Battle of the flab, not literally?

Compliments of the new season! l welcome all new subscribers, thank you.

I have not been writing because, no excuses, l had defaulted to old habits of being idle. For me to be able to come and write a reflection of what l am learning means that l have to keep up with the reading and being intentional about listening to sensible information.

When l made a decision to pursue personal development ultimately, l placed myself in a continual transitional phase. I made a life time commitment to utilise the remainder of my time, on this earth effectively by cultivating fruitful habits in my spare time.

Later on l discovered that, this decision although life changing comes with it’s own challenges. I realised that in order to stretch myself l had to implement new valuable habits in places where l would otherwise have been idle. Furthermore, the everyday challenges didn’t suddenly disappear because l had made a new lifestyle choice! So even on the difficult days l have to strive not to default to old habits of idleness. Speaking of idleness, l read somewhere that, in the olden days people were punished by death for being idle?

It takes silencing the noise of life to read and forgetting about current problems to listen to that important podcast which may or may not change your life. This is what stepping out of the comfort zone has been for me. Through this l began to push myself to be better and stopped being comfortable with past achievements.

Pastor TD Jakes, compared the transitional phase to how the grapes must feel in the wine press to become wine. Or being like the wheat, being beaten down for bread to come out of it. It is a brutal experience that lead me to experience all kinds of emotions, fear, doubt and vulnerability. It felt like l was in an unstable environment in which l needed to activate my core strength to gain stability! It’s a place where everything that’s not meant to be starts to come out and through the pain we get to find out who we are and how to make sense of our life.

Well, I was doing just fine ( in the gym or wine press battling with my flab) and although the six pack wasn’t showing yet l was starting to feel it under the flab. Until the pain got too intense and l defaulted to old habits hence the title of battling the flab on my stomach!

Writing today is my way of battling the flab of my life. l realise that it’s not about the six pack its about who l become in the process of chipping away the flab and whether l’m able to pick up myself and carry on when l fall off the gym bench. ( I have never been to the gym by the way and l don’t intend to go there. I run to keep fit). Although it gets painful and becomes very tempting to quit, we should always strive to persist or resume when we stop because we could never be courageous if we don’t defeat all the emotions that accompany feeling vulnerable.