Watchord: Keep at it

When I decided to stay away from white bread, I had major withdrawal symptoms, I’m serious! It was part of my new healthy eating-and-diet routine, after discovering some horrific consequences of ingesting white flour foods, and I was sure this one step would not be too difficult to perform because I had done it before and I really wanted to set my healthy lifestyle thingy on the right path.

I was so wrong!

Hours after a fruit-smoothie breakfast and a light meal, enough time had passed for my system to understand that it would not be receiving the usual bread and accompaniments for breakfast, hmmm, I tell you my body started shaking and body temperature went down – I was cold! I searched myself to understand what was causing this inconvenience and realized that I was seriously craving bread.

With a smile of triumph at having discovered a potential pitfall, I ignored the craving and covered the pit with a freshly made mug of refreshing green tea, large. I settled back to work, only for the craving to return many minutes later, supported by moodiness, impatience, hunger and irritability. I was so distracted from work that if there was even a crumb of bread around me at that time, I would have greedily eaten it up. Again I ignored said craving and got a vegetable salad with rice meal, and I was good to go.

A similar thing happened when I first heard about goal setting and planning each day of your life for better, surer success. I attacked the writing down of my dreams with such fervor, anyone watching would have thought these dreams would materialize and pop out of the paper immediately they were written. I was feeling like, mission accomplished, goals written, action-plans-for-each-day-in-the-week-as-small-steps-toward-goal-realization written, and one eager human ready to make impact!

Boy was I deflated by the end of that week – I managed to not achieve half of the week’s goals and my motivation was flat, zero, I was ready to throw all the written stuff straight into the bin, thinking, “Maybe this goals writing thing isn’t for me.” But by the time I woke the next day and my brain started getting clouded with ideas, wishes and possibilities. I reluctantly picked my pen and notebook to start writing them all down, hoping really hard that this time would be better…

So what do a healthy lifestyle and written goals have in common? It is the will to go on.

One of the best things a human has is the will to keep moving in the direction of their dream. Every human being dreams, regardless of status and exposure level, and we each try to take steps towards realizing that dream each day, most of the time unconsciously.

The desires for this and that don’t ever stop – a better life, powerful cars, beautiful houses, the highest professional level, even the ability to eat 3-square meals very day, they keep coming into our minds, showing up in our night and day dreams, slipping into our statements and discussions, subconsciously moving us to achieve them.

I know the dreams and the reality of achieving them are two very different stations such that you can be tempted to want to not even try. But we all know that the best part of peeling an orange or a pineapple is when we eat the delicious fruit that was hidden. Here are 2 quotes for your consideration:

1. perfer et obdura (a latin phrase) 

carry on and be tough

2. “– I’m too young, I’m too old, I’m not educated enough, I’m not smart enough, I’m not this, I’m not that. Get rid of them.”  - Dr. A. R. Bernard

Even David felt the pull of discouragement and despair, but kept going (Psalm 42:5).

By December 28 2016, I was not where I’d expected to be and did not get some of the things I’d expected to get, in spite of my beginning-of-year enthusiasm and best efforts so I was tired and ready to give up on planning for 2017.

By night time of the same day, it occurred to me that this planning thing had and was still working for the most successful people in the world so if it wasn’t working fully for me yet then the problem was with me and I had to search to get my own key to make planning work for me and bring my dreams to life.

Morning of 31 December 2016, I woke up with a determination to “Keep pushing, planning and moving till I achieved every single dream.” Jesus didn’t give up on us (Hebrews 12:2-3), all the great men and women I admire do not give up on what they want, I will not too!

There it is, my new year’s resolution this year is simple – I will keep at it.

What’s yours?

Isabel Wrights is a simple woman who delights in God’s love covering and desires to reflect this love relationship in her everyday life. You can connect with her via