The women all around me at the Step Class seem so proficient. They know all the moves and have the choreography down pat. Meanwhile, I am fumbling through the “gallop”, the straddle”, and trying to remember the difference between the ”three knee” versus the ”three step”. The perspiration is streaming off of me and I am going at 10% of their speed and vigor. Just remembering to breathe is a big ordeal. 

One day after a song finished, I looked at a woman and said, “Please tell me that you have been doing this for years.” Sure enough, everyone around me had been coming to Step Class for three, four, seven and even eleven years. Thank you God - I know there is hope as I finish up my second month at the gym. I’ve got a lot of months to get as good as them!  It’s made me appreciate - once again - how good you can get at something when you practice doing it!

Doing anything in life, whether it is a gym class and getting in shape, learning a new language or becoming an entrepreneur, there is quite simply, a learning curve. 

I remember when I moved to Ecuador as a missionary and had to learn Spanish.  I prayed in a small group to forgive us our “pescados”, rather than “pecados”. That was fish rather than sins! Everybody snickered - a definite no-no during prayer!  Or the time we walked into the chicken shop and asked for the biggest breasts and used the word for women’s breasts which in Spanish is different than poultry breasts. The people behind the counter laughed at us. 

I got laughed at a lot in those first few months and even a couple of years later, I still made mistakes. But what an experience getting to live in Ecuador for four years. I wouldn’t have traded it for anything - even if meant plenty of challenges, obstacles and difficulties. 

 You’re probably facing a few of those in your life right now. It could be health issues, financial situations, time management crisis, family problems or career choices that you are struggling with. You may feel like quitting. You may think that you will never get where you want to go. It’s easy to quit and quite honestly, sometimes we should. People stick with awful situations far longer than they should. 

There is a big difference between quitting because you hate what you are doing, you aren’t good at it and you are doing it out of guilt, regret or resentment and quitting because you don’t think that you can ever have what you want or be “good enough”. 

I ended up becoming very fluent in Spanish - so much so that by the time I left the country, I was dreaming in Spanish. There was an incentive to learn the language - like being able to buy groceries at the market and talk to my neighbors and I love foreign languages. But I would never put the same effort into learning how to rebuild my car engine for example. Not in a million years. There is a price to pay for everything in life. The decision is whether or not you want to pay that price. I always ask myself a few questions that may help you:

1. Do I really want to do this or am I doing it because I think I should do it or out of some kind of obligation?
2. What price am I willing to pay for the gain that I want?
3. Am I clear on the gain?

It’s easy to quit and it’s easy to continue. It all depends on the reason why you’re doing something in the first place. I instituted a policy in my life that has saved me plenty of grief over committing to what I don’t really want to do. This policy may help you.  When somebody asks me to do something, if it feels wrong, I will say No immediately.  You know that gut feeling so start by saying No when you know that is the answer at an intuitive level. 

However, if it feels like something I am interested in, I will say, “give me 24 hours to think about it” and I will get back to them after sleeping on it. If I don’t get beyond excited about it, then I say No. That keeps everything in my life in the “I would walk over broken glass to do this” category because I love it so much. It’s much easier to continue when you feel that way.  

As we wind down the last few months of 2007, it’s a good time to get clear on quitting or persevering and your desire meter. There is no right or wrong on this one. It can change - mine certainly has. I would just love to see people dump a lot of their obligation and the guilt that goes along with it.  It doesn’t feel good and it makes you whiny and miserable which doesn’t make anybody around you feel good either.   

Decide what you really, really, really want to do and then DO IT!   Kind of like the last chapter in my book puts it:  Pee or Get off the Pot!  The kind of long-lasting motivation that sees you through anything and everything absolutely has to come from an inner conviction, not a guilt-driven obligation.  

 The clearer you get, the higher the joy goes, the stronger the inner peace becomes, and the better life is. You might want to try it out for yourself.

With love and light,

Jan

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