This post is in loose continuation of my last entry about Occam’s Razor. The surest way to get what you want, provided its something that can be acquired in the first place, is to want it more than any other thing in your life. If you are willing to trade your efforts and time for something, you’re halfway there. For example, if you want to lose weight, you have to want to get thin more than your love for food. And you have to want to lose that weight more than the pain and sweat of exercising. The rest is a piece of cake. It all comes down to relativity. If getting thinner and healthier is more important to you than sacrificing pleasurable foods and more important to you than enduring those fitness regimes, YOU WILL get thinner and healthier. You just have to want it bad enough.
If it is more marks or better grades you want, then you have to want it more than slouching in front of the TV or gossiping with your friends. You have to want it more than suffering through hour after hour sitting at your desk and pouring over your books and notes. If you can convince yourself of that, the better grades will come on their own.
In both cases, wanting alone is not enough. Its comparative. You have to want it MORE than the alternate. Which in the first example is the joy of eating or chilling-out and in the second is the joy of friends or TV. Or maybe you want higher grades because you want a better career. Then you have to want that career more than the alternate… a lower end job. Just studying because its expected of you will not really get you to the top. The fire to soar has to come from your own belly. Unless you want that career more than anything else, you won’t be able to make the sacrifices needed to get there.
Fortunately, this is a fire that can be cultivated. So if you find yourself unable to lose that extra few pounds, cultivate this fire. Reason with yourself. And if your mind tries to wiggle out by expounding the virtues of happiness through foods and inactivity, write down the pros and cons on a piece of paper till your mind screams “Eureka”. Your mind wants it as bad as the rest of you. If your house was on fire with your baby trapped inside, would you make the effort to save her by risking your life? Of course you would. This is the same principle. The value of something you want just has to be more than the value of what you have to go through to get it.
You will cut down on calories immediately and start exercising if you have a heart-attack – why? Because the value of your life suddenly has a measure against your pleasures. Death vs. life. In this case the choice is pretty clear and most people’s minds would weigh the options quickly and decisively; there won’t be any hesitation. The trick is to achieve this before the heart-attack actually comes around. For every extra bite you refuse for the sake of your health, you’re that much closer to getting fit & fine. You just have to tell yourself to do it fast enough to make a practical difference. No point in getting to the weight you want when you are eighty years old. And today is as good as any other day to start making that difference.
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