The little drunk monkey

I had a small weight loss this week - one pound to be exact, equating to progress albeit ever so slow. I realize it is a step, or shall I say pound, in the right direction. And, I AM happy about that!!

I was thinking today how easy it is to do some things in life, and then other things are so difficult. Teaching my class last night on a subject I am just now learning about myself (International Business) was a breeze. I stepped in front of the class and just started talking about international customs, tariffs, outsourcing, GATT and a wide range of other topics as if I'd known been working for an international conglomerate for years. Fooled them, huh? The fact is I finished reading the chapter I was teaching on Wednesday when I was at the gym on the stationary bike. Maybe the students knew, maybe they didn't.

My point in this is teaching that class about something I am just grasping myself was easy for me. I know that for someone else, especially someone who doesn't like public speaking, it would have been the most frightening thing in the world. While for me eating the right things on a consistent basis and exercising is a painstaking task of planning, re-planning, counting, and re-counting calories, and telling the little voice in my head to shut up. No - I’m not crazy! Well, maybe a little! Seriously, we all have the little voice. I call that voice “the little drunk monkey,” and you don’t have to be drunk for him to show his ugly head. You know the guy. He sits on your shoulder telling you what to do – telling you not to do things you planned on doing, and telling you to do other things that make no sense. That little guy is usually sitting on my shoulder before each trip to the gym saying, "It’s raining outside. You don't have to go. You can go tomorrow. You can take a day off." I know you all know the little voice I am talking about. Sometimes he/she says even more crazy things, like telling you you aren't good enough, you can't do it, why did you do that - all the things that keep us from achieving our full potential. My “little drunk monkey” has a pattern. His pattern is to come around really strong with a lot to say on Friday nights. Oh dear you say. It‘s Friday night and the “little drunk monkey” is coming. Now that I have figured out the little guy’s sabotaging timing, I plan to tell him to take a hike tonight and every Friday night from now on, and every time he tells me not to work out, or to eat that piece of cake, or that I can’t do, or that I’m not good enough I am going to tell him to leave me alone. Interesting how the little guy only has something to say at certain times. For example, he didn’t say a word last night when I was preparing to go to my class to teach or even while I was teaching, but boy does he have a lot to say about my weight loss journey. What does your “little drunk monkey” say to you that impedes your progress on your journey in life? Figure it out and then tell him to leave you alone!! That is what I’m going to do tonight!