Moving Forward in Neutral? Nope.

I think that’s what I’m doing–trying to move forward with my gearshift lever stuck solidly in neutral. And being the genius I am, I can finally see that it isn’t working. (I say that with love and a chuckle, not with self-loathing or criticism.) Now what do I do with this faulty transmission? I hold on to old behaviors (“Just a small bag of gummy whatevers” and “it’s ok to keep that in the house because I won’t eat it all right now” and “I can skip working out today cuz I’ll do it tomorrow”) and expect to make great strides in weight loss and fitness gains. No great strides will be made until my transmission is firmly in drive. I would describe that as actually doing the things I need to do to move forward–keeping the junk out of the house, working out whether I feel like it or not, realizing that what I’m doing is the definition of insanity, which is described as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Not gonna happen. Now how do I make some forward progress? It doesn’t have to be a huge leap forward, just a small forward motion, kind of like when I was learning to ride a motorcycle. A little throttle, and ease up on the clutch, until I found the sweet spot where I could control the speed and keep the bike upright and moving even through impossibly tight turns. You can’t always just fly full-throttle up the road. Sometimes there needs to be a bit of course-correction. And so far, my only course-correction was to slam on the brakes and revert to old behaviors. A little finesse would be good here. A light touch, surveying the road ahead for signs of trouble, and using some course-correction if needed. (Can you tell the biker in me can’t wait to get the bike out this spring? I’m itching to feel the wind in my h…ok, I wanted to say “hair” here, but let’s be honest, it’ll always be “wind in my helmet.” ;-P ) I’m taking the basic riding course again in spring. Why? Because I’m not satisfied with my progress, and I know I can’t improve if I don’t do something different. Why is it so hard to realize that doing something different is exactly what I need for other areas of my life too??