Failure

This word has been rattling around in my head for a couple of days so I decided to share my thoughts on it as it relates to my journey.  While out to lunch with a friend recently the topic of failure came up.  I can't remember exactly how we began disucssing our trying to loose weight and the feeling of failure.  My friend, as best I can remember, said that by eating out as many times as she had made her efforts feel like a failure.  That word can carry a much heavier burden than it should.  So being the analytical person that I am I turned to Webster to help me understand and maybe explain where I am going with this.

Webster defines failure as the lack of success.  So just because you don't succeed you are a failure?  Is there no grey area?  What were you trying to succeed at?  Maybe that is where we should start instead.  Were you trying to be perfect?  Because if that is where you set your bar then of course you are going to fail.  Were you trying to only eat out one time that week and didn't stay within your goal?  However, maybe when eating out you chose very good options and in that way you turned it into a success.  I could go on and on with a thousand example, but I think that I am making my point.  We can look at the bad of every situation and see the failure in it or we can look at the good and see where we succeeded,  it is all in how we have our mind's set.  Life happens every day all around us.  We have to learn how to take what is there and mold it into our personal success.

During our conversation I told my friend that there has never been a person who did not have a bad day when they were trying to change the way that they are eating or exercising.  The way you measure your success is the fact that you get up the next day and try again.  We are going to have our days when we totally blow it and may even binge, but if you get up that next day and get back in the saddle and return to what you know is the best and healthiest for you then you truly succeed.   

As I have said before, this journey will take me the rest of my life and will for anyone who has ever had a weight problem.  You can't lose the weight and miraculously never have to think about what you eat again.  There will be other days down the road when we will be spending it with friends and family like I did on Saturday with my friend where we can so quickly and easily lose focus and enjoy too much of something.  Or there will be days when we just don't feel like doing our part and eating healthy.  That too is ok and we have to be able to give ourselves permission to do so without punishment.  We have the rest of our lives to get this right.  One day out of the thousands of days of our lives in my eyes does not constitute a failure.  Any time that we are moving forward and taking an active role in our health is a day with success and not a lack thereof.

The word failure has been in use since 1643, at least that is the year that Webster says it was first used.  If I had to guess there have probably been women using the word in regards to their weight loss continually since then.  Our journey getting every single pound off is difficult enough without adding another negative word to our vocabulary to hinder our journey.  Every day that you get up and try to make it a better day is a success and there is no way that is the definition of failure.

Stay strong and remember to Trust Your Journey.