The Word of the Week: Diligence

I received this email with comments on my last blog post from a good friend of mine, Radd Berrett. He drives home a really good point here:

Curiously, exercises … that clearly improve the quality of our lives, are so quickly jettisoned at the first sign of discomfort. Regardless we’ve actually proven the methods effective, and even warned that we’d likely recoil if not diligent, within days, sometimes even hours we revert back to old behaviors. Which only further illustrates “To know and not to do is not yet to know.” F.E.A.R. (False Events Appearing Real) is a powerful motive to embrace complacency – no matter how painful it may be. Changing such deeply ingrained behaviors takes time, practice, patience, and most importantly, remembrance.

Yep, making real improvement is going to be hard, painful even. Making something a habit—and keeping it a habit—takes serious work. You need to not let anything rise up in your mind but the end goal, what you’re after and how you are going to succeed. Never think about the alternative. And never let a little pain make you stop or put it off. Habits are only formed if you are unswerving.

So after you have decided to use affirmations, the next step is to never even let the thought enter your mind that you might back down, let it fall by the wayside or skip a chance to practice. The goal within the goal is to be diligent and stand determined even when it gets difficult.

You can even say “I always stick to my goals” over and over. Because you do, don’t you?

I want to thank Radd and all the many people who have been reading and sending me comments about my blog. It’s so wonderful to hear that this is inspiring so many of you. Please let others know about it and let’s help them find more passion for LIFE!