Lazy & Lacking Willpower?

“Am I just lazy, lacking willpower?”    Donna started this conversation here.

Sometimes.  But mostly that’s the easiest way to interpret what’s really going on.   When I’m looking at any human problem (debt, health, fitness, unemployment etc), it’s much easier to think of my own simple solution then put the burden on the person with the problem with the words, “You just need to …….”.

And failure to take that advice makes the person with the problem look like they’re lazy and lacking willpower.  After all, I’ve offered a simple solution.

On a bad day, I can do the same to myself about my need to lose weight.  “You just need to ………..”  And when I fail, then I’m the big fat loser.  But, as Donna pointed out in her post, I know from the rest of my life that I’m not really that big fat loser.  In fact, I’m assuming that I’m the only person who ever thinks that about myself.

So what’s really going on?

Rather than lazy & lacking willpower, I think it’s safer to describe me as being reactive rather than proactive.  I’m an excellent problem solver – but that means I need a problem.

I don’t dust until I can write messages on the sideboard. I don’t clear out my sock drawer until I can’t find something.  Historically, I don’t do something about the way I eat and exercise until I have too much fat and too little fitness.  I problem solve then I slack off until I have to do it again.  Hence the dieting pendulum.

Hmm- a little self-awareness here!

In this area of my life, I need to break through my tendency to prefer fire-fighting and find a way to be proactive about how I eat and how I move my body.

More later.  Got to run the husband to the airport again.