Run First

Have you ever decided to go on a diet, then you went all out on a two week eating spree to prepare yourself for it? Do you know someone who has gone on one ‘last’ shopping spree to celebrate the fact that they will start saving money next month? How about the, “Yes I know he is not good for me but I will miss him so much, let me see him one last time before breaking up with him?” OR the “let me sleep all day so that I can wake up and work all night.” What happens when we go further down a bend in a bid to prepare for a U-Turn? Are we procrastinating progress or motivating ourselves? Let’s talk about that after this story.

Ene is a very brilliant young lady and she loved to learn a lot. There was only one problem, she always seemed to be worse off a short while after learning new lessons. After she learned about the benefits of exercise and eating healthy she was motivated to change her eating habits. She even decided to completely give up her favorite treat for 12 months (Ice-cream and chocolate cake). She set a date for two weeks later to make the switch and she was 72KG when this happened. In the two weeks before her D-day, Ene had Ice cream and everything (cake, cookies, waffles, you name it!) she did not mind the weight she was adding, after all she was going to start going to the gym and eating right in a short while. Well the D-day came and a 76KG Ene gave up all her goodies, she was mentally ready.

Two weeks down the line, she started faltering little by little, she had developed an addiction to waffles during her two week binge and she had started having it between meals. Her job did not give her the luxury of going to the gym as often as she should so by week 4, a 74 kg Ene gave up on her newly found healthy lifestyle and gave in to the lure of her new addiction. She had to hide her scale. Something similar happened when she read about financial planning, she ended up even more broke than she was before she decided to start living on a budget. So upset with the people who wrote those articles she called up her mum to ask for money and explain her situation. Her mum laughed and said “Ene, if you started your diet at 72kg instead of 76 you would be 70kg by now instead of 75. Do you remember the story of Ikenga who told the king to give him the winner’s prize before the race?” “Yes mum” Ene rolled her eyes as she remembered “Everyone in the village knew he was the fastest because he had won so many races so he decided he wanted the prize in advance.” “Good” said mum, and what did the King tell Ikenga? Ene’s eyes popped as the lesson unfolded in her mind, how could she have forgotten this simple truth

“Who kills a bird he hasn’t caught first.

Before you say amen, you must pray first.

Imagine a horse pulling a cart that is placed first.

Can you bury a man who wasn’t born, first?

How can you eat, if you don’t cook first?

To deserve rest, you must work first.

To win a race, you must

Run First.”

What Ene could have done:

Start her new exercise routine immediately and for every 3 weeks she was faithful to it, she could reward herself with a nice bowl of ice creame. Putting the reward after the work is done makes all the difference. Don’t procrastinate progress. Let’s come up with other suggestions on how to manage and sustain progress? Please drop your comment here or you can send me an email with questions and comments uki@poisenigeria.org