FOUR YEARS to complete!



Michael Jordan is known as one of the best basketball players of our time. 
Did you know that he played professionally for SIX YEARS before he won his first championship?

One of my favorite quotes ever is from this man himself:
"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." - Michael Jordan

7 comments:

Heidi said...

A-freaking-men.

I think it was Michael Jordan that was told he would go nowhere with his life as well.... boo-yah losers.

Avo said...

A very motivational post... But you're preaching to the choir. : j

I would however say that fads and fad dieting have been around for at least several millennium. It's just that it has usually been the questionable privilege of the well-to-do class, and today's poverty is downright luxury compared to that of the dark ages. So now a much larger segment of society has the leisure and the means to indulge in inanities.

Tangentially, your anorexia comment reminds me of that company that was infecting its customers with tapeworms for weight loss purposes. I'll bet they advertised it as all natural. : p

Your post also points out something that I'm not comfortable with in the way a large proportion of the people around me act: a lack of full commitment to their words and actions (aka determination). An example of this, not to get too of track from your post, is that quite a few diets could work, provided you stuck to them permanently... But others are designed to promote the yo-yo behavior, banking on people's weakness to bring them back for another miracle weight loss program; if the first one failed it's my fault I didn't stick to it, right? Sigh... They can't win.

Losers aren't half as bad quitters and cancelers, because you can lose after trying your best and getting beaten by someone awesome, quitters on the other hand...

Railing on society is like complaining about the weather... I'd rather put a rain jacket on and slog my way through it.

Shrug. I think I'll go eat a pizza now and I'll play with my yo-yo as I skate there (yes it can be done!)! : p

Miss Taken said...

I wrote a whole long response to you, Alesa, and the blogging gods ate it. *sigh*

In the end I agreed with you and was jealous of the fact that you could skate to pizza. I cannot wait to bust out my skates for the season - I have old school ones. I look like a nerd, but I LOVE them. I like to pretend I'm in a roller derby...

Miss Taken said...

Thanks Heidi! I almost missed your comment because for a second I thought *I* wrote it! Hee hee.

Avo said...

Oh bummer! (。_。)
I've had that happen to me too... I guess it's like dice:
Ya never know when your gonna get them snake eyes.
As a result I tend to type long responses in Word; good thing I hardly ever write long responses. : p
-
I grew up with quads... Then, shrug, I got hooked on inlines. Quads got to be rare and more expensive, and had always been higher maintenance.
Oooh roller derby! That always looked like so much fun! Too bad I'll never get a chance to try it for obvious reasons. : j
What I used to do with my skating gang was play soccer with a tennis ball in a roller hockey rink (court?) whilst wearing skates. We also did skate basket ball, but that was a bit less of a success.
Roller tag was always a favourite too.

If you think you look like a nerd on quads, then just pretend you're in Paris. The cool/hip/in crowd in the skater community here wear quads.

Ha, maybe some nebulous day in the future we'll bump into each other on skates, and we'd start a skating craze revival that would sweep the world and somehow tie into saving it from the zombie apocalypse! Oh, and a bat-winged-unicorn-cow would also be involved.

Right I'll stop rambling now. : j

TinaMarie says said...

Um.... I left that first comment... Why does it say you did? I'm confused. Also, I said that earlier and then my comment disappeared. Blogger must hate me or my comments.

Miss Taken said...

Blogger is calling Tina, Heidi now? Weird.