(Day 315 / -138 lbs.) Success For Rent and Steve Gone Wild!

I just got back from a week of camping. Yeah, I was gone. Our, and three other families spend Spring Break in yurts on the coast- fishing and relaxing while the kids go nuts amongst the flora and fauna. I look forward to these trips and the get-away-from-it-all venue. Way-cool thing is that, despite the departure from civilization, the gym, my smoothies, and tracking my consumption, I neither gained nor lost any weight. That's right, I can survive in the wild.

It got me thinking. If I were locked into some diet program, how might things be different? Would I have packed a week's worth of prepackaged foods? Would I have been able to eat any of the things we brought? As it was, I ate whatever I wanted (in modest portions) and didn't really focus on food at all. I was active- without the gym, hiking and jogging the path around the lake. I had a great time and now I'm back.

It occurred to me that if I was following a diet program and continued to follow it while we were on vacation I might have lost some weight. I could have bought the prepackaged foods and dropped a pound or so just like their promoters promise. I could have relied on a program and purchased food for my success during the week. Then it hit me- you can't buy success, you can only rent it for a while.

The last ten months have taught me that success at losing weight requires personal change- the thing is, people are very quick to recognize/imagnine their limitations. If you lack desire; rent it. If you lack motivation and self control you can rent them too. Imagination and intelligence are readily available to even modest budgets. You're going to need all these things and more to succeed in losing weight and keeping it off. The thing is, and this I believe is true of everyone, is that you already have these things. As dormant as they may lie, they are within you.

What is it that the self-proclaimed experts possess that you do not? The answer is quite simple; a set of experiences that they’ve packaged into a service that they can sell. I contend that most of these self-proclaimed experts are in reality nothing of the sort- rather most are merely credentialed professionals. I’ve hired several of these so-called experts throughout my life; various contractors, mechanics and even doctors and I have to tell you, some with less than desirable results. I cannot tell you how many contractors have screwed up a project I’ve later had to re-do myself, how many doctors (don’t get me started on chiropractors) that have failed to cure beyond what my body was capable of doing with a little rest and or exercise and eating right.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t respect those that go out and sell their services to others. Such an act takes a certain amount of drive and ambition- and I certainly respect drive and ambition. It’s just that in many situations, the client is just as qualified to do the work as those they hire to do it- but again, people rent what they believe they lack. I contend that when they do it they miss out on an opportunity to grow- if not just an opportunity to go beyond their reliance on others for thought, for muscle, for drive, for self control, for ambition, for well, I think you know what I’m trying to say.

What I’m most-definitely NOT trying to say is that you should go out and fire your doctor, your lawyer, your contractor, mechanic, or whoever you have supplementing your lack of experience. What I’m saying is that each of us granted with life should learn what it is these people are doing for us and how they get their results. I’m not saying that you must do your own taxes every April; rather I’m saying that you should be able to (with a certain amount of confidence) should your CPA no longer be able. Rent if you must but know that when you stop paying you're likely to get kicked to the curb until you can either throw some more money at your problems or handle them on your own.

The same is true of weight loss- and I must circle this wagon back around to weight loss since that is what this blog is primarily about. I’ve mentioned on many an occasion those friends of mine that have turned their weight loss efforts over to programs and experts and trusted them to get their results (each with success, I might add). They are examples of those who bought success rather than developed it within themselves. I am confident, as are they, that they owe all their success to the programs to which each was committed- that they could never have gotten the results on their own. You know what? That is OK for them and the millions of others who overcome weakness while lining the pockets of others. The cool thing about these friends is that they've transitioned from renters to owners and now sell the program themselves.

I choose to do things on my own- to examine and learn the skills of others (most importantly the effective skills of others) and develop them within myself. Not so much to become a vendor but to decrease my dependency on the vendors of skill, experience, and strength- all of which, I am developing each and every day on my way to becoming Steve v4.7.

Here’s the thing though- and the point I initially had in my mind when I started down this path, is that those who relinquish their self-control and their opportunities for personal growth to others are merely like leaves in the wind and subject to every fad-tastic discovery that promises to be the greatest and bestest (spellcheck is telling me that "bestest" isn’t really a word- read what I mean, ain’t nothing literal to take from this here blog). Destiny is a rent, rent-to-own or build-to-own proposition. More on that metaphor later.