t is easy to be discouraged at the mountain of change we seek in our lives. At the same time, it’s important to remember that the mountain of change, just like an actual mountain, can only be scaled one step at a time.

I’m reminded of an encounter I had with an old-friend from school. I ran into him at the local bank and we began to catch-up. He told me about his health issues and that his doctor told him he needed to lose 50 pounds. Needless to say, he was stressed out about the monumental level of this weight-loss challenge. He felt discouraged and confessed to me that he didn’t even know where to begin to change his life in a way to drop 50 pounds.

I told him, “You don’t need to figure out how to lose 50 pounds. You just need to make the adjustment in your life to lose 1 pound. Adjust your diet, learn to mentally cope with cravings, and begin to incorporate exercise into your routine. Do what you need to do in order to create a lifestyle system in which you can lose 1 pound… and follow THAT system 50 times.”

To date, he lost the weight he needed to lose and then some; while at the same time, he gained understanding and emotional strength to apply the same systems to other endeavors in his life.

One step at a time…

© Steve Maraboli

 

 

From the book, “Unapologetically You