Want to stop overeating? Just program in the decision, press "forever" and voila! You will never overeat again in your entire life because you made the permanent decision not to! You could do the same to stop smoking, drinking, lying, or any bad habits!
Think how different the world would be! New Year's Resolutions would be a sure deal. Creditors wouldn't have to worry about anyone ever defaulting and marriage vows would be a guarantee of life-long companionship! Alas, in reality, decisions are made, un-made, and revised every day, all the time, for every weather, according to every mood, and depending on every circumstance and feeling.
When I was obese, how often I would get so disgusted with myself and my weight that I would declare my decision to "eat only 500 calories a day!!" or "Fast every day except Tuesday!" and at the time I seriously meant it. But those "decisions" were based on rash, emotional, excited, and desperate feelings and circumstances. It was the sprint of the hare speaking, and not the plodding of the turtle.
Losing weight is a good example of certain decisions that cannot be done by making a rash, "determined" choice. There is no concrete to set the decision in to make it "stick". It's a slow process that will go through many different days, moods, encounters, and circumstances upon which the same decision must be repeatedly made again and again. No matter how determined you are "today", you will inevitably fail if you cannot maintain that same determination every day, all day long. So to lose weight, you must forget about the end result and focus instead on one day at a time life changes that you want to do "today" to a certain end. You will then have to make more similar decisions tomorrow, but it's a walk, not a sprint and you will most likely not see any results for a very long time.
If it seems like life is against us, it is. Life is a battle. Flesh is enmity against God. This is warfare we are fighting. And we can't win by brute strength.
No matter how fast you run, it will take your whole life to run this race! You might as well get your gear and prepare for the long haul. Don't take off flying without having your running shoes on because you won't last. All that will do is cause discouragement and make you think that you can't possibly run that fast for the rest of your life and you can't. Thankfully, we're not judged by how fast or slow we go, but by whether we kept on going, and endured to the end. This is not a sprint, it's a daily walk, a vision of where we want to head towards.
We're not trying to "get there" in one sprint. We're plodding our course in that direction and we are making traveling to that destination our new lifestyle. We sell out of our past habits and we buy into whatever will further our journey towards this new destination like one would sell their house that keeps them in California and buy a motorhome because their new course and journey is to travel towards New York. And we continue to travel in that direction for the rest of our lives.
When I fail, I get back up; when I'm discouraged, I keep plodding along anyhow; when I'm winning, I keep going, when I'm losing, I refuse to give up. I have counted the cost of living this new life and I have made the necessary arrangements in my lifestyle to afford it, and to pay it every day. Every day in sunshine or rain, I'm plodding along, little by little, day by day, waiting, hoping, winning, failing and always getting up, over and over again.
This is the only way to win.
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