Winning The Battle

How do you battle with temptation?  The answer is not as clear as the question.  Some will say that will power is the key.  Others say solid discipline is going to get you there.  Truth is if you have great will power and discipline the temptation can still come out and bite you in the butt.  So how do you feel once you fall to whatever it is that is tempting you?  I know I have this feeling in my stomach that really makes me mad and upset that I submitted to the temptation that keeps me away from my ultimate desire.

What I have been practicing recently is conditioning the mind to feel extreme pleasure with not doing the temptation rather then having the feeling of pain not having it.  For example, I am a sucker for a good mid day tortilla with cheese, I love all Mexican food, and my appetite does not really know right from wrong.  So in times before this practice of conditioning the mind, I would see something I wanted to eat and feel great pleasure with how it would taste.  I never really focused on the instant pain I would have after eating the food. 

Now, once I get the urge to eat something I know is not going to benefit my goals, I stop and really focus on what it is that I want.  For me I want to have an extremely physically fit body.  It is something that is high on my priority list.  Now I know that me eating one or two things that are high in calories and full of junk is not going to kill that vision and dream of mine that day, or even the next.  However, over time if you compound my decisions I will end up in the same place that I found myself 2 years ago, which was over weight and unhappy with how I felt. 

Decisions are an everyday thing.  We make them all the time and the more we stick to our decisions, the more concrete the goal becomes.  The momentum carries us into a better way of living, a way that is constantly bringing us closer and closer to our goals.   With that said lets go back to the moment of my decision with food. 

As I sit there and focus on what I want for myself I imagine my life as a person who accomplished this want, and then I instantly picture someone who was unable to accomplish that goal and I look at the food and piece it in with the life of that person who did not accomplish his goal.  I am able to gain just enough power to overlook that food and move on towards something that is getting me closer to my goal. 

This process seems longer than what it really is.  At first I made sure to really get a good focus in my head so I could feel the experience as if I was there and it were real.  Now, however, I notice that when I get to this fork in the road it is an instant process that takes place.  It is just like anything else, the more you practice the better and faster you get.  So the next time you are staring temptation in the eye stop and think, what do I want?  If I do this will it get me closer or further from my want?  Simple decisions daily add up over time.

Own yourself! Run your life!