21st Century Family

Have you ever been stuck at a stoplight with your brakes on and the car in front of you begins to roll back into you. The first thing you do is push harder on the brakes to make sure you are not rolling forward. As I was running today with my boys we noticed a drain in the middle of this lake that appeared to be moving against the waves. The boys were convinced the drain was moving and it really did look like it was “swimming upstream” against the waves. It is interesting watch a solid object that will not budge in the middle of a stream….or a tree in a windstorm that won’t give in. In life there are so many things as we get older that require another level of fight and determination to overcome them. For example, a mother and father may really fight hard to get their house clean so they can relax and  then begin on the next “to do” item. The problem is that the rate at which the house is getting “trashed” is almost equal to the rate it was getting cleaned up. The person works their heart out only to realize the room they originally started in is already dirty…..and the cycle begins again. How many areas do we do this with? (diet/weight, spiritual lives, athletic training, etc). When you know there is a current against you the first thing you have to do is even out. You have to get to the point where you are “breaking even” and at least not giving up ground. If it’s your budget you have to stop to bleeding and get to a break even point every month. If it’s weight loss you have to even out your intake and what you’re burning. This step alone can bring people to the point of breaking (quitting) because they feel like they can’t get to the break even point and it becomes depressing. This is where friends/family and close people (team mates) can encourage you and help you keep up the fight to get to the break even point. Once you are holding firm you have a different perspective on the fight/battle and can prepare to launch into the next phase of actual movement “upstream” against the current. I will cover this in other blog posts but being able to actually create movement upstream is an “over and beyond” mentality that most people simply don’t have for one reason or another.