Freedom in doing what I know…

Getting it right means getting back to basics.

The new year is here, my OLW settled upon and I am getting ready to go. It’s time to get back to the basics, what I know works, free from shortcuts, or perceived shortcuts.

Tomorrow I will go to the gym. Me and the 1000 other people who for right now are tired of how they’re feeling right now. I hope we all make it to our finish line, the end of 2023 and the goals we want to reach.

For me, it’s losing 50 pounds. Mathematically, it presents like a slam dunk. After all, it’s only one pound a week…

Just. One.

But what it is going to require of me is Belief, (OLW 2022), Rise (OLW 2021), Possibility (OLW 2020), and Consistency (OLW 2019). It is going to take the things I’ve been working on over the past four years to get me to Freedom (OLW 2023).

Belief and consistency are what I will lean on to get me there. This journey, the one starting tomorrow… will take belief I can and consistency I will.

This is what I love about the concept of One Little Word, it’s not a resolution, it’s an ever changing, ever moving, ever evolving target in the concept of being 1% better than I was yesterday.

The. Plan.

I am going back to 2002, when I successfully, very successful participated in the Body For Life Challenge. And I am going back to that.

I will take my before photos, and photos every four weeks to document my progress. I’m not looking forward to the starting photos. Not at all.

But.

They’re necessary. There is freedom in being honest about where I am right now, telling you about it, telling me about it. What I remember is seeing the change slight at first, and then more dramatic as I moved along. I want that. At the end of my journey I posed for black and white nudes… they still hang in my bedroom and I am still today proud of the work it took to get to the place to pose for those photographs. I am free to pursue them, and I will.

I want to be able to run again.

In 2012 I ran the Rock N Roll half marathon… one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I look at the medal and am proud of the work it took to get there, the relentless mornings of running… jog nine, walk one, jog nine, walk one… repeat. I am free to pursue that. And while I am not sure I have the desire for a half marathon, I know I have the desire for 5k after 5k…

These images are the target.

So. Get. Ready.

Get. Set.

And freely choose to do tomorrow differently.