The Chains That Bind

I am sit­ting at my com­puter at the end of a long day, try­ing to think of any­thing else I could do other than go down­stairs and work out. It’s not that I dis­like work­ing out, but today all I want to do is turn on the TV and veg. Did I men­tion that it was a long day?

I start to walk down­stairs to the exer­cise room, but my body takes me toward the kitchen instead. Did I tell my legs to walk that way? I can’t remem­ber. I force myself to turn around, but instead of going to work out I head back to my office to write some more. Did I men­tion how much I would like to veg out in front of the TV with a big bag of but­tered pop­corn and some chocolate?

After a while I try to get up again, but it feels like there are chains hold­ing me to my chair. I look down, but noth­ing is there. Why is it so hard to pick myself up and go down­stairs? I am not sure, but now I am start­ing to get irritated.

Does this ever hap­pen to you? You set out to do some­thing spe­cific — work­ing out, mak­ing those sales calls, recon­nect­ing with an old friend — but noth­ing seems to drive you to actu­ally do it. In fact, it almost seems that some unseen force is work­ing to pre­vent you from doing it.

We’ve heard all our own excuses before, right?

• I am too tired to do that right now• I need to do this first and then I will get to that• I for­got because I am so busy• I don’t have the right tech­nol­ogy• I don’t know what to say or where to begin

What­ever the task, TODAY is the day that we have got to stop mak­ing excuses for why we don’t get the things done that we need to.

Despite what we are told, we do have con­trol over these activ­i­ties. You can­not con­trol the weather, other peo­ple, or the stock mar­ket, but you can con­trol whether you pick up the phone and make that call. You can con­trol whether you walk down­stairs and work out or if you sit at your desk and hide behind a dead­line to write your weekly blog.

As for me, I am going to get up, avoid the kitchen, and go work out. Because when I am done I know that I will feel so much bet­ter hav­ing accom­plished this task than if I sat on the couch, turned on the TV, and ate that junk food.

How about you? Are you ready to break the chains that bind you? Are you ready to do what you need to do today?

I believe you can.

Kristen Kelly has been a Business and Life Coach for almost seven years. It was through being coached herself that she realized she needed to spend time daily reflecting on her life and her work. She hopes you'll read, reflect, share your own perspective or simply pass it on to someone else who might be impacted.