The Red Dot Monday!
You know, lately I have been going to the mall more, and as always, I’m looking for “lessons” in everything I do in my life. So recently I mentioned that when I went to visit my parents, I left my garment bag that had my suit for work in it at home, and since I was almost two hours into my drive I just decided to take a chance and go to the mall. Now I haven’t lived in my hometown for more than 6 months in the last 20 years so the malls are all new.
When I walked in the entrance the first thing I looked for was the kiosk. You know, to find the red dot with the words “you are here” beside it? Then I looked for potential stores that would have the style suit and size that I needed. As I started walking I got to this “fork” in the mall where there were multiple ways I could go, and again there was a kiosk with another, although moved, red dot with “you are here” beside it.
So what the heck does this have to do this us? BTW, I had gone the wrong way . . . It got me thinking. Why is it that we are SO reluctant to own our red dot? You know to take a TRUE and HONEST assessment of where we are in order to go where we want to go? We miss our weigh ins, we easily deviate and intentionally ignore the “fork” in the road of our journey and go in a direction we have no desire or real intention to go in, and then we berate ourselves with really negative self talk about not being perfect. Seems so simple in the mall…..find where you are, look to see where you wanna go, and then walk in that direction. You feel like you’ve gone too long in the wrong direction so you look at the NEXT kiosk and reassess. For some reason on this journey though, we seem willing to walk in the wrong direction for significant periods of time and ignore the red dots on the kiosks along the way. I mean does not weighing in make the number different? Does not going to our consultation have a history of being effective? Has the background pity party music to go with our whining ever inspired us to take action? How often have we been envious of others who have reached their goal without gaining a single week and yet we aren’t willing to do what they did - not deviate every week? Those who OWNED their red dot and mapped out a CLEAR path to their destination seem to have something “special” that we long for….but the more I think about it, all they have is a decision. A decision we ALL CAN make every single day….a decision to OWN the red dot. To look at the kiosk in our own lives and to stand flat footed like an adult and accept the current “red dot” with our head up and our mind focused on the NEXT destination. No one can do this for us. Our consultants can provide insight, Touchstones can provide exercises for our mind, but at the end of the day we each have to own where we are 100% in order to change it. When we accept that every choice we’ve made up until now got us to this “red dot” we can then say we can make new choices to reach a new “red dot”…..and know that every meal is an opportunity to move towards a new red dot, or to take steps back towards the “entrance of the mall”, that place we were not only physically, but mentally when we joined Jenny Craig and said “enough”.
I don’t know about you all….but I plan on exiting this “mall” at a different place than I came in. So as promised I would report what I gained last week…..6.8 pounds. Yep that was my red dot. I can now own up to it and say I was ashamed of myself, mad at myself, and down emotionally for going so far back towards my red dot at the entrance of my journey. I have found the only thing harder than recovering from a binge is having to recover AGAIN. I hate feeling like that BUT ……..I owned it. I looked at the scale, I went to my consultation, I shared on here how I was feeling, and I kicked some serious booty (my own) this week and I’ll be back in a few hours to tell you just how hard I kicked. I wanted to post this before my weigh in, in hopes that this would meet someone else who may be sad as they stand in front of a very familiar and painful red dot, and that this could show that you CAN walk in another direction. You CAN walk with sadness. You CAN walk with doubts that you can do this. You CAN walk with tears in your eyes. You CAN walk when everything in you wants to sit and wallow. YOU CAN and I KNOW you can because I did. I’m just an everyday “celebrity” just like I believe all of you are in your own lives. So even if you have to crawl….own the red dot as much as it may hurt right now and move on.
I have since moved 5.4lbs in the direction TOWARDS my goal. I lost almost all of the 6.8 pounds in one week. Nothing like OWNING your red dot! I’m owning my red dot ….anyone else?
Hope
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Comments
Truly enjoyed your comment on the red dot…You seem to truly be ready to own this and make it work. I have had the same feeling since begining this one last journey…..I know JC will work…..I know i can make it work!!! and more important I can maintain it and live with it once I do it!!!
Fantastic post Hope! You always have a way of breaking down what you experience in real life and finding a lesson to help you move forward. The red dot at the kiosk is such a great metaphor! How often, in all aspects of life do we ignore the direction we’re heading, thinking we are taking the “scenic route”? I think by being honest in what you share with us, you can more easily move past your human mistakes and build on the success that you have worked so hard for!