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Measurable Success (Your Personal Journey)

This post is dedicated to a patient of mine who doesn’t trust her success. I’ll call her Mrs A. because I think her life story is full of Adventure.

Mrs A. has been working hard to make some lifestyle changes. She has faithfully followed a healthy eating plan and exercise routine for 3 weeks now. In my opinion, this is a great success given her long history of an unhealthy lifestyle.

She doesn’t yet view this as success because she can’t see any measurable results… yet.  (Specifically, she is looking for weight loss.) However, consistency is measurable, where the unit of measurement is time. And she has already invested in 21 days straight of healthy living! Success.

Success doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve achieved your goal yet. At a minimum, it means you’re still doing everything you need to do in order to get there.

Mrs A’s challenge is that she doesn’t trust she could keep up with her healthy lifestyle long enough to see results. Like most people these days, she wants instant results.

However, worthy goals are earned. So inevitably, the road is long. On long journeys, the ability to perceive daily successes – instead of constantly focusing on the ultimate goal – is what ensures overall success.

Mrs A, I look forward to seeing you next week and to hearing about your extra 7 days of success!

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A Lesson in Patience

If you’ve seen me in my acupuncture clinic, then you’d know me as patient and caring. That’s because the time you spend there is about you, and you are my priority. But when it comes to my personal life, I recently woke up to the reality that I haven’t been as patient as I thought.

When I say “woke up to,” I don’t mean that I lazily opened my eyes, stretched, looked out the window, and thought: what a beautiful reality. No, I mean I woke up to a knockout punch from a 4 foot, 11.5  inch, 105-pound girl.

Until my wake-up call, I thought I was a patient man because I think hard work and honest effort over a period of time pays off. But that’s not patience. That’s endurance.

Patience is when you consciously allow time for something — like a relationship — to mature. It is the practice of sitting back and allowing things to naturally unfold.

In terms of my personal life, it has been my modus operandi to act swiftly, do without thinking, and then learn from my mistakes. Unfortunately, my mavericky-Palinesque way of learning cost me a person I care deeply about.

However, I’m happy for the chance to accept responsibility for my actions and to once again learn something about myself. And I’m grateful for that special someone to show me the way. I believe I’m a better person for it.

… but I guess only time will tell.

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