Determined To Succeed

My friends, yesterday was a rough day. It was the six-month anniversary of my mother’s passing and in between bouts of crying and working I thought about food. I am weak when it comes to food. I don’t know what it is about food but I am. It soothes me. It is there (actually it’s always there). It warms me and fills me. The thing I always have to remind myself of is that feeling it always leaves when the eating is over. Like yesterday when I woke up with that food hangover. The party’s over. Reality sets in. It is like alcoholism.

On days like yesterday I sit at my desk, or lie awake in bed, and find myself this/close to putting food into my mouth. And there is never any better reason other than it’s there. Food is there. I don’t even know what to eat. Just something that sounds palatable would be good enough. But at those times I have to remember the more I do that the more I do a disservice to myself and those that support me in this weight loss journey.

And because I like to look for encouragement (who doesn’t) I wanted to “pay it forward” and offer you, my friends, some words of encouragement when you feel as weak as I know I do and food comes a callin’. And these are not my words. No. They are words from famous people that I hope help you to see that when we feel weak, even when we fail, have a setback, whatever, people understand and people are there. Remember, failures are never permanent unless we let them be permanent. And we will always experience setbacks and failures on our way to achieving our ultimate success.

We really are all in this together. You are human, and so am I.

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” – Truman Capote

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Alva Edison

“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.” – Anais Nin

I feel that the most important requirement in success is learning to overcome failure. You must learn to tolerate it, but never accept it. —Reggie Jackson

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.—Langston Hughes

“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” – Shel Silverstein

“Courage allows the successful woman to fail and learn powerful lessons from the failure so that in the end, she didn’t fail at all.” – Maya Angelou

“I can accept failure, but I can’t accept not trying.” – Michael Jordan

“Notice the difference between what happens when a man says to himself, ‘I have failed three times’ and what happens when he says, I’m a failure.” – S. I. Hayakawa

“Thoughts are things; they have tremendous power. Thoughts of doubt and fear are pathways to failure. When you conquer negative attitudes of doubt and fear you conquer failure. Thoughts crystallize into habit and habit solidifies into circumstances.” – Bryan Adams

“If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.” – Mary Pickford