Opus 2015-431: Goal A, part 2 of 2

When I finally admitted to myself that I had diabetes, I got serious about dealing with it.  I lost a significant amount of weight.  Many of you have been there.  I always say losing weight is easy.  Now I am trying to keep it off.  That is the hard part.  Most of us with weight problems have lost thousands of pounds over our lifetime.  Then we gain it all back, and more.

The problem I continued to have was that I fixated on the weight loss and forgot the real goal:  Being healthy.  Since I have diabetes that might be expressed better as being healthier.  That requires keeping the weight off.  That requires control of my eating.  Self control, no gimmick or pre-packaged commercial program supplies that key element.

There is a difference between a goal and a side effect.  If we focus on the side effect we will never reach our Goal A.  If I focus on weight loss I can feel good half the time and in the other half return to the same bloated condition.  If I focus on how my clothes fit I can always fool myself with different cuts and styles.  When I first started dealing with my diabetes I was told to count carbohydrates.  I counted and had victory... over my carbohydrates.  It did nothing for my diabetes because it did nothing about my weight.  Being the clever sort, I realized that I could pig out on cheese and bacon and still be following the rules.  They don’t have carbs but they do have calories.

In education we see the same thing.  We have the wrong goals.  We talk rigor and high standards.  We practice self esteem and feelings.  This is probably why the group with the highest math scores are the ones with the lowest self esteem scores.

Spiritually it boils down to,

(Matthew 6:33 KJV)  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Spend some time asking yourself what Goal A is for you.

homo unius libri